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Fire & Ice #1
Blood Bound
An ice child, her protector, and a century-old prophecy...
In a world where monsters and humans live in relative peace....
Snow Bennett just wanted to get away from her overprotective parents. So, she transferred to the high school in the next town. Monster High, isn't an ordinary high school. It's a monster high school, the perfect place for Snow who is human with a little extra. She can control ice. Snow has always wanted to spice up her boring life.......then she met Cait Fallon, the spice to her everything nice.
Cait Fallon is a woman with secrets. Secrets, that have ruled her life preventing her from really living.
When Snow transfers to her class, Cait is reminded of a promise she made long ago to protect the girl.
Can Snow break down the walls Cait has spent centuries building? Or will they both fall victim to an age-old prophecy?
In a world where monsters and humans live in relative peace....
Snow Bennett just wanted to get away from her overprotective parents. So, she transferred to the high school in the next town. Monster High, isn't an ordinary high school. It's a monster high school, the perfect place for Snow who is human with a little extra. She can control ice. Snow has always wanted to spice up her boring life.......then she met Cait Fallon, the spice to her everything nice.
Cait Fallon is a woman with secrets. Secrets, that have ruled her life preventing her from really living.
When Snow transfers to her class, Cait is reminded of a promise she made long ago to protect the girl.
Can Snow break down the walls Cait has spent centuries building? Or will they both fall victim to an age-old prophecy?
138 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 9, 2016
255 people are currently reading
404 people want to read
About the author
Idella Breen
16 books41 followersYou’ve found your way to the About Me page!
I’m the author of the Fire & Ice series. I grew up in the sleepy town of Dayton, Ohio. I identify as genderqueer and love to read as well as write all kinds of LGBTQ novels. I'm always open to talking to my readers, so feel free to catch me on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Idella-Breen...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/idellabreen?lang=en
instagram: idellabreen
or my website
www.idellabreen.com
or email me at:
idella@idellabreen.com
Happy Reading!
I’m the author of the Fire & Ice series. I grew up in the sleepy town of Dayton, Ohio. I identify as genderqueer and love to read as well as write all kinds of LGBTQ novels. I'm always open to talking to my readers, so feel free to catch me on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Idella-Breen...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/idellabreen?lang=en
instagram: idellabreen
or my website
www.idellabreen.com
or email me at:
idella@idellabreen.com
Happy Reading!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
October 25, 2019
2.50 Stars. Since I was in the mood for something paranormal, I decided to give this freebie a read. While I love shifters, vamps and the like this wasn’t really for me. The book isn’t horrible but it has issues. There was a lot of “telling” instead of showing and also plenty of info dumping about the supernaturals. I know it’s easy to info dump a little in paranormal or fantasy books but there is better ways to get background information. I hate when the main characters know absolutely nothing but every secondary character does so they have to wax poetic about the main characters special powers, mating rituals or prophecies, and in the case of this book all three.
There was also a slight Twilight vibe that bothered me. The whole werewolf imprinting on someone else no matter the age of said person is. That whole imprinting thing just icks me out. In this case it is a 200-300 year-old werewolf who becomes obsessed with a newly turned eighteen year-old high school student. And the werewolf is actually her teacher. Teacher-student taboo relationships don’t always sit so well for me especially when it’s the teacher that is so obsessed. The teacher kept jumping on the student and the student in the beginning said stop and no multiple times, but they would have ended up having sex anyway if they had not been interrupted. It was a little too non-con close for me especially when there is a power imbalance involved. Once the story was more out of the school and consensual, it was much more readable.
I have heard that some of the later books get better. I’m not sure that I would read more but I’m picky about my paranormal books. Right now this book is still free if you want to take a chance.
There was also a slight Twilight vibe that bothered me. The whole werewolf imprinting on someone else no matter the age of said person is. That whole imprinting thing just icks me out. In this case it is a 200-300 year-old werewolf who becomes obsessed with a newly turned eighteen year-old high school student. And the werewolf is actually her teacher. Teacher-student taboo relationships don’t always sit so well for me especially when it’s the teacher that is so obsessed. The teacher kept jumping on the student and the student in the beginning said stop and no multiple times, but they would have ended up having sex anyway if they had not been interrupted. It was a little too non-con close for me especially when there is a power imbalance involved. Once the story was more out of the school and consensual, it was much more readable.
I have heard that some of the later books get better. I’m not sure that I would read more but I’m picky about my paranormal books. Right now this book is still free if you want to take a chance.
May 8, 2023
THE WORD OF THE DAY IS: ICK 🤮
I honestly feel violated. There was so much bad and so much wrong here. I just hope I can write this review without it devolving into a full-blown rant. (Sadly, I am not optimistic.)
THE GOOD:
* Unique werewolf dynamic with an interesting take on omegas
* Lots of rarely mentioned monster and demon types
(That was a long list, eh? 😞Now, let’s get to everything else)
THE BAD. THE REALLY, REALLY BAD:
[I’ll preface these by saying that I’m all for taboo; age-gap doesn’t bother me when done properly; I love dark romance when it’s touted as such AND comes with the appropriate trigger warnings. None of these concepts are inherently bad, but all combined and poorly executed, without the Badge of Impunity that is the "dark romance" genre, this was bad from start to finish…and the bit at the end crushed my soul - and you know I mean that because I couldn’t even bring myself to make a hymen joke here at the book’s expense.]
The Writing:
* Random POV changes mid-scene between MCs and side characters. This is bad. It is disorienting and jarring for readers. Just don’t do it! There are other (better) ways to inform readers of the feelings and reactions of non-POV characters.
* Inconsistencies and contradictions
* Lots of tell, little show; for such a short book, this was especially detrimental. Very little actually happened and far too much of it was spent telling readers the whats and hows and whys that are so much more interesting to see and discern for yourself than to listen/read as the author blathers on about how powerful and amazing this character is when they could just show us!
* Info dump galore. Fantasy is definitely an easy genre to fall into the info dumping habit. So much to tell, so few pages to do it in. Only, that’s not the case! Take as many pages as you want! Expand your universe slowly, reveal it little by little to tantalize your readers! Why would you want to just dump everything on us and leave us confused and trying to keep facts straight instead of actually enjoying your book?!
* The result of all this tell and info dumping: the MCs both seem weak and pathetic without any agency or self-control. They can barely keep their pants on, even though they know it puts the girl in serious danger, neither of them know anything about themselves or their pasts, so side characters dictate WAY TOO MUCH of the story. It’s just awful. The characters are so self-pitying and insecure and it just makes them unlikeable. Flaws are great, but they need to be balanced with good characteristics and see GROWTH. Those things were absent here.
* Trying to avoid overuse of “her” by instead misusing and overusing terms like “the brunette”, “the redhead”, “the woman”, and (most egregiously) “the girl”. This is annoying as hell. Why do authors do this?! It’s weird to refer to a character that we already know as “the brunette”, for example. It makes it seem like you’re talking about a stranger or a different character when you place that narrative distance between the character and your readers by suddenly referring to her as an impersonal descriptor instead of just “her” or “[insert name here]”. It’s so awkward and the repetition of it is just downright annoying! (An example that not only sounded odd, but also made the meaning of the sentence ambiguous: “[She] drove her back to the girl’s apartment.” Where “the girl” is the same “her” in this sentence, but switching to “the girl” makes it seem as though the author refers to someone else.)
* Speaking of repetition. Holy REPETITION, Batman!
The Conceptual ICK: (this is where things get so much worse) 🤮
* Disturbingly HUGE age gap that isn’t ADDRESSED!🤦♀️ That’s the worst part: NO ONE CARES THAT THERE ARE LITERAL CENTURIES BETWEEN THESE CHARACTERS!!!! I can jive with an old vampire/werewolf/whatever falling in love with a human. It’s completely implausible, yes, but I can get down with that. You’d damn well better address that age gap though! Explain to me why it’s okay, why their love transcends time and age and all that.
* To make the age gap worse, one of the MCs has literally just turned 18 👶! Okay, I can jive with that aforementioned age gap. But, come on! Really?! A 500+-year-old woman and A KID?! EWWWW and just NO.
* To make the age gap EVEN WORSE - because this author obviously had ambitions – the older of the two MCs knew the younger one as a baby 👶! This is where I had to say “Oh, barf!” out loud (I never say things out loud when I listen to audiobooks, so that’s a feat!).
* If that weren’t icky enough (you thought I was done, didn’t you?), There’s a high school teacher/student relationship obviously. While I’m not super opposed to student/teacher fictional relationships, I do think they need to be more age appropriate. You know, not just barely legal. 👶
* But wait! There’s more! On the literal FIRST DAY THEY MEET (the second time, but obviously the baby doesn’t remember this), the older MC was ABSOLUTELY going to RAPE the younger MC ❌❌❌. Yeah, that’s right, I said it! That was about to become a rape (were it not interrupted by someone else). The younger MC said "no" more than once but the older one (werewolf) wouldn’t stop. It doesn’t matter that the child was starting to like it, it was NONCONSENSUAL . And this happens more than once. Again, unless you want to tout this as a dark romance and slap some CWs on it, noncon isn’t sexy. Noncon isn’t okay. It doesn’t matter that she’s a werewolf and the little child is her “destined mate”. That’s bad. BAD WEREWOLF, GO TO YOUR BED, ALONE! 📏🐺
* To put the slightly less icky (but still plenty icky) icing on this Ick Cake 🎂 of a book, the principal (school’s authority figure) knows about and facilitates this student/teacher relationship. Now, the whole werewolf aspect is, of course, a fair reason. But again, the AGE GAP is never addressed which just makes it a whole lot of inappropriate!
* Now, for the icky cherry 🍒 on top of this extremely icky cake 🎂 (did you really think that was it?!)…Right near the end, because it wasn’t disgustingly obvious all through the book just how YOUNG the girl was, the older MC had to BREAK HER HYMEN. There aren’t enough puke emojis in the world to depict just how gross this is. 😭😭😭
Overall, I have just one word for this book: EWWWWWWW 🤮🤮🤮
There was so much wrong with the writing quality, the delivery of the plot, and (most of all) the whole concept and how poorly and indelicately it was handled. This story had some serious potential, imo, but the delivery was atrocious. 🤦♀️
As always, I tend to rate more critically than many lesfic readers, so YMMV. Definitely read other reviews.
I honestly feel violated. There was so much bad and so much wrong here. I just hope I can write this review without it devolving into a full-blown rant. (Sadly, I am not optimistic.)
THE GOOD:
* Unique werewolf dynamic with an interesting take on omegas
* Lots of rarely mentioned monster and demon types
(That was a long list, eh? 😞Now, let’s get to everything else)
THE BAD. THE REALLY, REALLY BAD:
[I’ll preface these by saying that I’m all for taboo; age-gap doesn’t bother me when done properly; I love dark romance when it’s touted as such AND comes with the appropriate trigger warnings. None of these concepts are inherently bad, but all combined and poorly executed, without the Badge of Impunity that is the "dark romance" genre, this was bad from start to finish…and the bit at the end crushed my soul - and you know I mean that because I couldn’t even bring myself to make a hymen joke here at the book’s expense.]
The Writing:
* Random POV changes mid-scene between MCs and side characters. This is bad. It is disorienting and jarring for readers. Just don’t do it! There are other (better) ways to inform readers of the feelings and reactions of non-POV characters.
* Inconsistencies and contradictions
* Lots of tell, little show; for such a short book, this was especially detrimental. Very little actually happened and far too much of it was spent telling readers the whats and hows and whys that are so much more interesting to see and discern for yourself than to listen/read as the author blathers on about how powerful and amazing this character is when they could just show us!
* Info dump galore. Fantasy is definitely an easy genre to fall into the info dumping habit. So much to tell, so few pages to do it in. Only, that’s not the case! Take as many pages as you want! Expand your universe slowly, reveal it little by little to tantalize your readers! Why would you want to just dump everything on us and leave us confused and trying to keep facts straight instead of actually enjoying your book?!
* The result of all this tell and info dumping: the MCs both seem weak and pathetic without any agency or self-control. They can barely keep their pants on, even though they know it puts the girl in serious danger, neither of them know anything about themselves or their pasts, so side characters dictate WAY TOO MUCH of the story. It’s just awful. The characters are so self-pitying and insecure and it just makes them unlikeable. Flaws are great, but they need to be balanced with good characteristics and see GROWTH. Those things were absent here.
* Trying to avoid overuse of “her” by instead misusing and overusing terms like “the brunette”, “the redhead”, “the woman”, and (most egregiously) “the girl”. This is annoying as hell. Why do authors do this?! It’s weird to refer to a character that we already know as “the brunette”, for example. It makes it seem like you’re talking about a stranger or a different character when you place that narrative distance between the character and your readers by suddenly referring to her as an impersonal descriptor instead of just “her” or “[insert name here]”. It’s so awkward and the repetition of it is just downright annoying! (An example that not only sounded odd, but also made the meaning of the sentence ambiguous: “[She] drove her back to the girl’s apartment.” Where “the girl” is the same “her” in this sentence, but switching to “the girl” makes it seem as though the author refers to someone else.)
* Speaking of repetition. Holy REPETITION, Batman!
The Conceptual ICK: (this is where things get so much worse) 🤮
* Disturbingly HUGE age gap that isn’t ADDRESSED!🤦♀️ That’s the worst part: NO ONE CARES THAT THERE ARE LITERAL CENTURIES BETWEEN THESE CHARACTERS!!!! I can jive with an old vampire/werewolf/whatever falling in love with a human. It’s completely implausible, yes, but I can get down with that. You’d damn well better address that age gap though! Explain to me why it’s okay, why their love transcends time and age and all that.
* To make the age gap worse, one of the MCs has literally just turned 18 👶! Okay, I can jive with that aforementioned age gap. But, come on! Really?! A 500+-year-old woman and A KID?! EWWWW and just NO.
* To make the age gap EVEN WORSE - because this author obviously had ambitions – the older of the two MCs knew the younger one as a baby 👶! This is where I had to say “Oh, barf!” out loud (I never say things out loud when I listen to audiobooks, so that’s a feat!).
* If that weren’t icky enough (you thought I was done, didn’t you?), There’s a high school teacher/student relationship obviously. While I’m not super opposed to student/teacher fictional relationships, I do think they need to be more age appropriate. You know, not just barely legal. 👶
* But wait! There’s more! On the literal FIRST DAY THEY MEET (the second time, but obviously the baby doesn’t remember this), the older MC was ABSOLUTELY going to RAPE the younger MC ❌❌❌. Yeah, that’s right, I said it! That was about to become a rape (were it not interrupted by someone else). The younger MC said "no" more than once but the older one (werewolf) wouldn’t stop. It doesn’t matter that the child was starting to like it, it was NONCONSENSUAL . And this happens more than once. Again, unless you want to tout this as a dark romance and slap some CWs on it, noncon isn’t sexy. Noncon isn’t okay. It doesn’t matter that she’s a werewolf and the little child is her “destined mate”. That’s bad. BAD WEREWOLF, GO TO YOUR BED, ALONE! 📏🐺
* To put the slightly less icky (but still plenty icky) icing on this Ick Cake 🎂 of a book, the principal (school’s authority figure) knows about and facilitates this student/teacher relationship. Now, the whole werewolf aspect is, of course, a fair reason. But again, the AGE GAP is never addressed which just makes it a whole lot of inappropriate!
* Now, for the icky cherry 🍒 on top of this extremely icky cake 🎂 (did you really think that was it?!)…Right near the end, because it wasn’t disgustingly obvious all through the book just how YOUNG the girl was, the older MC had to BREAK HER HYMEN. There aren’t enough puke emojis in the world to depict just how gross this is. 😭😭😭
Overall, I have just one word for this book: EWWWWWWW 🤮🤮🤮
There was so much wrong with the writing quality, the delivery of the plot, and (most of all) the whole concept and how poorly and indelicately it was handled. This story had some serious potential, imo, but the delivery was atrocious. 🤦♀️
As always, I tend to rate more critically than many lesfic readers, so YMMV. Definitely read other reviews.
May 8, 2023
I have very mixed feelings about this book. I did like the idea of the story very much, but I felt there were some major issues in the execution. Cait is a teacher at Monster High, a high school for monsters of all sorts, and Snow is a transfer student of 18. You fall right into the story where Cait, a centuries old werewolf, imprints on Snow. Both are confused and deal with it very differently. Furthermore, both are also part of a prophecy and neither of them is safe.
What I struggled with is the fact that a lot of info is given on various monsters that actually do not to play a big part in the story, whereas almost no information is given on the world they live in. For instance, almost at the end of the book you learn that humans and monsters live together in relative peace and the monsters don’t need to live in hiding. This type of general information is so very needed to become invested in a world and I felt I missed this kind of information. The characters also had a lot of potential with especially a beautiful sad backstory for Cait however, for some reason I did not really feel it. The biggest issue I had was right in the beginning, just after Cait imprinted on Snow. Cait’s wolf takes over and she loses control in her want for Snow. Snow, being much younger and clearly confused, says no to Cait and if they were not interrupted Cait would have used force in claiming her. I get that werewolves are primal beings, but this was more like reading a rape scene than a love scene. For a werewolf that professes eternal love and is so much older and more powerful this behavior was just too disturbing and it is hard to come back from that. Later, the balance becomes better.
This is a relative short book, and a lot is happening, which is why some of the events are almost over before they begin, and because of that a lot of things seemed too easy or rushed for me. I would have liked to see a couple of extra chapters. So, all in all, I liked the idea about the story but it was missing depth and I hope this will be better in the next book.
What I struggled with is the fact that a lot of info is given on various monsters that actually do not to play a big part in the story, whereas almost no information is given on the world they live in. For instance, almost at the end of the book you learn that humans and monsters live together in relative peace and the monsters don’t need to live in hiding. This type of general information is so very needed to become invested in a world and I felt I missed this kind of information. The characters also had a lot of potential with especially a beautiful sad backstory for Cait however, for some reason I did not really feel it. The biggest issue I had was right in the beginning, just after Cait imprinted on Snow. Cait’s wolf takes over and she loses control in her want for Snow. Snow, being much younger and clearly confused, says no to Cait and if they were not interrupted Cait would have used force in claiming her. I get that werewolves are primal beings, but this was more like reading a rape scene than a love scene. For a werewolf that professes eternal love and is so much older and more powerful this behavior was just too disturbing and it is hard to come back from that. Later, the balance becomes better.
This is a relative short book, and a lot is happening, which is why some of the events are almost over before they begin, and because of that a lot of things seemed too easy or rushed for me. I would have liked to see a couple of extra chapters. So, all in all, I liked the idea about the story but it was missing depth and I hope this will be better in the next book.
October 18, 2019
It was hella short but I liked it. ☺️👍
March 30, 2020
Reviews had me sketchy but I'm glad I went in. Maybe I wasn't so weirded out by the imprint thing because this is my favorite genre and I see this type of thing all the time in this genre. Werewolves seem to have the same theme. I Love it. Still waiting to imprint myself but until then, on to the next book.
June 24, 2019
This book has a few of my favorites all wrapped up in one. It was a great fast read and looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
April 11, 2020
So a teenage, highschool, shifter, urban fantasy lesbian romance I didn't expect. I admit to being surprised when after giving a few positive reviews to some gay and lesbian romances my inbox got flooded with all manner of alt-sexuality romances.
The author clearly states that all persons engaging in sex are over the age 18, so even though the MC is still in high school (it's her senior year) she is legal. I believe the author probably made that clear lest she suffer the fate of other romance writers and get kicked off Kindle for good.
Unlike a lot of hetero males, I do not particularly find lesbianism erotic. Most main stream lesbian porn is aimed at hetero males, only a few porn companies make porn that true lesbians find erotic (it's amazing what you will talk about during the midnight watch when deployed).
Now granted I admit to being ignorant of most of the gay culture having grown up in a small, very conservative town. I spent most of my adult life in the military, and while I did meet a few gay service people their numbers were not enough for me to say that I can understand the nuances of gay culture. So that being said, there may be some cultural or other aspects I may be missing.
I didn't particularly find the sex in this book erotic. Sex is frequent, graphic and flavored with the shifter premise.
I wouldn't have read this book if I hadn't received it for free. I will not read another book by this author unless I receive it for free, not because the author doesn't write well, but because what she writes is not really something that I would normally read.
The author clearly states that all persons engaging in sex are over the age 18, so even though the MC is still in high school (it's her senior year) she is legal. I believe the author probably made that clear lest she suffer the fate of other romance writers and get kicked off Kindle for good.
Unlike a lot of hetero males, I do not particularly find lesbianism erotic. Most main stream lesbian porn is aimed at hetero males, only a few porn companies make porn that true lesbians find erotic (it's amazing what you will talk about during the midnight watch when deployed).
Now granted I admit to being ignorant of most of the gay culture having grown up in a small, very conservative town. I spent most of my adult life in the military, and while I did meet a few gay service people their numbers were not enough for me to say that I can understand the nuances of gay culture. So that being said, there may be some cultural or other aspects I may be missing.
I didn't particularly find the sex in this book erotic. Sex is frequent, graphic and flavored with the shifter premise.
I wouldn't have read this book if I hadn't received it for free. I will not read another book by this author unless I receive it for free, not because the author doesn't write well, but because what she writes is not really something that I would normally read.
June 16, 2022
It was good for a paranormal, not great but definitely readable if you are bored.
There was just a whole lot of telling, I don’t really like pages of dialogues but thats really my personal thing.
There is a lot of heat between Cait and Snow, the sex scenes are good, and I am always up for soulmates!
If you are looking for a short paranormal Romance then this is it.
There was just a whole lot of telling, I don’t really like pages of dialogues but thats really my personal thing.
There is a lot of heat between Cait and Snow, the sex scenes are good, and I am always up for soulmates!
If you are looking for a short paranormal Romance then this is it.
August 16, 2019
Something is wrong here.
This book starts with a lovely young women, Snow Bennett - just 18, enrolling as a Senior in a high school for the paranormal. She has the ability to make ice as a weapon. In a century old prophecy she is called “the ice child”. At this high school is a 200 + year old werewolf, Cait Fallon, a homeroom and literature teacher. Cait is beautiful, looks 20, but has a dark past. In the same century old prophecy she is called “ the Protector”. Cait worked for Snow’s Grandmother up until the day Snow is born. Owing the old women a great debt, Fallon swears to protect the child, in the old women’s words “when the time came”. The women told Cait to live her life normally and that a day would come when Cait’s and her granddaughter’s paths would cross and Cait would be called upon to fulfill her promise. On the first day of classes Snow finds herself in Cait’s homeroom and her lit class. As Cait hands Snow a book their fingers touch, and in a flick Cait imprints on Snow. Cait’s wolf wants this young women for their mate.
That’s the grown up version -
This is how it reads in the book -
So 18 year old Snow enrolls in Monster High where she meets her homeroom teacher, Cait, a 200+ year old lesbian werewolf. The old lesbian wolf imprints on the young “girl” and spends the rest of the book trying to have sex with her. It just starts to feel creepy as the student being pursed for sex by her much older teacher is called “the girl” 137 times in the book. Teachers should not be having sex with girls in any genre. At a minimum, Snow should be called a “young women” and Cait should have quit her job. I just couldn’t get past it. Every time I read the word girl, I thought the teacher should be arrested. When they smiled at each other in class, I wanted to call a cop.
Shifter books are my favorite genre, and I bought all four books in this series in anticipation, but I can’t recommend them. I read the second one and it’s the same. These read like they should still be on Wattpad and need a wise, good editor.
This book starts with a lovely young women, Snow Bennett - just 18, enrolling as a Senior in a high school for the paranormal. She has the ability to make ice as a weapon. In a century old prophecy she is called “the ice child”. At this high school is a 200 + year old werewolf, Cait Fallon, a homeroom and literature teacher. Cait is beautiful, looks 20, but has a dark past. In the same century old prophecy she is called “ the Protector”. Cait worked for Snow’s Grandmother up until the day Snow is born. Owing the old women a great debt, Fallon swears to protect the child, in the old women’s words “when the time came”. The women told Cait to live her life normally and that a day would come when Cait’s and her granddaughter’s paths would cross and Cait would be called upon to fulfill her promise. On the first day of classes Snow finds herself in Cait’s homeroom and her lit class. As Cait hands Snow a book their fingers touch, and in a flick Cait imprints on Snow. Cait’s wolf wants this young women for their mate.
That’s the grown up version -
This is how it reads in the book -
So 18 year old Snow enrolls in Monster High where she meets her homeroom teacher, Cait, a 200+ year old lesbian werewolf. The old lesbian wolf imprints on the young “girl” and spends the rest of the book trying to have sex with her. It just starts to feel creepy as the student being pursed for sex by her much older teacher is called “the girl” 137 times in the book. Teachers should not be having sex with girls in any genre. At a minimum, Snow should be called a “young women” and Cait should have quit her job. I just couldn’t get past it. Every time I read the word girl, I thought the teacher should be arrested. When they smiled at each other in class, I wanted to call a cop.
Shifter books are my favorite genre, and I bought all four books in this series in anticipation, but I can’t recommend them. I read the second one and it’s the same. These read like they should still be on Wattpad and need a wise, good editor.
August 19, 2016
Excited
I was very pleased with this story and have found a new author to follow. The story was well written and fast paced, the characters are strong (which I love) and the concept of the Monster High School and what it's multi species students can get into is intriguing. If you like paranormal romances I'm sure you'll enjoy this series.
I was very pleased with this story and have found a new author to follow. The story was well written and fast paced, the characters are strong (which I love) and the concept of the Monster High School and what it's multi species students can get into is intriguing. If you like paranormal romances I'm sure you'll enjoy this series.
April 16, 2020
The story revolves around Snow, an eighteen year old student at a school for monsters. Snow is the Ice Child and, if a little known prophecy is to be believed, she and the werewolf who is to be her protector will create a lasting peace between monsters and humans. So far, so good.
When Snow arrives at the school, she finds her homeroom teacher is a very attractive woman who ‘looks no more than twenty’ and it all kind of falls down for me from that point.
The teacher, Cait, is a werewolf and although Snow has no idea about the prophecy, she has eyes and can’t ignore her attraction to the, as it turns out, 200 year old Cait.
The problem for me, story-wise is terribly simple. Even if Snow can’t ignore her feelings, her teacher must. And yet she doesn’t. Actually, if anyone acts like a horny teenager, it’s Cait.
Aside from the uneven balance of power in the relationship, the most troubling thing is that Cait doesn’t seem to understand the word ‘no’.
During their first encounter, Snow says, ‘No’, ‘Stop’, ‘Wait’, and words to that effect no fewer than four times before eventually surrendering to Cait’s desire. No. Not happy with that.
Probably because the relationship troubled me, some of the story elements fell rather flat. The sexy bits felt heavy-handed and uncomfortable. Although Snow is in peril throughout much of the story, either because of the strength of Cait’s feelings for her, or because of the dark bloods (vampires) who threaten her, I found it hard to think of her as anything other than a silly girl. This, I think, came down to Snow’s being referred to as a ‘girl’ rather than a ‘woman', throughout the story. Again, uncomfortable.
Sadly, there were also multiple errors in the text. Not being picky, but when there are grammatical issues, incorrect punctuations (ie. incorrect use of question marks) misspellings, etc, it makes the actual reading of a book rather challenging because you keep getting dragged out of the story in order to interpret the writing.
Examples of what I’m talking about:
'The scene in which they walked into was one unique to their type of school.'
Chapter One, Blood Bound by Idella Breen
The word ‘redhead’ comes up a lot, but as two words.
‘“Cait, I’m busy at them moment. Can you come back later?”’
Chapter Two, Blood Bound by Idella Breen
’”You always did come from a proud people. The Fallon’s were a great clan…”’
Chapter Two, Blood Bound by Idella Breen
No apostrophe needed for a family name as a collective. This mistake comes up again and again, particularly in the singing scenes.
Extraneous apostrophes and slips in tense.
‘Remus was right. How was she going to handle this if it was so strong? This need to claim what was her’s. Next thing she’d know, she’ll be peeing on Snow to mark her territory. Cait shuddered at the thought.’
Chapter Two, Blood Bound by Idella Breen
Then and Than are not interchangeable.
‘“You damn were beast. You have way too much strength and energy then you know what to do with.”'
Chapter Four, Blood Bound by Idella Breen
A few uses of ‘alway' that should be ‘always'. The story is peppered liberally with the word ‘really’ but a particular bug-bear for me is - 'off of'. If I have to read the words ‘off of’ meaning ‘off’ once more, I think I’ll cry.
If you can look beyond the editing issues and the uncomfortable power balance, this might be for you.
When Snow arrives at the school, she finds her homeroom teacher is a very attractive woman who ‘looks no more than twenty’ and it all kind of falls down for me from that point.
The teacher, Cait, is a werewolf and although Snow has no idea about the prophecy, she has eyes and can’t ignore her attraction to the, as it turns out, 200 year old Cait.
The problem for me, story-wise is terribly simple. Even if Snow can’t ignore her feelings, her teacher must. And yet she doesn’t. Actually, if anyone acts like a horny teenager, it’s Cait.
Aside from the uneven balance of power in the relationship, the most troubling thing is that Cait doesn’t seem to understand the word ‘no’.
During their first encounter, Snow says, ‘No’, ‘Stop’, ‘Wait’, and words to that effect no fewer than four times before eventually surrendering to Cait’s desire. No. Not happy with that.
Probably because the relationship troubled me, some of the story elements fell rather flat. The sexy bits felt heavy-handed and uncomfortable. Although Snow is in peril throughout much of the story, either because of the strength of Cait’s feelings for her, or because of the dark bloods (vampires) who threaten her, I found it hard to think of her as anything other than a silly girl. This, I think, came down to Snow’s being referred to as a ‘girl’ rather than a ‘woman', throughout the story. Again, uncomfortable.
Sadly, there were also multiple errors in the text. Not being picky, but when there are grammatical issues, incorrect punctuations (ie. incorrect use of question marks) misspellings, etc, it makes the actual reading of a book rather challenging because you keep getting dragged out of the story in order to interpret the writing.
Examples of what I’m talking about:
'The scene in which they walked into was one unique to their type of school.'
Chapter One, Blood Bound by Idella Breen
The word ‘redhead’ comes up a lot, but as two words.
‘“Cait, I’m busy at them moment. Can you come back later?”’
Chapter Two, Blood Bound by Idella Breen
’”You always did come from a proud people. The Fallon’s were a great clan…”’
Chapter Two, Blood Bound by Idella Breen
No apostrophe needed for a family name as a collective. This mistake comes up again and again, particularly in the singing scenes.
Extraneous apostrophes and slips in tense.
‘Remus was right. How was she going to handle this if it was so strong? This need to claim what was her’s. Next thing she’d know, she’ll be peeing on Snow to mark her territory. Cait shuddered at the thought.’
Chapter Two, Blood Bound by Idella Breen
Then and Than are not interchangeable.
‘“You damn were beast. You have way too much strength and energy then you know what to do with.”'
Chapter Four, Blood Bound by Idella Breen
A few uses of ‘alway' that should be ‘always'. The story is peppered liberally with the word ‘really’ but a particular bug-bear for me is - 'off of'. If I have to read the words ‘off of’ meaning ‘off’ once more, I think I’ll cry.
If you can look beyond the editing issues and the uncomfortable power balance, this might be for you.
September 17, 2024
dnf
I recieved this book for free as part of a promotion on amazon a month or two before i write this review.
Now a lot of the things im about to say, i could forgive if it was a standalone book....but its not, its a 4 book series...So i have to wonder how a book like this can be so successful. I really do.
I went in to this book completely blind, i have to admit, and the synopsis left things fairly vague, so i didn't quite know what to expect.
Lo and behold, its a typical paranormal book with "Alphas" and "Omegas" and all that BS that so plagues this catagory, among other things. That, however, is not my main gripe with this book. Pacing is.
Let me paint the picture - The book starts off rather clumsily, from the perspective of the "Main character"s teachers pov. Things are fairly uneventful for a while and then when they brush hands accidentally, the teacher basically turns in to a sexual predator in the space of only a few hours. By 30% of the way through the book, Claire, the teacher, has barged in to the "Main character"s house and basically bullied he guests out. She then basically rapes the main character before being forced to stop when other people arrive and pull her away.
The "Main character" is then told she need to kiss her teacher, Claire, because its part of some shifter mating bond. At this point, these two characters have had nothing but a professional teacher/student relationship for the span of only a few hours, and two classes and yet suddenly shes being told to kiss this woman she barely knows, a woman who had basically just raped her.
And she does.....like....huh?????
Right after that, the "Main character" CUDDLES UP TO CLAIRE. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND. Shes basically told that its a shifter mating bond and shes going to need to accept it, or Claire will die within a year, and if she doesnt 100% mean it when she accepts, Claires instincts will cause her to eat her.
I stopped reading when the main character FEKKIN YAWNED as she was being told this!!!! I realise it was probably because she was tired, but its written in such a way that implies she was BORED...Right after basically being raped, and having this womans feelings thrust on her without her consent or even knowledge, after beating up her house guest, and this person is HER TEACHER whom she has had nothing but a professional relationship with up until this point. Until this point, its not even revealed she finds her attractive!!!
Now....I might have accepted this blistering pace, and some of these flaws, considering how short the book is, and if it had been a standalone book....but it is not. I might have accepted it, had Claire been another student and they became fast friends and did many things together in their first day of school together. But its not like that. It especially does not help that the "Main character" has barely said more than 50 words by this point in the book, 1/3rd of the way through. You see why im putting "Main character" in parenthasis? Not only has Claire had more of the spotlight which has been mostly exposition dumps...Snow, the "main character", basically has the personality and motivations of a bit of drift wood. She has none.
Utterly, Utterly terrible book. Avoid.
I recieved this book for free as part of a promotion on amazon a month or two before i write this review.
Now a lot of the things im about to say, i could forgive if it was a standalone book....but its not, its a 4 book series...So i have to wonder how a book like this can be so successful. I really do.
I went in to this book completely blind, i have to admit, and the synopsis left things fairly vague, so i didn't quite know what to expect.
Lo and behold, its a typical paranormal book with "Alphas" and "Omegas" and all that BS that so plagues this catagory, among other things. That, however, is not my main gripe with this book. Pacing is.
Let me paint the picture - The book starts off rather clumsily, from the perspective of the "Main character"s teachers pov. Things are fairly uneventful for a while and then when they brush hands accidentally, the teacher basically turns in to a sexual predator in the space of only a few hours. By 30% of the way through the book, Claire, the teacher, has barged in to the "Main character"s house and basically bullied he guests out. She then basically rapes the main character before being forced to stop when other people arrive and pull her away.
The "Main character" is then told she need to kiss her teacher, Claire, because its part of some shifter mating bond. At this point, these two characters have had nothing but a professional teacher/student relationship for the span of only a few hours, and two classes and yet suddenly shes being told to kiss this woman she barely knows, a woman who had basically just raped her.
And she does.....like....huh?????
Right after that, the "Main character" CUDDLES UP TO CLAIRE. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND. Shes basically told that its a shifter mating bond and shes going to need to accept it, or Claire will die within a year, and if she doesnt 100% mean it when she accepts, Claires instincts will cause her to eat her.
I stopped reading when the main character FEKKIN YAWNED as she was being told this!!!! I realise it was probably because she was tired, but its written in such a way that implies she was BORED...Right after basically being raped, and having this womans feelings thrust on her without her consent or even knowledge, after beating up her house guest, and this person is HER TEACHER whom she has had nothing but a professional relationship with up until this point. Until this point, its not even revealed she finds her attractive!!!
Now....I might have accepted this blistering pace, and some of these flaws, considering how short the book is, and if it had been a standalone book....but it is not. I might have accepted it, had Claire been another student and they became fast friends and did many things together in their first day of school together. But its not like that. It especially does not help that the "Main character" has barely said more than 50 words by this point in the book, 1/3rd of the way through. You see why im putting "Main character" in parenthasis? Not only has Claire had more of the spotlight which has been mostly exposition dumps...Snow, the "main character", basically has the personality and motivations of a bit of drift wood. She has none.
Utterly, Utterly terrible book. Avoid.
May 7, 2021
Ok 3* for effort.
I was not bad, but it was not that great either.
I started to read and the autor just dived right in, no introductions of story, characters of races or anything, so I was a little dissoriented when terms like (tengu, rokurokubi or Inu Youkai) were thrown around as if I shuld just know what the hell they mean... I didn't and I had the strongest urge to stop reading so I could google it and learn more. :D
I think the story had big potential and could've been really good, but for me there was too much errors, awkwarly phrased sentences and the whole 3dr person POV using terms like (the girl, the redhead, the werewolf, the btunette, the woman) is just not my favourite. It screamed FanFic with the way it was written.
Than there was the imprint thing, which by the way in was described felt like it was borrowed from Twilling with some extra disturbing bits thrown on top of it. I was not into it at all and the idea of an Omega overseeing the mating ritual (just being there or watching you have sex) made me feel kind off iffy. Also the wolwes are mentioned to be the size of a "monster trucks" so good luck being bitten by a wolf that size during the mating , if you manage to survive it that is, apparently not everyone does and it is not pretty way to die either. It just felt a little over the top.
But if you are feeling like reading someting short, paranormal and are not too picky about books, this minght just be a story for you.
I was not bad, but it was not that great either.
I started to read and the autor just dived right in, no introductions of story, characters of races or anything, so I was a little dissoriented when terms like (tengu, rokurokubi or Inu Youkai) were thrown around as if I shuld just know what the hell they mean... I didn't and I had the strongest urge to stop reading so I could google it and learn more. :D
I think the story had big potential and could've been really good, but for me there was too much errors, awkwarly phrased sentences and the whole 3dr person POV using terms like (the girl, the redhead, the werewolf, the btunette, the woman) is just not my favourite. It screamed FanFic with the way it was written.
Than there was the imprint thing, which by the way in was described felt like it was borrowed from Twilling with some extra disturbing bits thrown on top of it. I was not into it at all and the idea of an Omega overseeing the mating ritual (just being there or watching you have sex) made me feel kind off iffy. Also the wolwes are mentioned to be the size of a "monster trucks" so good luck being bitten by a wolf that size during the mating , if you manage to survive it that is, apparently not everyone does and it is not pretty way to die either. It just felt a little over the top.
But if you are feeling like reading someting short, paranormal and are not too picky about books, this minght just be a story for you.
Read
August 29, 2018Didn't read far enough to be comfortable giving a rating but some info: Cait is a werewolf (don't know why that is not in the description it is not like we don't find out quickly.) and it has the usual werewolf hierarchic nonsense (here including omega wolves who can calm others, cait is an alpha of course.) It is a soulmate/imprinting romance if you don't know what that means basically magic powered instant love (how do their bonds apply to non werewolves anyway?) + (in the case of werewolves) often ultra possessiveness and protectiveness and insane levels of jealousy, repeated utterances of the word "mine", and in some cases, including this, trouble to control your animal side. I haven't read far enough to tell how bad it gets but this kind of romances are just not my thing. Not a fan of instant love, driving it up to eleven with an instant magical bond doesn't make it better. Not a fan of possessiveness and the werewolf explanation doesn't lessen my dislike (same for the insane jealousy and self control trouble). Not a fan of the hierarchy nonsense.
But if that is your kind of romance you might like it. It has a wide variety of fantasy species including harpies, tengus and the japanese monster that has a super long neck. I don't know whether anything interesting is done with them since i did not finish but it isn't a vamp and wolf only book.
But if that is your kind of romance you might like it. It has a wide variety of fantasy species including harpies, tengus and the japanese monster that has a super long neck. I don't know whether anything interesting is done with them since i did not finish but it isn't a vamp and wolf only book.
June 15, 2019
I really cannot find much good to say about this book.
Monster schools - really? Good luck with the insurance company,
I really hate what we have done to the werewolf legend (and the vampire one for that matter). The werewolf of legend is a solitary monster who monthly is driven to feed on human flesh. Note the word SOLITARY. They do not have packs and certainly do not have some weird hierarchy mage of Greek letters like some kind of college club (kind of like the Europeans did with demons giving them a hierarchy of princes, earls, dukes etc much like their social structure). Tame werewolves and sparkling vampires, I guess in our politically correct society we cannot call a monster a monster, Vampire or werewolf culture is so superior.
Alpha werewolf - the whole concept is pathetic - I hate it
Imprinting? As one of the other reviewers has commented, it is insta love - period. This relationship is borderline abusive.
There is so much better in the realm of lesbian fiction, do not waste your time on this garbage, if you want this pick up a book by Mia Archer.
Monster schools - really? Good luck with the insurance company,
I really hate what we have done to the werewolf legend (and the vampire one for that matter). The werewolf of legend is a solitary monster who monthly is driven to feed on human flesh. Note the word SOLITARY. They do not have packs and certainly do not have some weird hierarchy mage of Greek letters like some kind of college club (kind of like the Europeans did with demons giving them a hierarchy of princes, earls, dukes etc much like their social structure). Tame werewolves and sparkling vampires, I guess in our politically correct society we cannot call a monster a monster, Vampire or werewolf culture is so superior.
Alpha werewolf - the whole concept is pathetic - I hate it
Imprinting? As one of the other reviewers has commented, it is insta love - period. This relationship is borderline abusive.
There is so much better in the realm of lesbian fiction, do not waste your time on this garbage, if you want this pick up a book by Mia Archer.
May 26, 2021
Blood Bound
By Idella Breen
Not sure how to review this book. The storyline was unique and it was well-written. I just didn't care for the main character Snow. Cait I really liked though. Especially once her background was fully shared. Cait just seemed more real and believable. Snow not so much.
I guess most of my trepidation is because it's my first F/F book. Definitely not for me in the future.
By Idella Breen
Not sure how to review this book. The storyline was unique and it was well-written. I just didn't care for the main character Snow. Cait I really liked though. Especially once her background was fully shared. Cait just seemed more real and believable. Snow not so much.
I guess most of my trepidation is because it's my first F/F book. Definitely not for me in the future.
August 28, 2025
2,75/5
Was this book good?no
Did I enjoyed it?for some reasons I can't think of,yeah actually.
So this book has some grammar mistakes and besides that,a lot of information that comes from other characters, nothing interesting happens in like 80% of the book but stories tellings ,information dumped and some romance.
But even so I kinda enjoyed it like I said,probably because it was pretty short ,and because i could feel the chemistry between them .
Was this book good?no
Did I enjoyed it?for some reasons I can't think of,yeah actually.
So this book has some grammar mistakes and besides that,a lot of information that comes from other characters, nothing interesting happens in like 80% of the book but stories tellings ,information dumped and some romance.
But even so I kinda enjoyed it like I said,probably because it was pretty short ,and because i could feel the chemistry between them .
August 8, 2021
This was good for a quick read. The story moved well, there were some real emotions, and it had a bit of sex. I was troubled by the lack of the characters trouble over the massive age gap. Of all the reasons given by Cait to push back on being blood bound that wasn’t really one of them. Maybe monsters are just mature at 18, but it rubbed me the wrong way.
October 15, 2021
A very nice story! I love a good wolf-shifter, and Cait, the last Fallon, a wolf without heart, is a fantastic one. Her story was heartbreaking! A classic sexy wolf story about finding love, full of monsters, myths, crow demons, harpies, and ice powers, among other things, and of course, some evil torturous vampires. My first by the author but I look forward to another.
March 19, 2018
I couldn’t get into this book. Power imbalance relationships don’t appeal to me, and this book starts of with a teacher/student romance. If you like those, try this book. If you don’t, skip this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 13, 2019
A werewolf and snow queen?!
A promise before the child was born and a protected bond exists between the two. A betrayal has kept one of them without a soul/heart. Follow the two to find out if they get it back. Enjoy!
A promise before the child was born and a protected bond exists between the two. A betrayal has kept one of them without a soul/heart. Follow the two to find out if they get it back. Enjoy!
May 30, 2020
Loved it.
This book was right up my street I love werewolf stories. Great storyline and characters were fantastic and engaging keeping me engrossed from the very first page. I read this book in a day.
This book was right up my street I love werewolf stories. Great storyline and characters were fantastic and engaging keeping me engrossed from the very first page. I read this book in a day.
June 2, 2021
Oh well.. The very first book with female to female romance that I read and I didn't like it. And believe me, I really wanted to like it. But it felt like a bad mixture of "monster high" and the awful consept of imprinting we were introduced to in "Twilight".
June 15, 2019
Just amazing!!!
March 13, 2020
Awesome story. Great pace wonderful story weaving.
March 17, 2020
Good Book.
If you enjoy paranormal romance, then this book will live up to your expectations. Read it to find out for yourself! You won't be disappointed, I swear!
If you enjoy paranormal romance, then this book will live up to your expectations. Read it to find out for yourself! You won't be disappointed, I swear!
April 17, 2020
This was just not for me. There was not any time to know the characters. Interesting lore but just not enough.
February 17, 2021
Grins
Ok I really enjoyed reading this book. And I am looking forward to the next one in the series. As always, take a chance. You just might be surprised !!!
Ok I really enjoyed reading this book. And I am looking forward to the next one in the series. As always, take a chance. You just might be surprised !!!
February 4, 2022
awwooooo I liked this werewolf story!
August 14, 2022
Best Age gap sapphic with paranormal mcs.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews