Reviewer: Tracy
Born in Chains by Caris Roane
Series: Men in Chains #2
Also in this series: Chains of Darkness
Publisher: Macmillan, St. Martin's Paperbacks
Publication Date: October 1st 2013
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Adrien is an Ancestral vampire, one of the strongest of his kind ever to exist. Scarred, tormented and extraordinarily powerful, he's been imprisoned high in the Himalayan mountains...until a beautiful woman releases him from his chains and demands his help.

Two years ago, Lily's home was invaded by vampires who killed her family and kidnapped her son. Now she has one mission—to get him back. And the only man who can help her is a vampire whose strength has made him legendary. But can she ally herself a creature who frightens her...and ignites her darkest needs?

As Adrien ushers Lily into his hidden vampire world, he must show her that his kind can be trusted. But when saving her son requires her to unleash a weapon that will destroy his entire race, can he say the same for her?

Tracy’s review of Born in Chains (Men in Chains #2) by Caris Roane

Adrien is a vampire who has been incarcerated for a year by the man who believes he is now the leader of the vampire people, Daniel. Daniel works with an evil human who gives Lily Haven a mission. Go to Adrien, put a blood chain around his neck that will tie him to her and then find something called the extinction weapon – a weapon that could destroy the entire vampire race. Lily obviously doesn’t want to do it but her son is being help captive and it’s the only way to get him back. Lily hates vampires as they killed her family and Adrien hates humans.   A match made in heaven, right? Not quite. They’re forced to work together and not be more than 10 feet out of the others site. This compels them to have to call a truce and eventually learn more about the other and their races.

Despite hating each other they find that they can’t stay away from each other. There’s something stronger at work in their lives and neither can figure out what it is. They seek help from friends of Adrien’s but it may not be enough to save their lives – or the life of Lily’s son.

This is the first book in the Men in Chains series and while it was a good read I found the romance to be pretty rushed.  The entire story – while it really does feel like Adrien and Lily have known each other for many weeks – takes place in a matter of 3 days, I think. That’s very little time to not only fall in love but to go from hate to love. I found that part of it to be a bit disappointing as I would have liked it all to have been drawn out a little more.

Adrien was a good hero. Yes, he was a vampire but he and his brothers, before their incarceration, had been like a police force. The vampire society had no law enforcement or judicial system but Adrien and his brothers did their best to keep the peace and get evil vampires out of commission.   He had a hug capacity for love and I loved that about him. He was a good man….uh, vampire. 🙂

Lily was a decent heroine. I was glad that she didn’t neglect to see the good in Adrien despite her hatred for his kind. I wish she would have come clean sooner about her reasons behind why she was helping look for the weapon but that’s just personal preference I think.

I’m looking forward to reading book 2 to see what happens with Adrien’s brothers.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

This title is available from St. Martin’s Paperbacks. You can buy it here or here in e-format.