Bound by Blood

One word: MAGNIFICENT!

Hands down my VERY favorite gay romance ever. I could NOT put this book down and I have fallen completely in love with Peter and Lucien. Author Jourdan Lane (new to me author) has woven a phenomenal love story between a human and a vampire and she didn't make it easy. These two had all sorts of obstacles in their way including themselves! But their desire to be together could not be stifled or ignored. The book is SUPERBLY written, I can't say enough good things about the story and I know my review will not do justice to the book. It captured my attention and then the characters captured my heart.

Peter is a bartender in a sexy gay bar. He's good looking and used to getting hit on by the customers but he has a show more strict rule about no one night stands so he keeps all his customers at arms length. Then one night a sexy erotic man catches his eye on the dance floor and Peter decides to take his break to join the sexy man on the dance floor. They dance and the chemistry and sparks are flying between them without either of them speaking a word. Peter is extremely turned on and very interested in getting to know this sexy man. But as quickly as the music ends Peter's sexy dancing partner disappears much to Peters bewilderment and frustration.

When Peter meets his sexy dance partner again it's not as he had hoped. He finds out Lucien isn't human, he's a vampire and Peter can't stand vampires. Not too long ago, Peter went to the vampire bar The Den with some friends and witnessed a brutal scene that made him sick. Since then he has hated vampires. To find out the man of his dreams is a vampire is a huge disappointment and Peter is angry about it. What happens next totally rocks Peter's world. He has a sort of dream about Lucien biting him and sucking his blood, but the dream is all too real. Peter has the actual bite marks to prove it, only it never physically happened.

Lucien confronts an angry Peter and together they have no idea how Peter seemed to have been bitten by Lucien when Lucien had never been to Peter's apartment and because he's a vampire he can not enter any one's home without first being invited. As much as Peter hates vampires, his desire for Lucien grows. Peter is struggling with an internal war of emotions, desires, fears, dreams and his biased from what he witnessed in his past. Lucien wants to try for a relationship with Peter but doesn't know how to get Peter over his fear or revulsion for vampires.

It is Lucien who first captured my heart. Lucien understands that he sometimes IS the monster that humans see vampires as. But Lucien also has a huge heart that he wants desperately to share with Peter. Lucien doesn't want just sex, he's had that his whole life. He wants a real loving relationship - something he has never, ever had in his centuries of existing. Peter is the object of Lucien's love and affection and each time Peter pushes Lucien away in fear it deeply wounds the vampire.

This is an erotic, steamy paranormal book, but it's mostly a phenomenal love story about two gay men, one human and one vampire who fall completely and hopelessly in love with each other against all odds. The story is told from Peter's point of view, giving me a bit of the Sookie Stackhouse feeling as Peter enters the world of the supernatural for the first time. I liked that. But the world of the vampires in Lucien's coven, these hot men battling rogue vampires and werewolves also gave me a bit of the Blackdagger Brotherhood series feel.

**some spoilers**

The sex parts...off the chart. Highly erotic. During one sex scene at the moment of orgasm one of the men gets his nipples pierced. During a menage a trois scene one man takes two penises in his ass at once. There's lots of cum tasting, pierced man bits, masturbation, blow-jobs and then even more hot erotic sex among numerous characters. The sex is off the charts, but done to perfection for the story. Vampires and werewolves are highly sexual and sensual beings and when a human is with them, they too get caught up in the waves of sensuality.

5 stars - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for gay romance fans!

I can't wait to read the rest of this series! I didn't want the book to end, I enjoyed it that much.

Love it!
Review on my blog:
http://moonlighttotwilightblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/soul-mates-bound-by-blood-by... show less

I have a hard time really defining if I liked this book. The first two messages you need to know:

1). While this is a HEA type romance, it is book 1 (of at least 5 books) so do not expect full resolution.
2). Get the idea out of you mind that sex with other people = cheating. If that is your feelings DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. It is not fair to rate this book poorly for a different moral code. There is lots of sex with other people and NO ONE seems to mind. So just suck it up (hahahah) and accepted that it is not wrong.

That was very hard for me to get past; I kept waiting for someone to feel betrayed or upset. I was disturbed at first, but I finally let go and accepted that while their code was different it was not "wrong" in this world.

In show more fact, I have to say that the author had a lot of courage to make this vampire world not all sparkly and sweet. Yes, I found the love story between Lucien and Peter very intense and very beautiful. They explained a lot of the reason why the sexual intensity between vampire Master and others happens and why it is ok. I actually thought about how in the movie world of Underworld has this feeling of sexual freedom and could sort of relate this book to that.

Now, that being said, there was a lot of sex, way way way too much. So half of me goes, this book is just PWP (Porn with plot), but the other part of me found the book well written, the overall plot intriguing, and the world deeply described.

So, despite the tons of sex aspect and PWP I am actually giving this a four star rather than a 2. There was just something compelling about this story that I could not put down the book.

Last warning, the book is pretty intense emotionally, so you might want to make sure you have a funny uplifting book next in line. :) show less

An urban fantasy novel centred on Peter, a human bartender and Lucien, a master vampire. The first book of the Soul Mate series which there are currently another four.

From the moment I picked up this book I knew I was in trouble. It's trashy, poorly written, filled with characters with unbelievable tempers and personalities. The main characters have two states of mind - horny or angry. What plot there is is disjointed and highly cliché, the only purpose it serves it to get the characters from sex-scene to sex-scene. There is never one moment where the characters get to relax - either some major drama happened in the two seconds anyone gets to catch their breath or the author leaps forwards in time without any warning.

And yet, as show more awful as it was, I couldn't. Stop. Reading.

I think it was something to do with the sex. No, Ms Lane cannot write plot or characters who would be classed sane in the real world, but can she ever write a steamy M/M (and I mean M/M - both Peter and Lucien are both quite dominant and their power struggles are enrapturing) I just wish I could have liked the characters, or at least understood them. Also, the fight scenes and gore is quite sterile and 2D which just makes those scenes boring. In fact, any time there is not sex happening, it's boring. It's a shame, and frustrating when so much of Ms Lane's ideas are either overused or not followed through with.

Though I am tempted I will not pick up the second book. PWP is fine for a game but not for a book, and there was an agonising lack of women in the book. The only one I noticed was an enemy vampire who got shot twice in the face. It really grates and the story suffers from their absence, though I assume there might be a tissue-thin excuse in the second book as the evil villain mocked Lucien for his male harem. It still doesn't excuse the fact that the only boobs in the book are the impressive pair Lucien has on the cover.

Characters: 3/10
Setting: 2/10
Plot: 1/10
Dialogue: 4/10
Overall: 2/10 show less

I really liked this book. I am serious vampire fan, and this was everything I’d hoped it would be. This book had everything. Fast and furious action, passion, sex, romance, tenderness, danger, blood, a compelling story, sympathetic leads, great supporting characters, etc. Once I started this one I couldn’t stop. I read the entire series.I loved Lucien and Peter both. Both characters were strong and remained very male. I’m tired of reading m/m romance only to have the men seem like women. These men were men. And they sizzled! I love their possessive need for one another. These two were awesome. The secondary characters were just as good. I’m not typically a werewolf fan, but I like these guys too.

Way too much sex for me in this one, but YMMV.
The idea and the writing was pretty solid but they were at it even in times of strive and under attack. Shagging left, right, and centre. It honestly got boring. Take out a third of the sex scenes and it might have been manageable but as it stands I'm not too interested in reading more of the same sex to plot ratio.

Having just read some reviews for books 2 and 3 I don't think I'll continue with this series. I don't really like the MCs as much as the side characters (Xander and Caleb) and apparently those two are expendable. :(

Way too much sex for me in this one, but YMMV.
The idea and the writing was pretty solid but they were at it even in times of strive and under attack. Shagging left, right, and centre. It honestly got boring. Take out a third of the sex scenes and it might have been manageable but as it stands I'm not too interested in reading more of the same sex to plot ratio.

Having just read some reviews for books 2 and 3 I don't think I'll continue with this series. I don't really like the MCs as much as the side characters (Xander and Caleb) and apparently those two are expendable. :(

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