She’s a power-hungry battle angelCoriel is determined to rid the world of demons and prove she has what it takes to be archangel. But when a fierce battle ends in tragedy on her orders, she is banished from the Heavens—and finds herself at the mercy of Hell’s sexiest and most powerful demon knight. He’s the demon knight who wants herRather than take his rightful place on Hell’s throne, Zagan … place on Hell’s throne, Zagan prefers to spend his days in the human realm corrupting souls—and he’ll end the life of any angel who tries to stop him. But rather than slay the beautiful battle angel when he has the chance, he binds her to him with his life-saving kiss, forcing her to obey his every command.
The line is drawn
Coriel has no choice but to submit to her captor, though the curse of his kiss is not what lures her to him. While Zagan takes great pleasure in exerting his dominance over the Heavens’ fiercest warrior, he soon wants her to do more than just his bidding. As the war between angels and demons rages, he wants her by his side … to rule Hell as his queen.
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I received a copy of this book through Booksirens and I’m voluntarily leaving a review.
Story:
Original take on good and bad. Good world build.
Characters:
I liked that demons weren’t just bad and gods and angels weren’t all pure and good.
Flow:
I was never swept away by this book, it felt like sometimes the story dragged and other parts it was too rushed.
Writing and editing:
I didn’t spot any jarring mistakes or typos but the lack of flow prevented this book being a great read
Heat: (no rating from me)
I glossed over almost all the sex scenes, found them cringe worthy and I can really explain why.
Occasionally, I enjoy dark and twisted but something was thoroughly wrong about the sex scenes in this book.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I liked the mix of angels and demons. Interesting and compelling storyline. If at the beginning you perceive some naivety in the description, going forward the style takes maturity and fluency.
I hope this author doesn’t stop at the first book and move on, I’m curious to know how this new world where angels aren’t that good and demons aren’t that bad can evolve.
Full of action and passion, I highly recommend it.
The first book in the Demon Knights series a well written story that held my interest until the end. Coriel and Zagan’s story has suspense, drama, danger, twists, turns, a war between heaven and hell, and romance. I want to read the next book. This is a new author to me. I received a copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This book is a diamond in the rough. Angels and demons and Gods. Love, lust, betrayal. All kinds of deliciously unexpected twists and turns. I adored Zagan’s dedication to Coryn and her feisty spirit.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is an intricate book with a wealth of detail and interest. If you are wanting a quick, easy and straight forward read this is not really the book for you. It is wonderful in its itself but do be prepared to keep track of what is happening to enjoy it properly. Coriel is having the day from Hell it seems that is until she is actually cast out of the Heavens and sent to Hell. She soon leanrs that there is more plotting, intrigue and suterfugue above that she even believed there to be below. Zagan bound the fallen angel to himself before ever truly realising what he had caught. He planned to become the king of Hell and yet something about Coriel, now called Coryn to show if her disgrace, just draws him. Could he actually be falling in love with her? Will he lose her in his plan to make himself king even if he wants her as his queen?
Disclaimer: I did receive this book as an ARC through Book Sirens in exchange for an honest review. I am happy to leave this voluntary review.
In “Bound to You”, Book 1 of the Demon Knights Series, by Alyson Caraway, Coriel is an erelim warrior angel who desperately wants to be an Archangel like Michael. Although young and immature, she is a glory seeker who hungers for power and will do anything to prove herself worthy ro Michael. When she is called upon to lead a battle for human souls between demons and angels, she seizes the opportunity to show her skills and her worth by killing as many demons as possible. When one of the Heavens biggest adversaries, Demon Knight Zagan, joins the battle, Coriel sees glory within her reach if she can only kill the demon. Zagan is impressed by her skills and her determination. But the angels are called from th battle back to the Heavens, where Coriel learns that she has failed in her mission. She battle for human souls. When these and many angels are lost because her her failure to follow orders, she is stripped of her weapon and punished by her commander.
When later she is ordered to Manusya to battle once again for human souls, Coriel is so excited to have another opportunity, that she doesn’t wait for the rest of her team. She flies off into battle against the Demon King’s Knight and heir to the throne all alone, and only realizes that she is on her own once it is too late. She realizes then that her commander is still punishing her. Zagan hasn’t stopped thinking about her and wants her more than anything. But Coriel’s desperate wish is to kill him, and he won’t allow that to happen. So as they battle, Coriel receives a mortal wound. Zagan immediately regrets what he has done and offers her the chance to live. She must drink the antidote to his poison from his tongue. To live to fight another day, Coriel does this. Afterwards she learns she is now bound to this demon and must obey his every command. In a rage at herself, she flies into the heavens. Here, once Michael learns of what has happened, she is cast from the heavens as a Forsken. Coriel can now only submit to and follow every command of the Demon Knight.
What I like most about this book is the character development and the chemistry between Zagan and Coriel. Zagan, though a demon, is not all bad. He demonstrates this over and over in the book. And Coriel, an angel, is not without faults. She shows this with her eagerness for power and glory and her qick temper. They are great antagonists in this enemies to lovers book. The storyline is interesting and drew me in right from the beginning.
I gave the book four stars of five and this was primarily because I felt there was more opportunity for the writer to give more detail in her world building. There are three realms in her book, Heaven, Hell , and Manusya. Ms. Caraway gave us a glimpse of Heaven and Hell, and little detail of earth. I would have liked more detail here and more of the battles.
Overall a very good book, and I look forward to Book 2.
Bound to You is the first book in the The Demon Knights Series by Alyson Caraway.
ARC kindly provided by BookSirens in exchange for an honest review.
I don’t normally read this genre of paranormal fantasy but wow this was overflowing with action. This is also my first book by Alyson Caraway. This was about a fallen Angel after being bind to the to be King Knight Demon.
Coriel’s main goal has always been to become an archangel. It has been a long 30 years of working towards her goal and becoming strong. She is determined of proving she is good enough to become an archangel by consistently showing that she can get rid of demons in the world easily.
After going against orders, she ends up losing a large amount of humans and angels in a fight with Zagan and his demons. Zagan is the next in line to the throne and is one of the strongest demons. After their first meeting, both Coriel and Zagan can’t stop thinking about the other.
After saving her life by binding Coriel to him, he soon realized that the bond is proven to be more than what he bargained for. And he plans for something greater for them.
This was definitely a big enemies to lovers with a lot of actions. This was fast paced and quite easy to read. This was a world of angels and demons. There were a lot of fighting, betrayals, rejections, devastation, internal conflicts, and sex.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. And I can’t wait to see the next one by Alyson!
Note: I received an ARC of Bound to You for free in exchange for an honest review. Rated 3.0-3.5.
Alyson Caraway delivers her debut novel, Bound to You, within the realm of paranormal romance. Aspiring archangel Coriel desires nothing more than the destruction of every demon. If that gets her a position among angel top-brass, then obviously that is where she belongs. However, when a battle goes awry and Coriel disregards orders one time too many, her hubris lands her in hot water. Enter the hottest demon in all of hell, Zagan. When a chance to prove herself results in Coriel’s banishment from heaven, the headstrong angel finds herself at the mercy of the most powerful demon knight. Caraway combines action, romance, and snark in an exciting tale of discovery and corruption.
One of my biggest concerns with ARC-ing debut novels is the strength of negative/neutral reviews, so let me preface this review by saying that even the most incredible author has room to improve and there is almost always going to be people who love stories others just do not like. Okay, off that soap box and back to the review. Bound to You is a full length angel/demon enemies-to-lovers romance with a whole lot of action. One of the things I most appreciated about this novel was how Caraway elaborated on worldbuilding specifics. For example, the differences in demons, especially demon underlings. She worked to utilize familiar elements of angel/demon stories, while also adding her own mark.
Overall, Bound to You is a 3.0-3.5 story for me. While I believe that Caraway’s world-building had a good foundation, many details and specifics that could have enhanced the story were simply missing. Despite getting glimpses into the world Bound to You was set in, I never got much more than a tunnel vision view. Characterwise, I enjoyed how Caraway addressed the dilemmas Coriel faced in consorting with a demon despite being an angel. However, Zagan and Coriel’s relationship felt much too rushed and lacked important transitory stages that occur in a more realistically developed relationship. Granted, Caraway is dealing with angels and demons, but added some of these elements would help elevate the story from a 3.0/3.5 to a higher score. I don’t mind insta-love stories, but to be good the author needs to be careful how they write the relationship. I found it hard to couple several of the actions undertaken by Zagan with “love”, which could be used by the author to describe a demon who doesn’t understand love over lust. Then, the author can showcase a major character development. Which brings me to another point missing from Bound to You: development. Generally, I felt like few of the characters had any real development. Combing over the story and tuning scenes to specifically display character development could enhance this story further.
As a whole, Bound to You has things to work on, but that does not make it a do-not-read. Would I read it again, not necessarily. However, I found several of the supporting characters, specifically Zagan’s fellow demon knights, to be quite compelling and interesting. If Caraway employed what she learned from her debut novel in successive novels focusing on the other knights, I would most likely give those books a try. If you like angel/demon romances with action then Bound to You might just be for you, so support a debut author and read away.