His Dark Bond [Paperback]

Three thousand years ago, Zer and his fellow Demonions were charged with the task of defending the Celestial Throne. After being tricked into rebelling against the Archangel Michael, he and the men who followed him were stripped of their wings and most of their emotions and sent to earth. Any chance of salvation lies in the Fallen finding their soul mates.

Nessa St. James is one of the few remaining soul mates and though the thought of her with someone else makes his blood boil, Zer will do what it takes to convince her to bond with another. Nessa has been kidnapped from the university where she teaches and told by the wickedly seductive Zer that she needs to bond with a Fallen so they can protect her from their enemies. Nessa doesn't have a death wish but Zer has another thing coming if he believes she'll simply submit to his demands.

His Dark Bond takes place in a alternate Moscow in the future where if you're willing to trade pieces of your soul to the emotion hunger Fallen, you can have any one wish you desire. The Fallen can become addicted to emotions to the point where they turn rogue and feed off of humans until they die. Zer's own addiction and guilt of leading his men into a failed rebellion has made him think he doesn't deserve one of the remaining soul mates. I love Zer, not just because he's a fine example of what an alpha should be but for his unwavering loyalty and dedication to his men. It was their choice to stick by him all those years ago but he takes on the full burden of their fall and would give everything, even his chance to have a mate, to give them what they had back. I think Nessa is a great match for Zer, even if he doesn't believe so at first.

Zer and Nessa's first encounter is when he barges into her class and kidnaps her and she gives him attitude the entire time. Zer is very dominate and accustomed to having things his way. Nessa's stubbornness and refusal to ever take the easy way out is downright sexy to him and her naughty side makes it impossible to keep his hands off her. Nessa is a intelligent, strong willed woman whose genetic research has led to her uncovering a forgotten tribe of people that have a direct link to the soul mates the Fallen are searching for. Her work is important to her and she doesn't have time for a distraction like Zer. Nessa is a great heroine. I not only loved the sass she'd throw Zer's way but also that she wants to give him more of her, more than he thinks he deserves. This unlikely combination really worked and when things got hot and heavy, which at times involved elevators and voyeurism, I had a hard time not blushing.

The pool of candidates for soul mates is so small because of Cuthah. He is the lieutenant to Michael and has known of the Fallen's road to redemption the entire time. He has no desire to see the Demonions once again defending the Celestial Throne, something he wants for himself, so he has gathered rogues and spent years tracking down and killing as many soul mates as he can. Cuthah is vile and a worthy adversary to the Fallen. A few times I thought the fights between them were drawn out more than necessary but they gave the reader some action and really showed how dangerous the world of fallen angels can be.

Anne Marsh did a great job creating a cast of characters you can't help but love and a story that hooks you in from the start. This is a darker paranormal romance with an alpha that is rough around the edges and unapologetic in everything he does. If this is the right combination for you then I say definitely check out His Dark Bond. This is book 2 in Anne Marsh's Fallen series and I suggest if you have time, go back and read book 1. It's not necessary story wise but I think Mischka and Brends' story is worth reading.

I knew dark angels were bad, but I had no idea!

Zer is the leader of the Fallen and he will redeem his fellow angels, no matter what he needs to do. Finally, things are looking up for the Fallen and he is determined to ensure that he and his brethren will be back where they belong, in heaven. One human woman is not going to get in his way. He is bigger and stronger and she will do what he says.

Nessa St. James is a brilliant woman who has no idea what she is in store for. All she wants to do is continue her research on the mysterious thirtieth tribe, but that has now been taken away from her. Suddenly her world is filled with danger, death and angels. She is being forced into a world she has no desire to be part of and Zer will regret the day he kidnapped her.

Time is running out for the Fallen. They are weakening and they need their soul mates to earn their wings back. For centuries they have searched for these women, but as time progressed and no soul mates were found, the Fallen started to believe that this option for redemption was a lie concocted by the archangel Michael. Now that a soul mate has been discovered, it is a race to find other women that can save the Fallen. Nessa very well may hold the key to their salvation. Too bad she has no desire to become involved.

Anne Marsh's take on fallen angels is just wonderful. She has taken an old tale and put a whole new spin on things. The Fallen were wrongly accused and cased out. Now they are living life to the fullest, waiting for the right time to seek their revenge; if time and madness don't take them down first.

Let me just say, even though His Dark Bond is about angels, there are no religious connotations. I'm not sure how Ms. Marsh does it, but she does. The Fallen are bad boys to the core, but she has an ability to make them loveable, ok that might just be pushing it a bit, likeable.

At first glance, these men are pure evil. They have turned their corner of Russia into their own and they rule with an iron fist. Guns, murder, and lust are all theirs and they own it. It's not until you are allowed into their secret world that you can comprehend their reasons and see that things are not always as they appear. But make no mistake, they don't care what you think of them and they will do anything to get their wings back.

Zer feels he is not worthy of redemption and will sacrifice Nessa to one of his brothers. No matter how he feels about her. Nessa will not go down without a fight and Zer has misinterpreted the wrong woman. Their power play was fun to read. I was completely drawn into this fascinating corner of Russia.

Ms. Marsh has filled this novel with amazing action sequences and steamy sexual tension. Even though I found some faults with the probability at the end, I enjoyed the book as a whole. She has written a wonder new universe and I can't wait to see what is next for these delightfully evil angels.

His Dark Bond
By Anne Marsh
Copyright February 2012
Publisher Brava

Zer is no angel - well, not anymore. He's explored every flavour of sin imaginable, drinking in the pleasures of humanity. But now he must find the woman who carries his salvation in her very blood...a woman like Nessa St. James.
Nessa has considered the bargain the Fallen offer. Anything she wants in exchange for accepting Zer's bond? No way. Not her. Not when she finds out about the mind-blowing ritual involved and the marks of surrender that will ink her skin. But with a serial killer to stop and centuries of experience on his side, Zer will do whatever it takes to change her.

Nessa is one of the country's leading geneticists. So she is more than a little upset when she is called into the Dean's office and told that her funding was cancelled and her lab was being closed. It was her own research that was coming to bite her in the backside. She'd developed a fast system of DNA testing. Just like a pregnancy test, you peed on the stick and it would tell you if you were human or paranormal. Now the answer to that test is being used against her by someone who was not an academic. He was a bean counter.
Nessa was given 3 days to find new funding or she had to vacate her lab. Desperate to find an answer she heads to the building where her lecture hall is and pulls out her cell phone, dialing while she walked. She is contacting a company called Genecore which had contacted her with an interest in her research. She is determined to find her own funding and keep her lab open.
Zen is the leader of the Fallen (called Goblins on earth). They had been Angel's and Heaven's front line troops against evil, who rebelled against the Archangel Michael and were stripped of their wings and sent to Earth as punishment. He left them one out. For each fallen there is one Soul Mate. In the three thousand years they've been banished they have found only one true Soul Mate. This is because there is someone who is destroying them as soon as they are located.
Zen has managed to get a list of names which were stolen from their greatest enemy and now it was a race to find these women, who were destined to be the Soul Mates of his people.
Now we get to the crux of the story. When Zen finds Nessa and basically kidnaps her, the true battle begins between them. Zen to have her mate with one of his Fallen, and Nessa to regain her freedom and independence. This is a romance that will rock the fabric of Zen's existence and have Nessa tied up in emotional knots.
As the first book in a new series it has all the elements of love, lust, anger, hate, and a kickass number of fights taking place. I love it. I think you will too.
FTC Full Disclosure: This book was offered to me by the publisher who only requested a fair and impartial review.