Thank you Inara Gage for sharing the arc!
It may seem unfair to compare A Bond With The Dark to the Twilight series-the two being worlds apart. But when you read the book, it is hard not to draw parallels. Thankfully, the similarities limit themselves to only the vampire bits.
In ABWTD, there are witches, warlocks, grimspawns, sirens, fae and Phoenixes (yes, plural) and a werewolf, too, for good measure. Hybrids are the things of the past, behold tribrids and possibly quadribrids…
A bond with the Dark follows Lasayah or Sayah. A battered soul who has a knack of getting back up whenever life pushes her down. And stronger every time.
She is a descendent of witches and is one herself, but she takes a surprising amount of time to believe that in a world where magick is real, vampires could exist, too. When she falls for one, the revelations hit one after the other and her life is changed irrevocably.
But hers is not a straightforward teenage romance. She craves one and dreams of another, accentuating the theme of the story, the extremes of light and dark, cohabiting.
She is not a damsel in distress, she can hold her ground against an entire family of “murder-y” vampires. But more that, she has a depth in her, a complexity which is only possible when the protagonist is in her thirties and not a teen!
Like any book in the genrè, this story has its own share of prophecies and fortune telling, but the author doesn’t hammer these on your head repeatedly: prophecy is there in the background, leaving scope for a fair bit of unpredictability and plot twists that keep you interested.
The book started with a prologue so intricately written and well drawn that I was hooked from the first page. I haven’t experienced this in a long time. Unfortunately, the slow beginning with a lot of exposition and worldbuilding, telling us the rules of this fantasy world and the types of creatures and other details, took a lot of the intrigue out.
The lore of this fantasy world being as deep and rich as it is, there were a few moments which left me scratching my head. The laws governing the curse, the compatibility of hybrids, etc. felt like reading the full text of monopoly rule book.
And, for a dark fantasy romance, this story does have moments of YA type immaturity and banter. That may have been by design, to clear the air of the darkness, so to speak. But to me, this was incongruent with the tone of the book.
These were my only two qualms with this otherwise absolutely fantastic story written amazingly.
The slow burn has its purpose, to set up a complex, layered and convoluted world which will hold its ground over the future installments, too. There are realms visited, species described, powers explored and complex power politics alluded to throughout the first half of the book. Then… there’s the hook which changes the whole dynamics of the characters’ priorities and motivations…changing the focus from protecting the woman to saving the man! And that’s when the real actual fun starts. Throughout the book’s 436 pages, there is no shortage of interesting stuff whenever you feel a little dizzy with exposition or worldbuilding. Be it high class spicy romance, superhuman fights and action.
There are a few areas the story could have skimmed over a few details or repeat actions. And some areas where the characters could have shown a little more maturity in decisions. But, overall, if you ask me, is this pretty long novel worth a read? My answer would be - of course! And this book is a rarity – I would like to read it again soon. And maybe once more before the sequel comes along.
Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/4b2QTGf
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