Title: Bound by Night (The Moonbound Clan Vampires)
Series: The Moonbound Clan Vampires
Classification: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Format: Paperback; 400 pages
Publisher: Pocket Books (September 24, 2013)
ISBN-10: 1476700176
ISBN-13: 978-1476700175
Eighty years ago humans found out that vampires existed. It took them twenty years to enslave them. Even though they are powerful, their numbers were so small that they could not compete against so many humans. While some escaped capture, they were far and few between. Treated no better than animals, it was no great surprise they would rebel. Twenty years ago, there was a great uprising for which many vampires escaped and gained their freedom and many humans were slain. Nicole Martin was eight years old at the time and her family was among the victims. She too had been left for dead. Feasted upon and left to die on the ground like an animal, but by some means she survived. The scar on her neck where the family cook had torn her neck to drink is a constant reminder of that day, as are the medical issues which arose from her coming in contact with the vampiridae virus which caused vampirism. While she'd been immunized against the virus which kept her from becoming a vampire, it hadn't stopped the virus from attacking her body. Eventually the illness will kill her causing her organs to shut down.
Now, twenty years later she's inherited her father's company, Daedalus. She's the newly inducted CEO with barely a clue as to what she's doing or what the company does, as she's still learning the ropes. When a important female vampire is kidnapped, everything points to Daedalus as being responsible. Nicole is now the target of vampires once again and is kidnapped from the company's headquarters. Will she be as lucky this time around or will she finally meet her final fate?
I truly enjoyed this twist on an old genre. Now it seems pretty incredible that vampires could be slaves to humans, but a little bit of how it may have been accomplished was explained or at least hinted at. There is talk of vampires' canines, the teeth they feed through, being extracted. Likewise, there is talk that the company responsible for revolutionizing the slavery was involved in vampire testing. That suggests some sort of drug might have been involved. I'd love for Ms. Ione to go a little more in depth into how the enslavement was accomplished. I certainly can't imagine sleeping well at night if my household had several vampires drifting about.*shudder* Hopefully we'll learn more about their enslavement in future books.
What I liked about the romance aspect of the book was that Nicole and Ricker did not have an instant love connection. If anything the two despised each other. Nicole believing Ricker had killed her nanny, Terese (who had been his mate), years ago, and Ricker believing Nicole was just another human who hated vampires and mistreated them. Each started out with preconceived notions about the other that they needed to work through and sort out.
Additionally, I enjoyed the mystery as to what truly was going on at Nicole's family company. Ricker insisted they illegally kidnapped a vampire, and Nicole insisting the company wouldn't do that despite it being known to do testing on vampires. Being as she's only taken the reigns of her family business two months ago, the question becomes how well does she truly know the ins and outs of what goes on? If she's wrong, is there any chance of her coming out of this one alive? If she's right, is there any chance they'll let her go?
Overall, I gave this one 4 out of 5 roses. I was instantly hooked and remained that way throughout the book. I liked the folklore Ms. Ione created about the creation of vampires and look forward to seeing where the next book will lead. I was left with a lot of questions about how Nicole will be effected by all that happened as we still don't have a good grasp on how everything works in this new world. As this is the first book in the series, however, I'm not overly concerned. On the Lisarenee Romance Rating Scale, this one gets a STEAM rating (bordering on SHOWER)--too hot for a fan, but you still have a handle on things. You should use extreme caution when reading a book with this rating in public. People may inquire as to why you looked flustered and flushed.
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