May 8, 2016

Book Review || Fire Bound

Fire Bound
A Sea Haven Novel #5
Christine Feehan

Published: 26 April, 2016

JOVE, mass market pbk, 367p.
ISBN: 978-0-515-15611-9

She possesses the power to inflame the most dangerous desire of all

Flame-haired Lissa Piner is a skilled glassblower whose delicate gift conceals a burning inner strength that can destroy as exquisitely as it can create.  Commissioned to design chandeliers for a string of luxury hotels, her remarkable skills have taken her to Italy.  But Lissa's real mission there is a secret.  For her entire life has been a lie, leading to a chance to avenge a terrible wrong.

Enlisted as her bodyguard is Casimir Prakenskii, a trained assassin living off the grid.  In Lissa, he sees a kindred spirit - something unexpected and wicked, mysterious and sensual.  But something more than desire is about to bring them together, because both of their pasts cry out for revenge.  And for two people with this many secrets, this much passion and this many enemies, someone is bound to get burned.



Well, we've almost reached the end of this series.  Fire Bound is the second last book in the Sea Haven novels that follow the Prakenskii brothers (Lev, Stefan, Maxim, Gavriil, Casimir and Viktor).  I have been eagerly awaiting each brothers story since finding out about Ilya's past in Turbulent Sea, but as the series has progressed I've been finding myself oddly disappointed with most of the books in the Sea Haven series, and Fire Bound was no different.

Now don't get me wrong, there were sections of this book that I did like, but I've reached the stage where I don't just want these characters to hit the sheets within a few days of meeting each other.  In Lissa and Casimir's case, they had only exchanged a handful of words, before they ended up jumping into bed with each other (p.64 and goes on for more than 20 pages!).  This bossy, dominating alpha stereotype is fine if he's a werewolf, but for a paranormal romance I want to see something other than the me-trained-assassin-you-mate-so-let's-have-sex attitude that I've been finding.  A book full of sex scenes does not equate to romance in my opinion.  I'd rather imagine somethings that have it describe in minute, and often very graphic, detail.  Is it just me?  When did author's stop leaving something to the readers imagination?


Okay, sex aside, the other major gripe that I had with Fire Bound was the ending with the Sorbacov's demise.  These two men have been the bane of the Prakenskii brothers life for over 30 years.  They are ruthless, well protected, going after them is a suicide mission and you may not be successful - according to the Prakenskii's themselves - and yet they are dispatched with ease by Lissa.  No help from Casimir, or any of the brothers, they're just set up and snuffed out by one feisty redhead.  Okay, she doesn't escape scott free, but it boggles the mind.  This was one of the places that thumbed its nose at the 'mythology' established in earlier books, and having Lissa basically assassinate two ruthless killers, pulled me out of my reading zone.

*sigh*

So now having bitched about the cons, and while the above problems did bring down my rating, there were one or two moments that held this books head just above the 2 star waterline.  I enjoyed finding out about Lissa's past, and I was just about clapping when her uncle, and his bodyguard, got their just desserts, but by far, my favourite moment would have to be the surprise introduction of Viktor.  OMG, Viktor is one hell of a scary SOB! We find out what he's up to now (bring the series full circle with events from Hidden Currents), and got a few tidbits about his and Blythe's past - which was definitely enough to get my mouth watering for the final book in the series.  And it is for these scenes that I gave Fire Bound 3½ stars.  Major fireworks ahead.



I hope you enjoyed my review of Fire Bound by Christine Feehan.  Let me know if you have read the book - or a planning too - and if you have, what did you think of it?  

I'm hoping to get another quick review up later this week, so until next time...

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