Review: Darkness Bound – Stella Cameron

Darkness Bound by Stella Cameron
Series:  Chimney Rock #1
Release Date:  March 1, 2011
Publisher:   Grand Central Publishing
Page Count:  249
Source:  Provided by Publisher
Buy the book at: Amazon 

WHEN NIGHT FALLS
After her husband’s tragic death, Leigh Kelly arrives on Whidbey Island determined to start over. Yet the tiny town of Chimney Rock is not as peaceful as it seems. Women have been disappearing, and Leigh can’t shake the feeling that she’s being watched . . . especially at night. Soon, she’s experiencing visions she can’t explain and fighting her attraction to a handsome stranger who seems to know her most intimate desires.
PASSION TRANSFORMS THEM
As the leader of the Team, a pack of werehounds forced to hide their very existence, former special ops soldier Niles Latimer is desperate to prove a man’s heart beats beneath his predator’s body. And Leigh-the mysterious beauty possessing powers she doesn’t yet understand-may be the one woman who can help him. But Niles isn’t the only one who recognizes Leigh’s true identity. Something evil is waiting in the woods-and the hunt has begun . . .

This first book in the Chimney Rock series puts a slightly different spin on the paranormal world.  Werehounds like on the outskirts of the human world hoping to one day gain their humanity and the ability to live amongst them.  Werewolves are fighting them, desperate to gain dominance over the Wedbey Island were they all reside.  Throw in some vampires and Fae and you have the setting

Niles Latimer is Alpha of the werehounds.  He’s haunted by the past and what his team did in the name of the United States in the Middle East.  But he’s been given new hope for himself and his pack when he finds out he has a true mate in the widow of one of the residents of Chimney Rock Cove.  This mate means a lot to his pack, since all the female werehounds have died, but Nile is also cautious since they have all agreed that the human woman must know exactly what each of them is before they can “seal”.  While Niles knew the werewolves would stop at nothing to make sure the mating doesn’t happen, he’s unaware of the other implications his mate would have on the entire supernatural community.

Leigh Kelly has come back to Chimney Rock Cove and the small house her husband left to her.  While it’s difficult, she’s come back because she thinks this is the one place where she’ll be happy and feel like she belongs.  When she meets Niles he senses an immediate connection to him…one she didn’t have with the husband she dearly loved.  Each time they’re together, she can feel the connection growing.  She soon learns that Niles is a man she feels safe with and can trust.  It’s because of those feelings that she doesn’t shy away from him when she learns what he truly is.

A lot happens in this first book that sets up the rest of the series.  We have werewolves kidnapping humans, vampires throwing in their hats with the werewolves in hopes of getting their hands on Leigh and those like her, Leigh’s creepy brother-in-law who is very shady (to say the least) and the Fae Queen who undoubtedly is up to no good.  While these elements don’t really do much to speed along this particular storyline, you can tell they are being used to set up things down the road.

I was left with some unanswered questions about our lovely couple:  was Leigh’s husband’s death really an accident, what happened with Leigh’s family, how old exactly is Niles (he hints to working the Gold Rush…so he’s at least a couple hundred years old), what happened to the only other woman Nile loved and what are those nightmares he suffers from.  I’m hoping we’ll get some of these question answered in future releases to the series.

Entertaining with a slightly different twist on the paranormal world than what I’ve read recently.  Can’t wait to see what happens with the series…especially with Sean who is my favorites of the werehounds so far.