Review: Bound To Shadows by Keri Arthur

Bound To Shadows by Keri Arthur
Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Dell Available October 27, 2009
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-0553591163

In the darkness, demons come out to play …
and someone must bring their sins to light.

Part vampire, part werewolf, Riley Jenson knows what can happen when vamps don’t play well with others. But she’s never seen anything like this: a series of brutal murders surrounding the latest hot spot for vampire-human hookups—and the victims aren’t just killed, they’re beheaded. Now Riley is launching into action, toying with a seductive—and highly suspicious—club owner, and finding herself in the middle of another mystery: women being killed one by one, without a trace of violence.

For Riley, solving multiple cases—in a world going mad with human and vampire passions—would have been tough enough. Instead she has two jealous lovers on her hands: Kye Murphy, the amber-eyed werewolf who makes Riley’s wolf blood howl—and Quinn, the cool, elegant vamp who has over a thousand years’ experience at fulfilling women’s desires. While she’s busy juggling these two sexy beasts, Riley’s detective work takes a stunningly violent turn. Finding a murderer is now a matter of life and death. Especially since the killer has long since found her…

Beheaded vampires are turning up and The Directorate suspects a serial killer is on the loose.  Guardian for the Directorate, Riley Jenson, is assigned to the case and in the course of her investigation a second and possibly related case emerges.  Human women are being found dead with no clue as to their cause of death.  Riley must discover if the two cases are related and find the killer before tensions between the local population, both human and vampire boil over in outrage.

Fate seems to have it in for Riley and in the midst of the investigation Riley’s fated soul-mate Kye Murphy comes back into her life further complicating her sometimes chaotic personal life.  Kye is a ruthless mercenary and she wants nothing to do with him, however through her werewolf nature she is bonded to him and finds it nearly impossible to resist him sexually.  She is in love with her vampire lover, Quinn, a millennium old vampire who loves her as well. Riley is dual natured in that she is half vampire and half werewolf  and she is torn between her heart (Quinn) and her soul (Kye).

I might blame the wolf, but the wolf, like the vampire, wasn’t the sum of me.

And if there were two parts of me at war, then it wasn’t the wolf and the vampire, but rather the heart and the soul.

In Keri Arthur’s world of paranormals, werewolves are sexual beings and she makes no apologies for it. They are what they are by nature and she manages to hold true to that.  Being the romantic that I am, at times I find Riley’s nature difficult to reconcile since traditionally in the world of fictional romance, sex and love are mostly one in the same.  However I find Riley Jenson’s character remarkably likeable and at her core she is moral, decent, and true to her personal relationships. I’ve managed to move past my preconceived notions of what I expect an urban fantasy/romance heroine to be and embrace all that she is. I think if I lived in Australia, and lived in her fantasy world of paranormals, I’d want to be Riley’s friend.

A paranormal murder mystery based in a well built urban fantasy world, Bound To Shadows (the eighth book in the series) is yet another great addition to Keri Arthur’s, Riley Jenson Guardian series.

Visit Kari Arthur’s website for information on other books in the Riley Jenson Guardian series.