Bound & Barbed

The Fated Creations Trilogy, Book 1

By: Samantha R. Goode

Narrated by: Tor Thom, Auri Alden

Evaline Manor was sure she'd lived the worst day of her life when she witnessed the death of her father and narrowly avoided a brutal attack. Now she's trapped in the kingdom ruled by her aunt and uncle who are desperate to keep her docile and marry her off. She's determined to utilize her combat training to escape Kembertus and flee to one of the neighboring kingdoms.

Maddox Vicor doubted whether the Goddess of Fate would grant him a mate. Most Kova found theirs in their first hundred years. He'd long passed that mark. But on his first day in Kembertus, he catches Evaline pickpocketing his dagger. In one moment, his world turns on its axis as he feels the bond snap into place, and Maddox knows that this woman with white hair and inhuman reflexes is his mate.

The illusion of freedom that Evaline holds dear is torn away on her new worst day when her aunt proposes an arrangement that she'd kill to escape. With time slipping through her fingers and danger closing in on all sides, she must do the one thing she fears most in order to save herself: she must trust a bloodthirsty immortal.

©2022 Samantha R. Goode (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

great story line

I was surprised by this book, it was great! Can't wait to start the next one!

Planning to fail

The story line is too predictable. I disliked that the main character was always in danger, but she continued to make impulsive, foolish decisions. Every time. Even when they were on the run, her mate chose to leave her alone to go get horses. Really? When you are on the run you don't separate the group unless absolutely necessary to lose pursuers. Maybe book 2 in the series will grace her with a little more wisdom.

Slow burn but worth the wait

Fated mates, vampires and a strong FMC!! Really enjoyed this. There is a miscommunication trope wound in, which isn’t my favorite but I look forward to the next book!

unexpected, in a very good way

I was not expecting how good this book is. I immediately bought the series after reading the first one for free.

Great story, not the best audio performance

I had already read this book entirely before I decided to buy the audiobook. I liked it that much that I wanted to be able to listen to it whenever I wanted.

This is a dual narration, as the story is written in dual POV. Some chapters are in Evaline's POV which is fully narrated by Auri Alden, including Maddox's dialogue. The other chapters are in Maddox's POV which is narrated by Tor Thom, including Evaline's dialogue.

Auri Alden's performance was pretty good, she had a lot of emotion into her narration and voices. I didn't like all the voices she did tho, she made Bassel's voice sound like he was constantly having an asthma attack.

Tor Thom, while his voice is pleasant, his performance was severely lacking. Monotone and absolutely no emotion in his voice. He read every sentence the same way, and I sincerely thought that his performance was a robot narration, like how you can get Alexa to narrate your books. It was honestly very disappointing. I probably would have preferred Auri Alden to just have narrated his chapters, at least there might have been emotion in it.