Fifth in the Sisters of the Heart paranormal romance series and revolving around a self-made family of six women who band together in Sea Haven, California. (This is a spin-off series from Sea Haven and fourteenth in the overall series.) The couple focus is on Lissa Piner and Casimir Prakenskii.

It's been five years since the women bought the farm. No, really, they bought a farm that they all help work.

My Take
It's a release for both Lissa and Casimir, that each sees through the mask and into their true selves. Feehan uses third person global subjective point-of-view with the primary perspectives coming from Lissa, Casimir, and Luigi. Other minor characters do chime in with their own thoughts and emotions.

Feehan does create interesting stories, and then she wrecks them with the overly melodramatic scenes and those excessively loathsome characters she loves to create. Oh, that's not fair. Well, the characters are loathsome with a brutality that will make you sick, but I'm whining about the paragraphs that made no sense continuity-wise, the expression of the story which is crude with restricted character development, and it's getting so tedious with the same routine, the same insta-love, and all the sex. It's sex, sex, sex. Not that I'm against sex, but oy...

And yet, I do like the "sisters", and I don't understand why Lissa thinks her big secret will put them off. Please. How is her great tragedy so different from theirs? Why wouldn't they be supportive of her? The women have supported each other throughout. As for the boys, I do like the protective strength of those brothers *grin*, even if they are too macho for words.

If you're looking for action without fear, you'll find it here with a fast-slow pace that drove me nuts with that storyline jumping from character to character each of whom has their particular issues, and all that sex that simply slows it down. I know. I was bored. What can I say?

A few bits of foreshadowing introduce Bound Together, 6, which should end the Sisters of the Heart series with Viktor and Blythe's story.

The Story
It's been years since Casimir saw his brothers...and he's willing to do this one favor for them: protect Lissa. A woman who needs no protection.

A woman with her own mission of revenge, hiding her true purpose under the guise of a glass blower traveling to clients who wish to commission her work.

The Characters
Lissa Piner is a world-renowned glass artist who has banded together with five other women, including Blythe Daniels, a massage therapist; the autistic, urchin diving Rikki Sittmore (a Water gift), who is married to Lev Prakenskii (Water Bound, 1); Judith, who is an artist married to Stefan Prakenskii, a gallery owner, who runs when she beckons (Spirit Bound, 2); Airiana (an Air gift) is an artist who recently married Maxim Prakenskii (Air Bound, 3) who are adopting four children, including the mischievous Benito, Lucia, Nicia, and Siena); and, Lexi, the youngest, who has fallen in love with Gavriil Prakenskii (Earth Bound , 4).

Casimir Prakenskii has a Fire gift and has been a premier elite assassin since his fifteenth birthday. He is currently working as a bodyguard, Tomasso Dal Porto, on Luigi's estate.

Viktor Prakenskii is the oldest brother and has spent five years in deep undercover with the eighteen men who survived Sorbacov's schools. Blythe is his wife...only she's not so sure. Each Prakenskii had a psychic gift they kept hidden.

Jackson Deveau is hated by Shackler-Gratsos and is married to Elle Drake (Hidden Currents, 7). Another sister, Joely Drake, is married to Ilya Prakenskii (Turbulent Sea, 6).

Uncle Luigi's estate is...
...in Italy. Luigi Abbracciabene retired years ago from being the family enforcer due to multiple sclerosis. Angeline is his hated wife, Aldo's sister, and they have three sons. Arturo, a bodyguard, has been with Luigi for years. More security includes Raimondo and the mean Enzo. Alberto is the crazy head gardener, angry at Tito.

Lissa was born Giacinta Abbracciabene, the daughter of Marcello and Elisabeta Abbracciabene, a small mob family living in Ferrara allied with the stronger Porcellis.

The Porcelli famiglia is...
...a major crime family in Italy, now headed by Aldo Porcelli. Lydia Sartini is Aldo's mistress. Cosmos Agosto was the dog handler hired by the Abbracciabenes. Carlotta is Cosmos' beautiful model wife.

A hotel in Italy wants...
...Lissa to create unique chandeliers for them. Mariana Loria is the manager.

The Krasnyy Drakon Hotel, St Petersburg, Russia, is...
...partly owned by Kostya Sorbacov (a behind-the-scenes power who had murdered the Prakenskiis' parents and forced the children into brutal training) and his son, Uri (intending to run for president, Uri has put out a hit on all the "students" to erase the Sorbacov legacy). They wish to hire Lissa to create unique lighting for them.

Patrice Lungren, Friedrich Bauer, and Steve Johnson are undercover. Sophie Rigoli is a famous Italian designer. Father Lazzaro is a convenient priest.

Ivan Belsky is a weasel for the Russian mob who sells secrets and information. Borya Polzin is his partner (who enjoys killing) and had come out of the same school as Casimir. Evan Shackler-Gratsos is a billionaire who runs a human trafficking operation and is the international president of a motorcycle club called the Swords.

The Cover and Title
The cover is rather scary with the dark-eyed, dark-mouthed, black-clad Casimir, his body turned away from us but his face looking back, and it feels as if he's assessing how he'll kill the viewer! In the background is a choppy blue, green, and yellow sea with a lurid reddish-orange sky with multiple bolts of yellow lightning touching down. The author's name, in white, starts at Casimir's shoulder with the title in a pale yellow with a black background immediately below it. Under this is the series information in a darker orange with a white info blurb at the very bottom, orange flames licking at the text.

The title refers to Lissa and Casimir, who are Fire Bound.

It started good, but then it turned bad. Too much violence and sex. It felt repetitive. I didn't really have a connection with Lissa.

Finished it. Didn't like it much, especially after the violent horrible rape scene of a woman (not the MC). It was awful and not necessary to be so graphically included. Later, there were two entire chapters of sex scenes, which I skipped. Then it ended in Russia or someplace, instead of a reunion at the farm. So I felt let down about that. All in all, a disappointing read that I wish I had skipped.

Ms. Feehan has made yet another book I loved. I love that she continued the Sea Haven books with a sister series. I can only hope that we get to see more after the next book which could be the last. There's a lot that happens in this book! Betrayal, that I honestly expected, and lot and lots of heat ;).

Book 5 Sea Haven ‘Sisters of the Heart’ Fire bound by Christine Feehan.
I won’t lie it was difficult rating this book. It had great parts but it took a long to time to finish. I started in September last year, almost 6 months. I did read this as paperback which I think I do struggle to read now as I primarily read in kindle, I’m dyslexic and I find open dyslexic which makes a massive difference in my reading time and my ability to concentrate.
This book is about Lissa or Giacinta that is a local artist in Sea Haven and was invited by hotels in other countries to design art for them. But she’s actually a trained assassin that is on a vengeance path to kill people responsible for her parents death but she doesn’t realise she should be looking closer to Italian family.
Casimir is a Prakenskii also trained as a ghost assassin, all his brothers were stolen and his parents were killed and he’s finally closed and In a position to kill the Russian family that are responsible.
This one is slow to be honest but in parts picks up quickly and especially to end of book story really gets going.
Don’t know whether Christine Feehan losing her touch which will gut me because I’ve been a long standing fan since first Carpathian/Ghostwalkers/Drake sisters.

wow...just wow.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sea Haven novels returns to the circle of the six sisters of the heart, bound by the elements—and to one who possesses the power to inflame the most dangerous passions of all.

Flame-haired Lissa Piner is a skilled glass blower whose delicate gift conceals a burning inner strength that can destroy as exquisitely as it can create. Commissioned to design chandeliers for a string of luxury hotels, her remarkable skills have taken her to Italy. But Lissa’s real mission there is a secret. For her entire life has been a lie, leading to a chance to avenge a terrible wrong.

Enlisted as her bodyguard is Casmir Prakenskii, a trained assassin living off the grid. In Lissa, he sees a kindred spirit—something unexpected and wicked, mysterious and sensual. But more than desire is about to bring them together: because both of their pasts cry out for revenge. And for two people with this many secrets, this much passion, and this many enemies, someone is bound to get burned.

Rating: 3/5 Penguins
Quick Reasons: a good amount of action/adventure; this wasn't all sex, which I'm celebrating!; I'm not sure I believed the romance, regardless (maybe I'm just more cynical than I used to be?); stubborn, sassy characters; the banter was lively and fun; this is much more like the Feehan I used to adore

HALLELUJAH, for this book Feehan seems to be much more like the writer I used to adore! I mean, yeah, this still got only a 3-penguin rating from me...but GUYS! GUYS, this book wasn't just sex scenes! This book didn't only take place in the bedroom! It might seem like a little thing to celebrate, but I'm celebrating it anyway, because I can. You're just going to have to deal.

She was bound to fire. Inside, deep, where it mattered, at her very core, there was nothing cool and collected about her.

So let's get into this, yes? I've always had a soft spot for Feehan's Sea Haven characters. I think I started my obsession with one of the Drake sister novels--there's just something fun and whimsical about the magical realism in these books, I guess. Although honestly, this one? Didn't really focus on the Sisters of the Heart.... and I'm slightly disappointed with that, thinking about it now. Lissa, instead, spends the entire book AWAY from Sea Haven--and her chosen family--and instead the focus is upon her. Overcoming the demons of the past, figuring out the mysteries of things she never thought to question before, the budding romance with Casimir. You get what I'm driving at here, yes? And we didn't even get much of THEIR powers, honestly. Casimir loses control all of ONCE, and sets a building on fire....but aside from that, the magical realism in this? Falls very, very flat overall.

Now, don't get me wrong--there is action and adventure in this book. But...again, even then the writing is a BIT sub-par compared to the action/adventure scenes of books prior to this. While there's a lot of fighting the bad guys, overcoming their struggles, etc... I feel like we only got a very small glimpse into this world, and this couple.

In fact, the romance itself seems flat to me. I'm not entirely sure I bought it completely. It feels like lately, Feehan has stopped trying to write up a romance realistically--with the fun arguments, and the entertaining drama, and the lively banter--and instead has been crafting more "insta-love." Which, ICK?! What happened to our feisty characters who "fought" the romance? HELL, what happened to LISSA in this?! One second she's snarling, claiming she'll never ever let a Prakenskii brother brand her like the others have done to her "sisters"........and the next, she's doing exactly that very thing. What? I miss the badass characters who stood up for themselves, who didn't immediately swoon at the sight of their destined partners, who put up a bit of a fight. The loves Feehan's been crafting lately? Flat. And boring. And predictable, all things considered.

"You made my heart beat again, Giacinta. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's the truth. I had nothing left."

So... while I was entertained, and enjoyed this read for the most part, I'm still pretty disappointed. Maybe I've just grown more cynical than I used to be? I don't know. Regardless, this romance felt a bit like taffy--pulled and molded into some sort of rubberized mockery of love. Still, given how some of her recent novels have been for me, I'd recommend this to those who've read the rest of the Sisters of the Heart series--it's cutesy, and dark, and there are some pretty steamy scenes (that HORSE scene, guys. That horse scene is my favorite).

I enjoyed this one, but the bulk of this story takes place away from Sea Haven ... and it's mainly Casimir & Lissa. I actually prefer when all the cast of characters are involved, but this one showcases the chameleon (able to blend) aspects of their talents. For fire bound spirits, there isn't a whole lot of fire happening in this book. It's hinted at, and Casimir actually wields it at one point ... but I was a tad bit disappointed that it wasn't featured as much as the title suggests.

More ties to the mob aspect of this world, Lissa & Casimir join forces to take down those that betrayed both of their families. Lissa has to deal with a lot of hard blows regarding what she thought was truth and what is actual facts. Thankfully, she has a Prakenskii at her side to help deal.

This book wraps up a lot of loose ends, and serves up an end to the brother's common threat.

There's no doubt Casimir is a Prakenskii ... for not being raised together, there's a definite core truth to them all. There's hints to what is coming for Sea Haven ... and I can't wait!