Darkness Bound by Stella Cameron

ORDER A COPY: Darkness Bound (Chimney Rock)

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publishing Date: February 28, 2012
Paperback: 249 pages

Rating: 2 stars

WHEN NIGHT FALLS…After her husband’s tragic death, Leigh Kelly arrives on Whidbey Island determined to start over. Yet the tiny town of Chimney Rock is not as peaceful as it seems. Women have been disappearing, and Leigh can’t shake the feeling that she’s being watched . . . especially at night. Soon, she’s experiencing visions she can’t explain and fighting her attraction to a handsome stranger who seems to know her most intimate desires.

PASSION TRANSFORMS THEM…As the leader of the Team, a pack of werehounds forced to hide their very existence, former special ops soldier Niles Latimer is desperate to prove a man’s heart beats beneath his predator’s body. And Leigh-the mysterious beauty possessing powers she doesn’t yet understand-may be the one woman who can help him. But Niles isn’t the only one who recognizes Leigh’s true identity. Something evil is waiting in the woods-and the hunt has begun.

Leigh Kelly arrives back on Whidbey Island to start a new life after her husband’s death. He left her the cabin and the lands, and she hopes she can move past the bittersweet memories of her life with Chris and begin again.

Niles Latimer needs to find a mate. The werehounds are dying out since childbirth has killed off all of werehound females. Leigh is special and he hopes he can get her to agree to be his mate and save his dying species.

The werewolves want to control the island and saving the werehound species just isn’t something they will allow. They’ll do anything to keep Niles and Leigh apart. There are other supernatural factions who are interested in Leigh’s special abilities.

Can Niles keep Leigh safe and get her to agree to join with him as his mate while the supernaturals wage war around them.

I can’t tell you the last time a book made me so angry and confused. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was on my Nook, I would have tossed it out the window. I kept checking to make sure this was book #1 of the new Chimney Rock series. I can see the set ups for the future books, but you couldn’t pay me to read another one.

I kept wondering if I was missing pages to this story. It was so choppy. That’s why I checked to see if it was in the middle of the series. It was written like I should know each of the different supernatural factions. I swear she wrote that the werehounds were jumping through the trees and flying. Really? Flying dogs? Things keep creeping out of the dark or attacking Leigh, but never really causing any real damage.

There was just too much going on. There were werehounds, werewolves, fae, half-fae/half-humans, shapeshifters, vampires, zombies, and everyone was after Leigh for one reason or another, including her brother-in-law that wanted her to return home with him and her twin sister. Almost to the point where he was going to grab her and drag her out of the house.

Another thing that bothered me is that she arrives at the cabin and is mourning and crying over returning to this cabin that she shared with her husband, but seems work past it rather quickly, and her falling in love so quickly with Niles felt a little awkward and forced.

One more thing, Leigh and her husband came several times to this cabin and in fact, met right on the beach. But when she returns to the island after his death, she is suddenly fulfilling her fate and coming into mysterious powers. How come there was no powers peeping out when she was there with Chris, and how comes she meets Chris and not Niles, who lives NEXT DOOR, and she is his fated mate. She didn’t seem to meet any of people on this tiny island on any of her vacation stops there?? Only her boss who owns the local bar/restaurant remembers her.

Sorry I just can’t recommend this story to anyone. The characters weren’t that interesting, the story was convoluted and confusing, and it was frustrating more than enjoyable.

Received ARC from Netgalley.com, courtesy of the publisher.