BOUND BY SIN (Immortal Brothers #3) by Jacquelyn Frank-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date September 29, 2015

After being chained to a star to burn endlessly as punishment for stealing immortality from the gods, Jaykun has been unshackled to wage war alongside his brothers, in the name of a goddess. But his freedom comes with a price: Each night Jaykun must still suffer—his body burning from the inside out. One early morning, recovering from his torment, he encounters a beautiful stranger on the beach. Naked from her midnight-black hair down to her sandy toes, she approaches him with starry-eyed innocence and the unmistakable full body of a woman.

Soon Jaykun is swept up with the force of a comet, his desire for her hotter than any sun. His brothers fear he is blinded by her radiant beauty, that she has been sent by their enemies to seduce and destroy him. Jileana is indeed from another world—one Jaykun cannot begin to imagine. But will their passion burn brightly enough to light their way through the darkness that threatens to consume all in its path?

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REVIEW: BOUND BY SIN is the third installment in Jacquelyn Frank’s adult, IMMORTAL BROTHERS mythological romance, paranormal fantasy series focusing on four brothers cursed, by the gods and goddesses, in their search for immortality. This is Jaykun and Jileana’s storyline. BOUND BY SIN can be read as a standalone but for backstory and cohesion, I strongly suggest reading the series in order.

SOME BACKGROUND: Two hundred years earlier, four brothers (Dethan, Garreth, Jaykun, Maxum) went in search of the waters of Immortality and upon the discovery drank from the forbidden streams. The gods and goddesses were angered and cursed each brother to suffer eternal damnation and pain. Each of the brothers will sacrifice for love landing them in the favor of the gods with a happily ever after. Jaykun’s punishment is to suffer an endless cycle of burning from the inside out-like a star going supernova on a nightly basis. Maxum’s story will be told next in BOUND IN DARKNESS (November 2015).

Told from third person perspective BOUND BY SIN follows the building relationship between Jaykun and Jileana-a young woman whose naivety and surprising beauty is unexpected near the battlefield and waters, and in Jaykun’s life. Jaykun has been freed from eternal damnation but still suffers the nightly fiery burns as will be witnessed by our storyline heroine. While Jaykun enjoys the ministrations of the strange female, Dethan and Garreth begin to suspect there is more to the young woman than meets the eye. When Jileana invites Jaykun to visit her forbidden world beyond the waters, our hero finds himself a virtual prisoner in a gilded cage until the rising of the next moon. Jaykun will soon find himself enmeshed in a political coup and uprising when, Jileana’s Empress is threatened, by members of her own royal family.

The attraction between Jaykun and Jileana is immediate and palpable but there is something otherworldly about Jileana. Her time on Jaykun’s world has an expiry date, and with it so too does their growing relationship and love. Jaykun has been burned by a former love and with it comes betrayal and issues of trust. The $ex scenes are intimate without the use of graphic sexual imagery.

Dethan and Garreth, Jaykun’s brothers play secondary and supporting roles throughout the storyline. Our series heroes are currently on location, warring and pillaging on behalf of the gods. We are introduced to Jileana’s family, including several of her over protective brothers and father, as well as the Empress, whose control of her own people is questioned and usurped. The requisite evil not only threatens Jileana’s future, but the future of her people and world.

The world building focuses on the continuing wars between the gods and goddesses as each brother must fight in the name of Weysa, the goddess of conflict, as she continues to demand obedience and subjugation. We are transported to Jileana’s world of immortal creatures with supernatural powers. Jileana’s true species and distinctiveness are easily identifiable early in the story but the path to realization is slow as the storyline builds and allegiances are drawn.

The premise is slow to build as the storyline focuses on the relationship between our leading couple while keeping Jileana’s identity a lightly, veiled secret. Most of the conflict arises within Jileana’s world where our hero is tasked with saving a world and species he knows nothing about. The characters are colorful and magical; the romance is hopeful but Joykun’s issues of trust have left our hero without the ability to love. We are offered a quick glimpse into Maxum’s mind- the final brother whose need for revenge is calculating and cold.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

CURSED BY FIRE
Immortal Brothers 1
by Jacquelyn Frank
Genre: fantasy, adult, paranormal, romance
Release Date: February 24, 2015

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date: February 24, 2015

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of CURSED BY FIRE

For centuries, Dethan has been trapped in a fiery inferno for defying the gods and snatching the power of immortality. Condemned to have his battle-hardened body licked by flames only to regenerate and be consumed all over again, Dethan has lost all hope—until the Goddess of Conflict appears. She will release him from torment—if he’ll use his power and strength as a warrior to raise an army and defeat a fierce enemy faction of gods.

Free to live as a man once again, Dethan meets Selinda—heir to the throne of Hexis—and his thoughts quickly turn from the conquest of cities to the conquest of this headstrong beauty. Betrothed to a cruel, calculating powermonger, Selinda needs a champion, and so Dethan enters into another bargain: If she will share her bed—and her body—with him, Dethan will save her city from destructive forces within and without. As the lovers ignite a searing passion, Dethan will risk all—even the wrath of the Goddess of Conflict—for a chance to make Selinda his forever.

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CURSED BY ICE
The Immortal Brothers 2
by Jacquelyn Frank
Genre: adult, paranormal, fantasy, romance
Release Date: March 31, 2015

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 31, 2015

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of CURSED BY ICE

As punishment for plotting with his brothers to steal immortality, Garreth is suffering a freezing torment until the end of time. Again and again, his fierce fighter’s physique is frozen into a chiseled ice sculpture, his heart hardening like a diamond in his chest—only to thaw and resume the chilling torture. Until, like his older brother Dethan, he is offered a reprieve from a goddess—in exchange for his allegiance in a celestial civil war.

Garreth lives to fight and fights to live. But while laying siege to an embattled city, he finds another reason to go on—a beautiful warrior woman named Sarielle, who commands a mythic beast through a mysterious and powerful bond. Terrified of her strength, the city rulers have kept her captive, and now she refuses to submit to a new master. As Garreth seeks to unleash her passion and melt the icy resistance of her heart, will he become her ultimate salvation—or lead them both to greater destruction?