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Bound in Blood: The Erotic Journey of a Vampire
Bound by revenge and a thirst for sex and blood, gorgeous vampire Jean-Luc "Jack" Courbet falls in love with aspiring actor and model Claude Halloran and finds himself embarking on a journey into the past, from France's closeted nobility and the dark underworld of Victorian London to the present day where he discovers that love equals survival. Reprint.
352 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 27, 2010
I ordered this used and the seller didn't have it in stock so they sent me 2 packets of flower seeds instead.
I eventually got the book.
If the story is good, I have no idea because the writing is so bad I couldn't make it very far. It's written as if the authors internal mantra was "I AM A WRITER!"
I eventually got the book.
If the story is good, I have no idea because the writing is so bad I couldn't make it very far. It's written as if the authors internal mantra was "I AM A WRITER!"
March 10, 2011
Yes ok it was a Bad book but it was a good/bad book you know. So bad its good LOL :) I enjoyed it and I didn't use my brain once :)
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February 6, 2009BOUND IN BLOOD by David Thomas Lord
(Kensington Books- 2001)
Review by Nickolas Cook
04/16/06
From back cover teaser:
By all appearances, Jean-Luc “Jack” Courbet has the perfect life. His art critiques appear regularly in The New York Times. His Greenwich Village apartment is filled with tasteful antiques. And his finely chiseled face and body make him an object of longing for the men he meets in clubs and bars—men who satisfy his dual need for pleasure and cruel pain. But beneath the glittering social whirl of Jack’s elite lifestyle lies a deadly secret: he is a vampire, transformed a century ago in Paris by his powerful stepfather.
Now, driven by an age-old thirst for vengeance and locked in a game of cat-and-mouse with the mother who wants to destroy him, Jack haunts the streets of New York City, hunting for sex and blood—until he falls for aspiring actor and model, Claude Halloran. In Claude, Jack glimpses the innocent he once was and who gives meaning to a life lived in darkness. This erotic journey of the heart will take Jack beyond the threshold of desire into the pain of his own past—from France’s closeted nobility to the hidden obsessions of Victorian London—and finally into a present-day world of flesh and fantasy where love and lust are more than appetites…but the keys to survival.
With BOUND IN BLOOD (the first part of a proposed quintet) author David Thomas Lord manages to show us both the best and worst faces of erotic horror.
Through the eyes of ancient vampire, Jean-Luc “Jack” Courbet, we see the bleak underbelly of modern day New York City as he slinks from one seedy underground club to the next, in search of gay male victims to suck dry- both figuratively and literally. It’s during these episodic killings that the vampire’s lack of empathy for his victims leaves one feeling cold, and gives a good sense of the anxious nightly search for food. After extensive (in some cases, too much) background of these desperate souls, Jack destroys them in bloody and imaginative fashions, in an effort to make his slayings seem the work of a serial killer. And this is the crux of what makes for the worst weakness in BOUND IN BLOOD. The violence becomes increasingly more distracting, rather than plot spikes, and as the story begins to move forward, we all come to a halt for the vampire to seduce and then kill another horny victim. These, coupled with the sexual episodes, while admittedly titillating, do very little for the book’s story. In fact, in some cases, the scenes detract from Lord’s fine eye for detail and rich use of language. Although his distinctive voice is loud and clear during the sexual scenes as he straddles the line between sensuality and debauchery, there’s a bit too much emphasis placed on the kills.
With deft touches, Lord illustrates Jack as a walking anomaly in the modern world: Pessimistic, caustic, seductive, bitter, and acerbic. A true predator, he shows no remorse for his victims, and there are moments of bloodiness that will make every man squirm uncomfortably, as Jack goes for the soft flesh.
Lord has some wonderful flashback scenes that recall the startlingly detailed visions wrought by Anne Rice in her original vampire novel, AN INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE. From France, to England, to America, Lord paints the historical picture of Jack, allowing us to begin to see his lost humanity. His recognition of personal shallowness is deftly culled from how badly he’s handled his own past, and how selfishly he’s handling his intended lovers’ presents.
A little too far into the book, Lord sets up for Claude to become Jack’s eternal companion of choice. And then, almost without warning, Jack seems to prefer a woman as his eternal companion instead, a sort of replacement for the mother he can no longer have as a friend and fellow vampire. Lord draws the character of Laura more realistically than any other, and lends her a sense of humanity and humor that the others seem to lack.
At times, especially at the beginning, the book falls into needless self-indulgence, and could have used the work of a sharp eyed editor to either condense or cut extraneous scenes that bog down the narrative. It takes a bit too long to get to the main story between Jack and his vampire mother, Noel, but once we get there, Lord does a great job of adding surprising plot twists and elements to keep the story moving. Including his mother’s ability to slip into the minds and bodies of his friends and make threats against him. This is where the story becomes enticingly more complex- sexually and emotionally- and rewards the diligent reader with some beautiful scenes of pathos. The interchanges between he and his mother are by far the most effective the book has to offer. Although there is a bit of a stretched explanation for Jack the Ripper- Mom’s bad job at framing Jack in dreary old London years ago.
Another strange turn in BOUND IN BLOOD is the inexplicable death of vampire authoress Edna Oates (Anne Rice?), but it does tend to keep the story moving, as the media descends on the scene to heat up his secret life.
There is a boiling current of sensuality in BOUND IN BLOOD, but too many instances of unattached sexual play that may not be for everyone, scenes that play like sex without foreplay. Erotic literature is about voyeurism, and there were times this lost that stylish edge and descended into borderline Penthouse forum letters.
Again, a good editorial distance could have helped make this a stronger book all around, as en editor could have attacked this issue, and the several instances of clunky dialogue, the overuse of names during interchanges (no one really talks like that), and the silly moments of Jack talking aloud to dead people while giving much needed exposition. But despite all of this, by the book’s end, we are left in suspense as to the fates of the three main characters, Jack, Noel, and Claude. The next volume in this series is to be titled BOUND IN FLESH, and should cement David Thomas Lord as the king of vampires.
Nickolas Cook
(Kensington Books- 2001)
Review by Nickolas Cook
04/16/06
From back cover teaser:
By all appearances, Jean-Luc “Jack” Courbet has the perfect life. His art critiques appear regularly in The New York Times. His Greenwich Village apartment is filled with tasteful antiques. And his finely chiseled face and body make him an object of longing for the men he meets in clubs and bars—men who satisfy his dual need for pleasure and cruel pain. But beneath the glittering social whirl of Jack’s elite lifestyle lies a deadly secret: he is a vampire, transformed a century ago in Paris by his powerful stepfather.
Now, driven by an age-old thirst for vengeance and locked in a game of cat-and-mouse with the mother who wants to destroy him, Jack haunts the streets of New York City, hunting for sex and blood—until he falls for aspiring actor and model, Claude Halloran. In Claude, Jack glimpses the innocent he once was and who gives meaning to a life lived in darkness. This erotic journey of the heart will take Jack beyond the threshold of desire into the pain of his own past—from France’s closeted nobility to the hidden obsessions of Victorian London—and finally into a present-day world of flesh and fantasy where love and lust are more than appetites…but the keys to survival.
With BOUND IN BLOOD (the first part of a proposed quintet) author David Thomas Lord manages to show us both the best and worst faces of erotic horror.
Through the eyes of ancient vampire, Jean-Luc “Jack” Courbet, we see the bleak underbelly of modern day New York City as he slinks from one seedy underground club to the next, in search of gay male victims to suck dry- both figuratively and literally. It’s during these episodic killings that the vampire’s lack of empathy for his victims leaves one feeling cold, and gives a good sense of the anxious nightly search for food. After extensive (in some cases, too much) background of these desperate souls, Jack destroys them in bloody and imaginative fashions, in an effort to make his slayings seem the work of a serial killer. And this is the crux of what makes for the worst weakness in BOUND IN BLOOD. The violence becomes increasingly more distracting, rather than plot spikes, and as the story begins to move forward, we all come to a halt for the vampire to seduce and then kill another horny victim. These, coupled with the sexual episodes, while admittedly titillating, do very little for the book’s story. In fact, in some cases, the scenes detract from Lord’s fine eye for detail and rich use of language. Although his distinctive voice is loud and clear during the sexual scenes as he straddles the line between sensuality and debauchery, there’s a bit too much emphasis placed on the kills.
With deft touches, Lord illustrates Jack as a walking anomaly in the modern world: Pessimistic, caustic, seductive, bitter, and acerbic. A true predator, he shows no remorse for his victims, and there are moments of bloodiness that will make every man squirm uncomfortably, as Jack goes for the soft flesh.
Lord has some wonderful flashback scenes that recall the startlingly detailed visions wrought by Anne Rice in her original vampire novel, AN INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE. From France, to England, to America, Lord paints the historical picture of Jack, allowing us to begin to see his lost humanity. His recognition of personal shallowness is deftly culled from how badly he’s handled his own past, and how selfishly he’s handling his intended lovers’ presents.
A little too far into the book, Lord sets up for Claude to become Jack’s eternal companion of choice. And then, almost without warning, Jack seems to prefer a woman as his eternal companion instead, a sort of replacement for the mother he can no longer have as a friend and fellow vampire. Lord draws the character of Laura more realistically than any other, and lends her a sense of humanity and humor that the others seem to lack.
At times, especially at the beginning, the book falls into needless self-indulgence, and could have used the work of a sharp eyed editor to either condense or cut extraneous scenes that bog down the narrative. It takes a bit too long to get to the main story between Jack and his vampire mother, Noel, but once we get there, Lord does a great job of adding surprising plot twists and elements to keep the story moving. Including his mother’s ability to slip into the minds and bodies of his friends and make threats against him. This is where the story becomes enticingly more complex- sexually and emotionally- and rewards the diligent reader with some beautiful scenes of pathos. The interchanges between he and his mother are by far the most effective the book has to offer. Although there is a bit of a stretched explanation for Jack the Ripper- Mom’s bad job at framing Jack in dreary old London years ago.
Another strange turn in BOUND IN BLOOD is the inexplicable death of vampire authoress Edna Oates (Anne Rice?), but it does tend to keep the story moving, as the media descends on the scene to heat up his secret life.
There is a boiling current of sensuality in BOUND IN BLOOD, but too many instances of unattached sexual play that may not be for everyone, scenes that play like sex without foreplay. Erotic literature is about voyeurism, and there were times this lost that stylish edge and descended into borderline Penthouse forum letters.
Again, a good editorial distance could have helped make this a stronger book all around, as en editor could have attacked this issue, and the several instances of clunky dialogue, the overuse of names during interchanges (no one really talks like that), and the silly moments of Jack talking aloud to dead people while giving much needed exposition. But despite all of this, by the book’s end, we are left in suspense as to the fates of the three main characters, Jack, Noel, and Claude. The next volume in this series is to be titled BOUND IN FLESH, and should cement David Thomas Lord as the king of vampires.
Nickolas Cook
October 15, 2024
‘Bound in Blood’ is a better novel than it is an erotica. It’s not the greatest thing ever, not by a long shot, but I think Lord is a very descriptive and competent author but I think it might be doing far too much for what is essentially gay smut. I’m used to my smut to short and to the point and I think the erotic side is actually what weighs it down because each chapter MUST include a heavy sex scene that ends in a death to the point where it becomes repetitive and boring. It loses its sensation and interest. Beautifully written smut but it only leads to introducing too many characters with fully fleshed out backstories and lives that are killed off and, outside of a handful, never mentioned again. I don’t think that every chapter needed that.
August 5, 2025
that book was very possibly the worst book i have ever read but i need to emphasize that i mean that in an affectionate way and i have the sequel (in which a vampire becomes "a master of tantric sex" whatever that means) and these 2 books are perhaps the campiest, garbage smut booksi have ever had the delight of reading. do i recommend them? absolutely not, don't do this to yourself (unless you really, really want to). was the author a gay man who hated gay men and women? was he a straight man who hated gay men and women? unclear! either way, you can't write a book like this without some sort of hatred cooking in your noggin.
December 3, 2022
I can't start a book without finishing it, but the hairy stepdad bit made it difficult.
April 9, 2022
What started out as an arousing tale of a cruising vampire in New York , quickly hypnotized me into its plot. Once Jack tells his tale of how him and his mother came to become vampires, the story is interesting and fast paced. I found it very hard to put this book down until I had finished it. Although David Thomas Lord vampires are very, very similiar to Anne Rice's (which is probably one of the main reasons I really like these vampires), there are some interesting and seductive secrets about the vampire myth he reveals.
There are too many surprises to be spoiled in this review. So, enjoy it as much as I did. I'm sure I'll read this one over and over again.
There are too many surprises to be spoiled in this review. So, enjoy it as much as I did. I'm sure I'll read this one over and over again.
July 4, 2008
Seems to be written more as cheap smut rather than an attempt at an interesting story about a vampire. Each chapter is just a hunt for a date leading to death.
December 12, 2010
sexy but not enough!
February 13, 2013
I've tried to read it twice now and each time I just can't read it. It's just over the top and not in a good way. It seems to me the author is simply trying to hard.
May 20, 2016
This was a very "grown up book" for the teenager I was when it came out. I just found it among the massive collection I have. I was super excited. I look forward to more eventually from this author
April 22, 2012
A rattling good yarn, a very easy read.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews