For the M/M Romance Challenge, I read the
Soul Mates series by Jourdan Lane, Books 1 through 3:
Bound by Blood, Deception and Sacrifice. I don't usually read M/M Paranormal Romance, so this was a bit off the beaten path for me.
Bound by Blood got my attention and I just had to know what was going to happen between the main characters Peter and Colin, but even with that curiosity pulling at me, I wasn't thrilled with the series as a whole. The first book was the best read for me, Peter a human bartender and Colin, a vampire who falls in love and takes him into his world of vampires, werewolves, and other shapeshifters. Colin is the head of his Coven and chooses Peter as his mate. This book sets up a world full of shapeshifter action, with lots of hot, sexy scenes and a romance between Peter and Colin that I enjoyed. At this point I definitely wanted to go on reading the series.
My problem with this series began with Book #2,
Deception. The plot was all over the place and there were times when I just didn't know where the story was going. I didn't know what the heck happened but it definitely was not to my liking. Peter and Lucien began having relationship problems, as Peter wanted to be turned into a vampire and Lucien refused to turn him. Peter's answer is to have sex with the males he finds attractive (which at one point seems to be everyone around), but he wants Lucien to be faithful to him. In other words, he wants his cake and wants to eat it too. Ugh! There's also a storyline where there's a betrayal by a very close friend. In Deception, Peter turns into this spoiled character that has tantrums every other minute and this drove me crazy. His characterization is inconsistent, one minute he seemed tough and the next a total spoiled brat, and frankly, I couldn't understand why everyone in the Coven thought he was such a hot tamale.
I read the 3rd book,
Sacrifice, just to find out what the heck Peter was going to turn out to be... but truthfully he was really on my nerves by that point, although I still liked Colin and some of the secondary characters. Peter is bitten by a werewolf and his body seems to be dying... he's not turning into a vampire or a werewolf so there's a question and a mystery there. This is the only thing that kept me reading at this point. Some scenes were quite tough to read, especially when his body's dying and he's half out of it and all of a sudden you know there's another threesome or sexual scene involving Peter in the offing. What the heck? Wasn't he just dying? But he has enough energy for a threesome? Really? The mystery of Peter's turning is resolved by the end, although of course there are some threads left hanging that are picked up in the next book.
After reading the first three books in the
Soul Mates series, I found that there's only one real monster and that is the "Green Eyed" one: Jealousy. It is the cause of all the petty shit that goes on. I've never seen such a big bunch of needy, jealous men who are supposedly Alpha and all that... but that well... are not. [Sigh]
But if I'm really going to be honest with you all, what really frustrated me about this series was the fact that although I was frustrated with the weaknesses in the storyline and the characterization, I couldn't stop reading the darn books! LOL! Yes... this is one of those series that catches you unaware and gets you all hooked and next thing you know, like crack or candy on a stick, you can't stop reading it no matter what. Huh!
Genre: M/M Paranormal Romance
Series: Soul Mates (Books 1,2,3)
Series Grade:
C
Visit Jourdan Lane
here.
Anesthezea's 2010 M/M Romance Challenge
