Review: Fanged Fate.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 27, 2011
Gregor is living the high life. He has been dubbed the Vampire King of New York - a cheeky title that the media love without realizing how close it hits to the truth. Gregor is the second eldest of the Faustin brothers; from the Russian vampyr family line. He runs a series of successful clubs, made famous for the fact that they cater to New York's vampire population - a publicity cachet the clubbers love, and the vampyrs appreciate. Gregor has his pick of women, and is at the top of his game, so the last thing he needs is for fate to interrupt his life. But when you're a Faustin vampyr, you have to listen when destiny speaks . . . or suffer the consequences.Gregor is told the name of his intended bride - Madelena. But Gregor ignores the heads-up and continues on his partying ways . . . unsuspecting, until fate intervenes with a crash.`Bound by Blood' is the second book in Evie Byrne's `Faustin Brothers' trilogy. Though it is the second book, the plot timing seems a little out-of-sync with first book `Called by Blood'. In this book, Alex is a rampant bachelor and is yet to meet his wife, Helena. So really, it would make more sense that `Bound' be the first book in this trilogy, instead of the second ...I am really liking Evie Byrne's `Faustin' trilogy. I love the fact that Byrne is writing a modern vampire tale - her characters are clued-up about vampiric myths and fanged pop-culture icons, but there's also an old-world vibe. Each brother finds his bride through premonition - fated by their mother who has dreams of her future daughters-in-law. In `Called' Alex was ecstatic to finally find his bride, partly because his older brother had recently settled so well into holy matrimony. But as we back-track, it's revealed that Gregor in fact found fate to be rather inconvenient. I love that Byrne marries some old-world mysticism with modern inconvenience - a New York vampire club owner who is put-out by his destined bride. Hilarity ensues when fate intervenes, brutally.In `Called by Blood', Byrne took a very different romantic route - by severely burning her Alpha hero, and leaving him looking like raw hamburger meat. Byrne does it again in `Bound', this time posing a difficult dilemma before the heroine. I won't give it away, but I really liked the hurdle before Gregor and Madelena, if only because it completely turned the tables on the traditional vampire/mortal romance.I like Evie Byrne's paranormal romance. Once again, I wish the book had been longer, mostly because I think the really interesting part of the story would have come in the aftermath of the romance. But again, wishing a book to be longer is a fairly decent complaint.