Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Bound by Thorns
SERIES: Dragon Soul #3
AUTHOR: Sean Michael
PUBLISHER: Carina Press
LENGTH: 223 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 25, 2017
BLURB:
Meet the Beteferoce brothers: five dragon shifters, each with a strong elemental power. And each with a fierce desire to find his soul mate…
Park ranger Luke Beteferoce likes the quiet of the forest—a place he can be alone. The dragon shifter keeps himself busy maintaining his territory in the park…that is, until he meets ex-soldier Greyson Paulson. Suddenly, Luke finds himself thinking of all sorts of scenarios that involve Greyson. And with the kind of tension he’s feeling, hot, sweaty, nonkinky sex is only the beginning.
While he’s perfectly fine being left alone, Greyson finds he enjoys the company of the bossy yet tender park ranger. Soon, trying to fight the heat between them is a losing battle: he’s ready to give in to the irresistible lust he feels for Luke. Greyson may not be ready to completely submit, but he still can’t stop himself from following every command Luke whispers his way.
Luke hasn’t felt this kind of connection and satisfaction with anyone ever before, leading him to discover Greyson’s marked as his mate. But with Greyson battling his own limitations and lack of experience, it’s going to take Luke more than hours-long hot sex to convince Greyson to stay and accept his destiny.
REVIEW:
There’s something really appealing about this series; it could have something to do with my never ending love for all things dragon or my fascination with the idea of soulmates. Then again, there’s also the kink factor… Well, I think we should just go with a combination of all three and leave it at that. Regardless of what my draw to these books is, I enjoy them which is the important part!
In the previous two books of the series, Branded by Flames and Seduced by the Tide, you get a really good introduction to the idea behind the series, the Beteferoce brother’s themselves, and the bonding that takes place between each soulmate pair. While it can easily be said that there’s a commonality to how things progress in each book, including this one, there are enough differences to make each a new and interesting read. In this third book of the Dragon Soul series, we meet Luke and Greyson and, honestly, they seemed about as different from the previous two pairs as you could get.
Unlike the rest of the Beteferoce family, Luke wasn’t introduced except by brief mention in the previous novels; he’s a loner and would rather spent decades at a time just living by himself rather than deal with anyone else in any meaningful way. Meeting Greyson changes that though at first, Luke just figures he’s saving some random man from freezing to death. Greyson was a great character right from the start; he’s survived so much (losing his family for one) but the massive injuries and medical discharge from the military have taken their toll and he’s pretty much just done. Despite what he’s gone through, there’s still this threat of innocence about him that I really liked and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Luke open his eyes to some of the things life has to offer; seeing Luke open up himself and his life in return was equally as rewarding.
I have to say that I found this book of the series to be relatively angst free; Greyson certainly didn’t have the same reaction as the previous two mates to learning of Luke’s scalier side and the debilitating injuries he’s dealing with at the beginning of the book don’t stay that way for very long (a fact I both liked and was equally as disappointed with). I did like the book but I will also admit that I didn’t connect with these characters as much as I did the ones from the first two books; I think in a way this one was just a little too easy for me. Still, it had lots to recommend it and if you’ve read the previous two books of the series I would recommend reading this one as well.
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