Elisabeth Naughton - Bound

Obsessed. Her touch is like a drug. From the moment he met her, Titus knew she was different. Even dangerous. Yet though his guardian brethren are convinced Natasa is working for Hades, Titus can’t stop thinking about her. Can’t stop fantasizing about her. Can’t stop craving the one thing he knows could lead to the downfall of his world.
Possessed. Faced with stopping Natasa or joining in her quest, Titus falls to temptation and is thrust into a world of lust, deception, and deadly treachery designed by the gods. Her touch—only hers—frees him from his bonds, but desire may just condemn him. Because before the end he’ll have to decide which is more important: duty and honor to those he took an oath to defend, or a woman who could very well be the biggest curse to them all.

Comment: This is the 6th installment in the Eternal Guardians series by the author. This series focuses on the Argonauts myth and the characters all come from the ancient Greek mythology and it's amusing and curious to wait for who might show up next.

Bound is Titus' story. Like his fellow guardians, he's a descendant from one of the original argonauts and uses his abilities to help in the fight against daemons and other enemies.

In the previous book, Titus has seen a woman and now can't forget about her or what she could be doing, looking for something.

The woman, Natasa, is looking for someone but not with harmful intent, she wants information that's all. Her life is a mess and if she just finds the right clue about where someone else is hidden, maybe she can make things right at last. But she didn't count on her feelings for Titus or with the sense of family she would see in being with him.

I think one of the tricks with books like these, meaning full of adventure and focus on relationships that start with a special feeling/bond/spark/connection, etc, is how we see it as a whole. Sure, a romance like this is hard to swallow for any realistic, contemporary mind. But I like to think that this borders on fantasy, so anything is possible. Paranormal romances are fantasies, period. So, I try to keep an open mind about the insta-romances. But I don't believe the fact it's so fast that is the problem. For me, if the author does it right, he insta-romance can be as well done as any other. In this case, I kind of didn't mind it, because the characters have seen each other before in the previous book, so that adds a bit of illusion about time passing by. Then the circumstances allow for that possibility. But like I said, I think it's mostly author's talent and in this case, I think ms Naughton did good.

The story has many mythological references. I enjoy the character's connections to the gods and the beings we've recognize from History lessons and books. I think it's funny to see how each other works those stories into their own. The myths also help in the development of the plot and in the building up. Many situations happen due to myth's importance and influences. Once again, it was clever to use this as a support tool to engross and strengthen the story. Plus it's funny to read more and find out who or what might show up next.

The romance between Natasa and Titus has all the little difficulties we see in any relationship. How to trust the other, how to know their feelings are right, are they going to be worthy of he other, will there be disappointment, what will others around them think, so many things that add some sort of normalcy to things we all know are out of the ordinary. But I liked how they were important for each other and in the end, they worked for their relationship.

I think in terms of plot, things are moving along well. There's a goal in all this and things seem to get closer to an end. The next story is out, but if the author plans to write every Argonaut's story, there's two more, so... not sure how long this will drag, but if the author keeps the good work, I don't think any other subject arising in the plot would be badly done and might be as significant. I'm keeping my hopes up about the end of this series, which I hope will be nicely done even with more books to come.

In the end, this one worked for me. Sure, it could have different things to appeal even more to me and to what I think it should be done, but this happens more often than simple perfection, so... But all in all, not bad.

Grade: 8/10