Of Beasts and Bonds Death and Destiny Trilogy #2
Paranormal/Fantasy Romance
Kuumba Publishing
August 18, 2016
406
Reviewed by: Linda Tonis
This is the second book in the series and as much as I loved the first one, I found this one difficult to get through. The book was very slow moving, and at times I found myself skipping sections. There are so many characters and the story jumps from place to place.
Sanura and Assefa have gone through a partial hand-fasting, but she refuses to go through with the final part where she is bitten and totally bonded to him. Since her father’s death, she found that part of his jaguar was given to her and if she bonds fully with Assefa, she will be giving up that part of her father. She has had a difficult time coping with his death and only recently discovered that he had made a bargain with a god his life for the life of his child when the time came.
Sanura is the fire witch of legend and Assefa is the Mngwa, the were-cat of legend who, with his mate, would stop Mami Wata’s beasts and the Day of Serpents. Unfortunately, since she is unwilling to go through with the full bonding, their powers are not at full strength. Assefa longs to take Sanura as his mate in total, but is willing to take what he can get for now. Mami Wata is determined to put an end to the duo.
There are others who want to end the relationship between Sanura and Assefa, one of whom is the High Priestesses’ son Gregory Chambers who has wanted Sanura for a very long time. He also wants his place on the Council that would go to Assefa once he and Sanura are bonded.
I looked forward to this book after reading book one, but was disappointed. The story gets buried in so many story lines and so many characters that for me it was hard to keep up. I have to say that this is my opinion, and I seem to be in the minority when it comes to my opinion. Like with every review, you need to decide if this is a genre you love, mythology, fantasy and Western African Lore. Hopefully book three will answer all questions and bring the series to a successful conclusion.