Review

Heart of Darkness is the first in the new Bound by Magick series about witches.  While at first confusing, the novel sharpens quickly and the world Lauren Dane creates becomes interesting.  The love story is simultaneously sweet and sexy.  Paranormal readers who can stick through the first four chapters will likely enjoy this new series.

Meriel is our heroine and is next in line to lead her powerful witch coven, Clan Owen.  Dominic is an untrained witch who is unaligned with any coven, called outclan in the book, but who is hacking into Clan Owen’s power grid.  Meriel is sent to force Dominic to either nominally join the coven or get out of town but when they meet, Meriel instantly realizes Dominic is her “bond-mate.”  But sinister mages and corrupted witches are syphoning the power of unsuspecting witches and drag Meriel and Dominic into danger.  The plot is exceedingly slow in the first four chapters and the world is slightly confusing, too, but stick with it and you’ll be rewarded.

Meriel takes her leadership role very seriously but is also sarcastic and sassy.  If you are irritated by the new urban romance heroine full of sassy one-liners then Meriel will drive you crazy but I thought she was entertaining.  I also enjoyed the slight twist that Meriel had the power and leadership in the book and had to introduce her world to Dominic.  Furthermore, Meriel needs the “ascension” ceremony of binding her and Dominic together in order to attain her full powers but she refuses to force Dominic to bond with her without him fully understanding her world.  I think this was a fresh take on so many paranormals where the man is always finding his “life-mate” or “breed-mate” or fill-in-the-blank.  Meriel was the perfect take charge heroine who was also sexy and fun—the quintessential modern heroine.

Dominic is a reformed bad boy who simply wants to run his club, Heart of Darkness (hence the novel’s title) but needs to borrow the local coven’s power to safeguard it.  Dominic is happy with his many flavors-of-the-month but is blown away by the magical and sexy Meriel when they first meet.  Dominic has untapped magical powers and is ignorant about witch covens but cannot deny his attraction to Meriel.  Dominic was an interesting hero in that he was the vulnerable one learning about himself, Meriel and the bond they share.  I adored how Dane portrayed him as being grouchy about his vulnerabilities and thus pushing Meriel away but then quickly realizing his mistake and romantically apologizing to Meriel.  Dominic is a yummy hero readers will fall in love with along with Meriel.

Dominic and Meriel’s relationship was unique in romance novels because they didn’t have big misunderstandings and committed to each other fairly early on in the novel.  I loved how they were mature in their decision making and often apologized to each other and really looked out for the each other.  Think of Meriel and Dominic like that couple in your own life who seem just PERFECT to and for each other.  I loved their relationship and thought it both sweet and sexy.  Meriel and Dominic are compatible both in and out of bed and that made this steamy read wonderful. 

Though Dominic and Meriel’s relationship is the main one in Heart of Darkness, it’s just one of many.  The secondary characters relationships with the two leads and each other add great depth to the novel.  Cautionary word though, if you can’t stand snarky friendships with cultural references á la JR Ward, then you won’t like the characters here but I thought them charming.
Overall, I thought Heart of Darkness started slowly but then morphed into a good read.  In fact, I will definitely read the next Bound by Magick novel. Isn’t that the best recommendation for a book?  

Reviewed by Janine