Published on January 27th, 2015 by Avon
Play with fire, pay the price.Crystal's Thoughts:
Leila’s years on the carnie circuit were certainly an education. What she didn’t learn: how to be a vampire, or how to be married to the most famous vampire of them all. Adjusting to both has Leila teetering on a knife edge between passion and peril, and now the real danger is about to begin…
Vlad must battle with a centuries-old enemy whose reach stretches across continents and whose strength equals his own. It isn’t like Vlad to feel fear, but he does…for Leila, because his enemy knows she is Vlad’s greatest weakness. As friend and foe alike align against him—and his overprotectiveness drives Leila away—Vlad’s love for his new bride could be the very thing that dooms them both…
I have been a longtime fan of Ms.Frost and I have always loved Vlad, but this installment left me wondering if I have outgrown this series.
It's been awhile since I read the previous book, Twice Tempted, but I am pretty sure this one takes off where that one ended. Leila is now a vampire and is married to Vlad. They are looking for Vlad's worst enemy and as you can guess things go terribly wrong just when you think they have the upper hand. Leila is captured and this is where my interest started waving.
The whole capture scene was icky. I have a lot of things and I am not icked out normally, but there is a scene with duck tape and well I just went ICK! Add that to regurgitated blood and I'm out folks. It was all just a little too much for me. Thankfully this whole mess didn't last that long, but honestly the story kinda dragged after that. Yes there was a lot of running and evading, but nothing we haven't seen before.
The ending left me going meh as well. There was so much build up and while I did like Vlad's secret the ending just felt like a let down. I expected a way bigger showdown than what I read.
My biggest problem with this series is Vlad. Where is the funny self assured vampire I met in the Cat & Bones series? In this he is brooding, emotionally closed off, and just boring. He was so moody! The reason why I loved this series was because he was so funny and always made incredible one liners. In this one he barely even talks! Plus he was so closed off to Leila that I got frustrated for her. She shouldn't have had to deal with that on top of everything else. She was the one tortured! Vlad should have been there for her. Honestly my favorite part was when Vlad was talking to Cat & Bones.
I just felt really let down with this one. The story was ho hum, the characters not up to the standards I am used to reading from Ms.Frost, and the fun was just lost. Will I read the next one, yes because everybody has an off book and I am just going to throw this story out of my brain and replace it with the next one.
2.5 Suns
I’m a huge fan of Jeaniene Frost, especially her Night Huntress series. So whenever she adds a new book to her paranormal bookshelf, I’m all reading eyes. Night Prince is no exception. The first two books were absolutely explosive, so I’m not sure what happened in this third installment.
In Bound by Flames, we take off on a high adventure with Vlad and Leila as they track down Vlad’s life long enemy Szilagy. There’s no lack of action in this book as both sides target each other through destruction and torture. However, the measures Vlad employs to protect Leila can eventually prove to be a liability when she’s captured and tortured.
I feel comfortable admitting that Bound by Flames is definitely not as good as the first two installments. Where Frost flexes her style best is with action and drama, and she proved it in this book. However, I would have like to have seen a bit more romance and emotional connection coming from Vlad. Every time he closed himself off from Leila I tuned out. There seemed to be a character piece missing in Vlad, which I missed.
However, I did enjoy Vlad’s confession at the end of the book where he shared how his Dracula legend was revealed. The story and the reaction was classic. Small moment that reminded me Vlad has humor and character beneath all that flame.
Since there's only one book left, I'll definitely finish this series out. I hope it ends on a high note.
3 Suns
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