Spirit Bound by Christine Feehan

Lethal undercover agent Stefan Prakenskii knew a thousand ways to kills a man—and twice as many ways to pleasure a woman. That’s what made him look forward to his new mission: arrive in the coastal town of Sea Haven and insinuate himself in the life of an elusive beauty who had mysterious ties to his past, and a link to a dangerously seductive, and equally elusive master criminal who wanted only one thing: to possess her.

Judith Henderson was an artist on the rise—an ethereal, and haunted woman whose own picture-perfect beauty stirred the souls of two men who have made her their obsession. For years she has been waiting for someone to come and unlock the passion and fire within her—waiting for the right man to surrender it to. But only one man can survive her secrets, and the shadow she has cast over both their lives.



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This one started out kind of slow for me, and for most of the first half of it I was growing increasingly disappointed with it. While it certainly had it's intriguing points, and was promising to wrap up a few ragged loose ends left over from the first book in the series, it also seemed to just be plugging along on the same espionage mega-plot story arc that was started back in the Drake Sisters series, and I personally have gotten a bit weary of it. It was starting to spawn so many interconnections between people, families, and places that the "coincidences" were starting to seriously stretch the bounds of credibility, because, c'mon, what're the odds really that all of these disparate individuals would have all been drawn together to the same little sleepy village on the California coast, and that they'd all end up caught up in the same web of international intrigue in one way or another? But just when I was really beginning to wonder why the author had to thread this plot through all of the books instead of just letting them be nice little romances involving people with psychic or mystical powers, she suddenly drew back a cover to reveal another layer of the Big Picture story in a way that so deftly starts to weave all the disparate threads together that I can't help but admire how she's doing it. And the Big Picture that's being revealed in more of its entirety is a far more interesting one than a simple and somewhat dull story of espionage and state secrets being endangered by wealthy and powerful criminals. It promises to be far more personal, and holds out the hope of some great wrongs eventually being made right, with people who have had their lives shattered in one way or another finally finding a more empowering happily ever after. And it definitely has me hooked on this series now.

Water Bound by Christine Feehan

The last thing Lev Prakenskii remembered was being lost in the swirling currents of the ocean and getting sucked deeper into the nothingness of a freezing black eddy off the coastal town of Sea Haven. Just as quickly, just a miraculously, he was saved—pulled ashore by a beautiful stranger. But Lev has no memory of who he is—or why he seems to possess the violent instincts of a trained killer. All he knows is that he fears for his life, and for the life of his unexpected savior.

Her name is Rikki, a sea~urchin diver in Sea Haven. She has always felt an affinity for the ocean, and for the seductive pull of the tides. And now she feels drawn in the same way to the enigmatic man she rescued. But soon they will be bound by something even stronger, and their tantalizing secrets will engulf them both in a whirlpool of dizzying passion and inescapable danger.



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I'm not really sure what to say about this book, for I find myself somewhat conflicted regarding how I feel about it. On the one hand, I loved it, hence my 5 star rating, on the other, there were several things that annoyed me to a greater or lesser extent in it. Overall my reaction is definitely positive, though that might have changed had the book been very much longer. One thing I will note is that I think you'll get a lot more out of this book, or at least some things will make a lot more sense, if you've read the Drake Sisters series first, as this one picks up pretty much right where Hidden Currents, the last book in that series, leaves off, actually overlapping the end of that book a bit to show some of what happened "elsewhere" during the climactic scene at the end. Certainly this book can be understood on its own, since enough is explained of prior happenings and people, but the reading experience will definitely be a lot richer I think if you have the full background of the other books going into this one.