Review: Demon Bound by Meljean Brook

Title: Demon Bound

Author: Meljean Brook

Published: November 2008

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Stand Alone/Series: Guardians Book 7
Book 1: "Falling for Anthony" in Hot Spell Anthology
Book 2: Demon Angel
Book 3: "Paradise" in Wild Thing Anthology
Book 4: Demon Moon
Book 5: Demon Night
Book 6: "Thicker Than Blood" in First Blood Anthology

From the Author Site: Among the Guardians, Alice Grey is known as the Black Widow—a woman trapped in a web spun by the demon Teqon. To save her soul, she agreed to deliver to Teqon the heart of the oldest and most powerful Guardian of all, or else be damned for eternity. After more than a hundred years, Teqon is calling in his debt.

Jake Hawkins is a novice Guardian whose gift of teleportation could be invaluable to Alice in determining her next move. But in aligning himself with her he never expected to fall in love. Now, their passionate flight to escape Alice’s damnable bargain is threatening both their souls. For they’re about to discover a hellish secret about the Guardians—something that will change their universe forever.

Plot: While still a human Alice Grey got tricked by a demon into deliver Micheal's heart to him otherwise she is looking at an eternity of unbearable pain and suffer in hell. A secret she has been hiding for over a century. Jake discovers her secret and decides to help her find something to help her out of this bargain, to find something the demon would want more than Micheal's heart.

As a part of their quest, Alice and Jake excavate mysterious temples, temples that Micheal cannot enter and is not willing to discuss, that seem to appear and disappear at random hoping to find a clue to the demon prophecy and hopefully something to give the demon other than Micheal's heart. They also discover a secret about the Guardians and Micheal. A secret Micheal has been hiding. Something that will alter the Guardian Corp forever.

Hero: Jacob "Jake" Hawkins. He starts out as that guy friend that is always putting his feet (both of them) in his mouth. You know, the one that you are always telling to shut up before he gets himself into trouble. And the one that you think can't dig any deeper in his verbal-pits-of-doom and he surprises you by managing to find the black-hole-of-death and sinks to all time lows. But you keep him around because he's basically harmless and highly amusing (when you are not hitting your head against a wall for the inadvertent insults he keeps dishing).

As the story progresses, Jake seems to mature or at least learns to keep his mouth shut as needed. He becomes that awesome hero. The knight in shining armor. The one you fan your self over and moon about. *sigh*

Heroine: Alice Grey aka The Black Widow. In the beginning she's just plain old creepy and quite odd. She's the spider-loving Guardian librarian. Her gift is communication with spiders, so she breeds them and feeds them vampire blood. *shivers* But she has been going out of her way to keep other at a distance, increasing her "creepy" factor when the novices are around (you have to loved the whole spider out of the mouth trick she plays on Jake after he kisses her) because of her bargain.

As we get to know her, we begin to really admire her and hope that her quest to find something to bargain with is successful. Because face it we don't want Micheal to die and we don't want her to be damned to suffer in hell for eternity. We find that she is strong but vulnerable, determined and cunning and very worthy of Jake. She even makes you like spiders at time. Though I don't think I would want to keep a tarantula the size of a large house cat as a pet even if it purrs. *shiver*

Review: Once I started this book, I couldn't put it down. Another wonderful page turner from Meljean Brook. It will definitely be a best seller, if it isn't then people are just missing out on one of the best book of the year. The story is inventive and very intriguing and kept my attention throughout the book. Again Meljean has inserts bits of history and historical facts seamlessly into storyline and it keeps me asking for more.

Jake is irrepressibly funny with his boy-ish charm and unflagging optimism. Alice is just plain fun. Her wit and internal dialogue (as well as her spiders) keep her from being too creepy in the beginning and makes her quite humorous later on. I love the whole archeology of the ever so mysterious vanishing temples. And the nephilims are just plain freaky and scary.

Love some of the new characters in this book. I wonder what the story is between Guardian Irena, the metalsmith and Guardian Alejandro, the swordmaster. Lots of tension there and hopefully a book! Let's not forget Khavi. I thought Alice was creepy but Khavi certainly out creeps Alice by quite a bit. And with the introduction of a new hellhound, I'm hoping for hellhound puppies in the future. (Meljean put me on the hellhound puppy adoption list!)

As the war between Lucifer and Belial continues to wage in hell (and we discover what Belial is offering the demons that has them risking eternal suffering to be on his side), the new battle on earth against the nephilim is firing up and is bound to be cataclysmic. I can't wait to see where Meljean will take us next but I know it is sure to be exciting and unexpected.

Keeper?: Most definitely!

Recommendation: All round great story. For greater enjoyment the reader should probably read at minimum Demon Night prior to reading this book. If at all possible, reader should read all previous books (I've really enjoyed all of them).

Rating: 5 of 5