Reviewer: Holly Water Bound by Christine Feehan
Series: Sea Haven #8, Sisters of the Heart #1
Also in this series: Turbulent Sea, Hidden Currents, Magic in the Wind, The Twilight Before Christmas, Oceans of Fire, Dangerous Tides, Safe Harbor, Turbulent Sea, Hidden Currents, Spirit Bound, Air Bound, Fire Bound, Bound Together (Sea Haven/Sisters of the Heart, #6), Earth Bound
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: July 27th 2010
Point-of-View: Alternating Third
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Content Warning: View Spoiler »
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 480
Add It: Goodreads
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For Sid, the last thing he remembered was being enlisted to protect a vulnerable young woman in the coastal town of Sea Haven. Then, as if in some nightmare, the mysteriously sexy bodyguard was lost in the swirling currents of the ocean, and sucked deeper into the nothingness of a freezing black eddy. Just as quickly, just as miraculously, he was saved—pulled ashore by a beautiful stranger.
Her name is Rikki, a sea-urchin diver in Sea Haven. She always felt an affinity for the ocean, and the seductive pull of the tides. And now, for the enigmatic man she rescued. But soon they will be bound by something even stronger—each other’s tantalizing secrets which will engulf them both in a whirlpool of dizzying passion and inescapable danger.
When I read last year that Feehan was planning a spin-off of the Drake Sisters series, I was both excited and apprehensive. I adored all 7 books and was sad to leave the world behind, but I wasn’t sure starting another series set in the same town was going to work.
I’m happy to report that it worked very well. It was lovely returning to Sea Haven and I very much enjoyed the new characters introduced here, as well as the glimpses we had of the previous characters. This book picks up right where Hidden Currents left off. I think this can be read as a standalone, but the characters – especially Lev – have more depth if you read Hidden Currents first.
I loved Lev. He decided he wanted a new life, one that included Rikki, and that was that. There was no waffling about his feelings for her or attempts to hold himself away from her. He did everything possible to care for her. Because she’s autistic (very high-functioning) she needed things other people wouldn’t. Lev wasn’t discouraged by that. Nor did he treat her as if she were inferior to him in some way, or less intelligent than she was. To him, Rikki was a woman, his woman, and that’s how he treated her.
I really loved that he wanted a fresh start. He was practical about his past, though he did feel guilt over many of the things he’d seen and done. He wanted to settle down with Rikki and let her be his family. It was lovely seeing the way he cared for her and tried to make both their dreams become reality.
Rikki’s autism was very well written. She was able to do almost everything someone without her disorder could, but she had trouble with change, and lights and sounds bothered her. As a result she was a solitary creature. One with a need for a very controlled environment. She didn’t allow other people into her home and she had strict routines she had to follow. But she wasn’t someone I felt sorry for, or thought of as challenged in anyway. If anything, I just thought of her as extremely OCD and somewhat of a control freak, which worked well within the story.
At times the novel was a bit dry. Feehan went a little overboard in explaining the technical aspects of diving, but that’s mostly in the beginning and went a long way toward helping the reader understand Rikki’s character, so I let it go.
It will be interesting to see how things go with the Drakes and Lev (The Drake sisters, with the exception of Hannah, were all on their honeymoons) in later books, especially since he was there and saw the torture Elle suffered in Hidden Currents
4.75 out of 5
The Series:
Water Bound
Spirit Bound
Air Bound
Earth Bound
Fire Bound
This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here
Holy Mother of God. I read none of your review (I hate spoilers as you know) and went straight down to the grade. 4.75??? I’m either going to love it or hate it.
I’m starting it today.
thanks for your review – I already have the book here and can’t wait to read it 🙂
Gah – I HATED this book. It was the most boring book I’ve ever read.
I usually enjoy Christine Feehan’s books – she’s not a fantastic writer but I always have fun.
But this book was just terrible. It had nothing to do with the Prakenskii brothers and the two of them just sat around for ninety percent of the book, doing NOTHING!
I’m confused – is Sid (the guy mentioned in the blurb for the book) the hero and Rikki the heroine? Who is Lev? (as you can probably tell, I haven’t read the Drake sisters series…) Do you have to read the whole Drake sister series to understand this one?