Rating: 3 1/2 stars

How long can a beloved series be carried out before it finally begins to blur and run together? For the Guardian series it appears that the proverbial shark has finally been jumped, in the form of the latest offering, Demon Bound.

Demon Bound is Book 7 in this series, which has always been a favorite of mine. The world-building involved and the mythology created around the Guardians and demons has been most impressive. Not only that but the couples that find each other in these stories have always had an unmistakable chemistry and heat that is hard to resist, at least until now.

The pairing up of Novice Guardian Jake, who has been a bit player in previous books, and the older Guardian Alice, called the Black Widow, is sorely lacking in the kind of passion that one has come to expect from Meljean Brook. Perhaps it's the character of Alice herself, with her buttoned-up Victorian attire and unnatural affinity for arachnids, that is the problem but I couldn't bring myself to really care about her at all. She had a shallowness to her that was off-putting.

As for her deal that she made with a demon shortly before she died as a human, which is what propels the story forward, it seemed a convoluted way to bring about the revelations that would follow.

The most fascinating and compelling part of this book was the long-awaited revelation concerning Michael, the head of the Guardians, and his strange history. We're finally told his story, which was beautifully done and much more involved then I would have thought.

This offering is a good way to learn the truth behind what really happened to Michael but don't expect the same passion and intensity that has gone before. It seems to have faded away.

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Publisher: Berkley (November 4, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0425224538
ISBN-13: 978-0425224533