** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley

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Forbidden Devotion: Paranormal Hunger, 01 by Lee Colgin
(previously published as: Forbidden Bond: They Bite, Book 1)
★★☆☆☆
278 Pages
3rd person, dual character POV

Content Warning: torture scene, gun violence, kidnap
Themes: MM, Shifter, Werewolves, urban fantasy, vampires, forced proximity


When I requested this book, it was being published as Forbidden Bond in the They Bite series, however due to illness it took me a long time to get around to reading it, and it's since been republished as Forbidden Devotion in the Paranormal Hunger series.
As I'd accidentally bought the new release, thinking it was a new series by the author, I thought it would be best to review *that* version, rather than the previously published version, for the author's sake and any future readers.
Personally, while I prefer the new covers, I do like the old titles and blurbs better. I feel like the new blurb for this book gives far too much away about the plot. If you deleted the entire last section of the blurb then it would be less spoiler-y, but it still doesn't have the cohesion of the original blurb.

That being said, I will NOT be reading the original published version to do a comparison. I had no intention of comparing them, but thought it worth noting the differences between the cover/blurbs I had access to.

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PLOT

I've only read one book by the author before and loved it, so I went into this hoping for the same feeling, but I'm sorry to say that didn't happen. While the story had lots of potential, there were just too many errors that couldn't be overlooked.

In terms of the main plot concept – a vampire moving to study at a werewolf university – it's quite original. The concept of there being a truce between vampires and werewolves is good, and the idea of a vampire and werewolf falling in love, with a forced proximity concept was different. The idea of a “living” vampire is interesting, but ended up being a disappointment.
The other aspects of the plot, as well as the execution, were nothing original. It felt like an amalgamation of various other books/ideas I've read in the genre. The vampire/werewolf concept is similar to L.C. Davis' Kingdom of Night trilogy, and the whole peace talks incident strongly reminded me of the MF story The Perfect Luna by Marissa Gilbert.

I'm disappointed that this was advertised as an enemies-to-lovers story, because that wasn't really the case. To me, there was nothing between Sinclair or Mitchel that could describe them as enemies. No, Mitchel didn't take Sinclair's arrival well, but that doesn't automatically make them enemies and Sinclair never held a grudge against him. In fact, the ONLY thing marking them as enemies is their species – the fact that one is a vampire and the other a werewolf. Beyond that, the characters themselves are never enemies-to-lovers.
The first kiss between them happens at 39%, and it's almost insta-lust and insta-love between them from the first time they meet.
I wasn't fond of the fact that they shared one kiss, didn't talk about being in a relationship or even wanting one with each other, but Mitchel announces to the entire werewolf pack that they're in a relationship and he makes a mating bite without asking Sinclair or even warning him about what it means. That is way too rushed and without Sinclair's input. It didn't feel comfortable, and as the entire relationship was rushed, I could just never really believe in their relationship from the start. It had very little substance, even by the end of the book.

Sadly, I felt like the world-building was almost non-existent. It was so thin and lax that it felt like we were supposed to rely on pre-existing lore. Beyond the peace/treaty situation, there was no explanation for how vampires or werewolves lived in this world, what laws or limits they lived within. Because of that, I constantly felt like I didn't understand the choices that were made, because some would have made sense if an explanation of this world's lore would have been given at some point prior.
Unfortunately, some plot choices were far too convenient for the sake of the plot, and never made sense in terms of the flow or the characters, like the cheesy conversation between Josh and Mitchel where Mitchel said he'd rather mate a vampire than Erika and is warned to be careful what he wishes for. It was cringe-inducing, especially as events were already well underway by then. Other choices led to plot inconsistencies, such as when Mitchel is surprised when Becket says he drove Sinclair to campus, because he already knew this from Sinclair so there was no reason for this to be a surprise.

As well as the editing issues which I'll go into in a minute, there were some HUGE plot gaps that were never resolved or places where we were TOLD and not SHOWN what was happening. There were so many scenes that I wanted to see in detail because the author had made a big point of them being important or a huge factor in the plot, but when it actually came time to show them they were either ignored or glossed over with a vague explanation of what happened that we never get to see for ourselves.
Sinclair's mother being “the big guns” that he'd need to convince if he wanted to go to a werewolf university, yet we never see that conversation.
Mitchel makes a big deal of going to the “alpha gathering” but we're never actually told what that means or what it involves. We don't get to see any of the important aspects of that gathering, only one dance that doesn't amount to much.
Wee're *told* that the professors and students are unwelcoming to Sinclair, but we're never shown that. It's a pivotal moment for Sinclair's time on campus, but we never get to see it. I wanted to see him meeting his professors and his students, and how his first class went.
Mitchel and Sinclair make speeches to the peace rally, which are SUPER important, but we get about two lines of Mitchel's speech and nothing more. We never get to see anything about what they say, even as they're prepping the speech, so I can't understand why it wasn't shown. I wanted to see the speech, see the impact, the way people responded. But it felt pointless to put so much emphasis on a plot point and then just ignore it.

I had a problem with the “living” vampire concept. This could have been any human/werewolf story because of that concept, which left me disappointed. Sinclair is so completely “not” a vampire that his birth-nature has very little to do with the plot and gives him very little advantage over a human. The only part of “vampire” nature that actually applies to Sinclair is the blood-drinking, which forces a bond between Sinclair and Mitchel.
For me, the scene where Sinclair needs to drink Mitchel's blood is pointless and unnecessary, due to the way the plot was written. I honestly don't see WHY Sinclair needed to drink from Mitchel, because we're told that Sinclair knew he would get weak from the sun. If that was the case, why didn't Sinclair go to meet Mitchel, prepared for the worst. He's supposed to be the smartest vampire in existence, so I would expect him to be smart enough to prepare for all eventualities, meaning he would take time to rest or take blood with him, just in case. That's the kind of character he was written as, but he never made those logical choices. And the argument can't be made that he didn't have access to blood, because he had literally just received a care package from his friend Hazel which contained packages of synthetic blood. If that scene hadn't come first, I might have believed the need and urgency for Sinclair to feed from Mitchel, but it didn't. And it wasn't a life or death situation either, just that he was weak and had broken a few bones that would eventually heal, so the urgency wasn't believeable.

Which also leads me to the point that the world-building is so thin that we're never told whether synthetic blood acts the same as fresh blood, which would have been a distinction that would have made all the difference to the feeding scene.
Instead, everything felt too convenient. Just like the scene where Sinclair arrives at Mitchel's house in the middle of the night to find Mitchel wasn't there. He'd been to Mitchel's house before, but instead of going inside, he lies outside and falls asleep. Fine. I get that it might make sense – although, nothing in this story says that a vampire can't enter a property without permission, so I don't see why he didn't wait inside. But when Mitchel returns home, he decides NOT to take Sinclair inside where it's warm, but to lay a blanket over him, shift and lie outside with him. Why? They are literally right outside his house. Why not go inside? Oh, because it's convenient for the plot to make Mitchel shift, while makes Sinclair feel special for seeing the shift and again forces them into proximity. Because, of course, if Mitchel had taken Sinclair inside to lie on the sofa, or he'd found Sinclair there, then that whole scene wouldn't have happened. I'd rather have had it happen organically, but I feel that way about a lot of scenes in this book.

The aftermath of the biggest event in the book was rushed, and I'm really disappointed that we never got to see Ramsey and Sinclair being properly introduced, considering Ramsey put up such resistance towards their relationship. It was such a huge plot point that I'm not sure why it was glossed over.

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ISSUES

For me, the flow of the story suffered from the editing choices and mistakes. The writing felt choppy and inconsistent, and there are NO time jump markers until the Epilogue. You get about halfway through the second page of a chapter before you find out it's been days or weeks since the previous chapter.
There are multiple editing issues, and since this isn't an ARC or pre-final edits version, I have to take them into account in my review. There are some obvious things, and some mis-spellings that make you pause and pull you out of the story, e.g. “whim. he reached”, “The alpha wolf I road here with”. Then there are some grammar issues where I can't tell whether it's a word choice problem or an editing issue, but there were a lot, e.g. “None of them three was a good enough scent tracker”
On top of that, there were a lot of areas were it took three or four sentences to say what should have taken just one sentence to say. There were also incomplete sentences that really didn't help with the flow of the story e.g. “One last deep breath, a polite knock, and a gulp as he waited.”

Although it's not an editing issues, as such, it's a definite editing choice that didn't work well for me – the use of italicised thoughts. They were more prominent in the first third of the book and none of them felt particularly necessary, as they were either preceded or followed by something in the main text that make the thought clear or obvious, e.g. when Mitchel is choosing his tie, we get an “Ugh. I hate this.” only for the entire following paragraph and preceding sentence to make that obvious.

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Overall, I feel like the massive plot gaps and rushing don't leave any room for me to believe in the romance. Everything that could make this plot good, strong and original is skimmed over and wasted on a story that's 90% romance without any substance. The story loses all strength and heart because of these missing details and the lack of world-building. It's frustrating, because there was some good potential and the characters could have been brilliant if they'd been more fleshed out, but due to the rushed nature of the entire book – from rushing towards the romance, brushing past important plot points and desperate to reach the climax – it left no room to feel comfortable or settled within the story and really feel immersed.

I thought this was rather dissapointing. I read a different book by this author and really loved it and gave it five stars. I liked the first few chapters of this story, but once the two main characters get together the story becomes a bit boring and predictable. Not for me! .

This book was not what I was expecting when I started reading it. Honestly based on the description I expected something a little bit closer to the erotic side of things and that was not what I got, though there were some pretty steamy moments. Instead, Colgin grabbed me with a story of star crossed lover and a lot of laughs and political intrigue along the way. I really enjoyed the way that Colgin used the articles to help bring in other parts of the world that was created.

I would recommend this book to those that love a paranormal romance with politics and isn't afraid of a LGBTQIA+ relationship.

Supernatural creatures, vampires, shifters and paranormal reads are some of my guilty pleasure books but unfortunately this read was just a little predictable.

Sinclair was admitted into the Borson werewolf university through an exchange program even though he is a vampire. Since vampires and werewolves don't get along...at all this worried his parents quite a lot. Sinclair was a living vampire which is exactly what it sounds like, he was born a vampire but has yet to be turned so he can still be hurt or killed like a human.

Mitchel is the alpha for the werewolves at Borson University. He always has female werewolves flirting with him even though everyone knows he's gay. The females seem to think he should carry on his family name by having babies with them but he's just not interested.

When Sinclair moves into the supernatural dorms with the werewolves, he's met with a lot of snarls, disgusted looks and a lot of unfriendly faces. Even Mitchel initially hates him but after a while Sinclair and Mitchel find themselves sneaking peaks at each other.

They spend some time together and find that they really like each other. When Mitchel's pack finds out that he's dating Sinclair, most of them are ok with it because they have gotten to know him a little more and know he's an ok guy. Things seem to be going well until they both tell their families that they are dating. While Sinclair's family is open to it but scared for his safety, Mitchel's uncle is absolutely against it.

With vampires and werewolves still fighting and supernaturals still being killed during those fights, things are not easy between the different species. With all that going on there's also a vote going on with the supernaturals to figure out whether they should come out to the humans. Of course the werewolves and the vampires don't see eye to eye on that either which is making things more tense for everyone. But when the humans find out about the supernaturals before they can finalize the vote and some of them take Sinclair hostage, both the vampires and werewolves will have to come together in order to get him back.

I really liked this book because vampires and werewolves are my favorite supernaturals when reading paranormal romance. Both Sinclair and Mitchel were great characters. I really loved Mitchel's pack and some of them really stood out as great secondary characters. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a fun enemies to lovers supernatural romance.

Disclosure: I was given an ARC of this book via NetGalley but all opinions and thoughts are my own.

Amazing. I have never read a gay romance novel and did not know what to expect. This story pulled me in like any other romance and suspense novel. So much in fact I hope the author turns it into a series. I want to know what becomes of Noah, will Sinclair and Mitchel adopt. You will not be disappointed with this tale, Amazing!!!

I rescived an ARC of this book from Neutrally, in exchange for an honest review.

Vampires and werewolves, yes please!!
This book was absolutely adorable!
It's a really quick read... I managed to read it in a couple of hours, it's easy to get into, the characters are lovely and the plot is great.
There's a enemy to lover situation going on, which is one of my favorite tropes!
I just wished this was going to be a series, and not just a stand-alone.
I wanted more of these character, and I wanted the love so be a bit more slowly developed. But with that said, I really enjoyed this read.
(I could still use a sequel... I wouldn't mind some more Mitchel and Sinclair in my life, that's for sure)

This was a solid, great, funny and sexy read!

This was better then expected, sweet, sexy HOT, intriguing with all the right stuff. I enjoyed this different take on the shifter/ vampire life, I could definitely read more from this author. The steam scenes are super hot but not overwhelming . The sweetness was just right and I’m left wishing there were a couple hundred more pages.

Living vampire Sinclair insisted on earning his PhD at an esteemed werewolf school. The werewolves are not pleased, but he does not let that get to him as he is there to earn his degree. When he meets Mitchel, their Alpha, he is smitten with him but Mitchel isn't happy with him being there. But the more they get to know each other the more that Mitchel starts to really feel the pull. Once their Alpha accepts Sinclair, the rest of follow suit. I loved watching them all coming together as friends. The big drama was over so fast & I thought it could have been done better.

I am going to honest, I have no idea why I requested this book in the first place. Werewolves and Vampires are just not my thing. This was a puff piece pure and simple. Nothing crazy happens just your typical supernatural romance. Literally have nothing to say about this other than it was a quick read. Would I recommend to others, no.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this. I thought when I started it it was going to be a typical story, but it veered off and surprised me. I look forward to the next book.

This book was received as an ARC from NineStar Press, LLC in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I loved this book through and through. Being a fan of New Moon and learning about the rivalry of the wolves and vampires took me back and I loved it. Now it's Sinclair the young handsome vampire and Mitchel the alpha handsome wolf must live and work together, all hell breaks loose. Now with a group of human rebels on the loose and Sinclair gets kidnapped, Mitchel must lead the wolf pack to his safety and the bond they developed rests in their hands alone. Sinclair's key to survival depends on the love and bond they have developed for eachother throughout time. I am a fan of unusual love stories such as Shape of Water and Forbidden Bond definitely ranks up there as one of the best. I know our teen book club will love this too and will keep talking about it as well.

We will consider adding this title to our YA collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

Lovevly !!! Great characters that you really get into and a story that keeps you hopping!! A fun and sexy read to while away a weekend with!

The Great War had killed many vampires and werewolves. For the time being they live in peace. That doesn’t mean they don’t still hate each other. Vampire Sinclaire is applying to a werewolf college. He is forced to live in a student dormitory with a pack of young werewolves. They hate Sinclaire. Sinclaire has to find a way to make them his friends or college will be miserable. Than a few altercations take place and take place yet the supernatural must be kept secret from the humans. Sinclaire meets Mitchell and in time they fall in love. Mitchell is a werewolf and the dorms alpha.
I did enjoy this book. Bit i really didn’t care for a male/male or female/female romantic interests So I didn’t like this anywhere near what I would have. I just tried to skip over the M/M action. I did like Sinclaire and Motchell went from enemies to friends to being in love but it was all pretty quick. I think the rescue mission to get Sinckaire was lame. I did enjoy the drama. I loved Sinckaire’s parents. I loved the pace and plot. The ending was a little rushed. I loved the characters and the ins and outs of this book and I recommend it just know it is a male and a male romance.

When Sinclair decides to go to college he picks Borson. No bid deal right? Problem is it’s a college run by Werewolves and he’s a vampire! A living vampire at that which means he has gone through the change. Sinclair wins the right to go, were he meets Mitchell! Did I mention they were gay! When Sinclair is kidnapped it’s up to Mitchell to rescue him!

I would have liked to have seen more badass in parts, but I still loved this insta-love between enemies story. This m/m shifter romance was fascinating and held my attention throughout.

Werewolves are assholes. Until you get to know them.

After the Great Wars, there was absolutely no love lost between the vampire and werewolf races, but 26 y.o. Living vampire Sinclair insisted on earning his PhD from Borson University, an esteemed werewolf school, and would not be deterred.

Upon arriving at Borson, Sinclair was immediately met with hostility from his werewolf roommates, but he refused to let them run him off, as he had a degree to earn, and no amount of snarling and snapping would keep him from his goal.

Things began looking up when Sinclair finally met 32 y.o. dorm Alpha Mitchel, in spite of their extremely confrontational initial interaction. Much like the rest of the wolves, Mitchel wasn't happy to have a vampire under the same roof as his pack. At least until he let himself give in to the draw he had to the smaller, younger supe.

I enjoyed seeing how Mitchel's animosity toward Sinclair changed over time, working their way past old prejudices and seeing one another as kind, caring individuals, then maybe even as mates. This happened slowly and felt believable and organic to me.

Much of the drama in the story was due to the vampires insisting that the existence of supernatural beings be divulged to humans, breaking the Edict of Secrecy. Something strongly opposed by the more fearful werewolves.

Then, after an inter-species tragedy occurred, the entire supernatural community was forced to come together, which culminated in an even greater disaster that required their unity to overcome.

There were also some familial prejudices and disapproval to surmount, but I especially loved Sinclair's parents and their efforts to support their son, regardless of their own initially-reluctant feelings.

The story was well-paced, but I would've honestly liked a slightly more expanded pre-epilogue ending, as that part felt a bit more rushed than the rest of this mates story.

I'd rate this story at around 3.5 stars and am hoping that the next book in the series will be Nathan and his vampire doctor's.

I've read quite a few books that just haven't quite hit the mark, it was great to finally come across this one that ticked all the boxes. Forbidden Bond is the first book in the They Bite series, based on this one, I don't think that it will be the last that I read.
In this world, supernaturals have come to an uneasy truce, but they are far from friendly with one another. Sinclair, an as yet still living vampire, wants to attend a werewolf university and learn more of the history of the various species. His family are against it, but as he is in his mid-twenties and an adult there's little that they can do about it. (Although, he does appear to be younger than that somehow.) The alpha wolf who looks after the pack at the university, Mitchel is not happy about his arrival, to begin with, but he soon finds that he not only likes the young vampire but is also very much attracted to him.
I enjoyed the romance between Sinclair and Mitchel and the story around humans learning about the existence of paranormals and how they were all trying to deal with it was great. The book did leave me with a few questions, the relationship between Sinclair and Mitchel was unheard of and as nice as it was to see them cement that connection properly, I think that I would have liked to see a little bit more after that. I'm guessing that as more books from this series come, we'll start to learn more about the situation with both wolves and vampires. Perhaps the reason for there being less information here is simply because it's something that will be dealt with in later stories.
Overall this was a great read and as I mentioned before, I'm keen to read more from this world.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This book was so cute, omg *heart eyes* I thought it was just gonna be another cliché paranormal romance book with flat characters and bad dialogue but damnnnn this was fun!

Writing style: The style was great! Everything was flowing nicely together and I was flying through the pages. The worldbuilding was well done, just enough information was given to understand what kind of world we're dealing with and no infodumping. Also, the smut was very tastefully written 👌🏼

Characters: I liked everyone! They were all so cute and aaah 😍 Mitchel and Sinclair (the main characters) are so different from each other and that makes them so cute together. I'm just all heart and starry eyed because of them.

Story: It's your typical wolf falls for vamp, the species are enemies so people aren't very happy with the relationship and it all turns out okay in the end. And yet it's still so very different. The author just wrote this story so tastefully that I didn't care if I've read stories like it, it's still a little different, it's still a different couple.

The characters, tasteful writing and the absolute cuteness of it all, will leave you wanting more. This lovely book gets three stars from me.

I recieved this as an arc for an honest review

I actually really loved this. I've read and watched many Vampire and Werewolf related stories and I've always loved those. What I've never read is such a book but with a relationship between a Vampire and a Werewolf as the main romance. That was very interesting and brought more unknown territory to the characters and the world. I really enjoyed that and I'm glad to hear that this is suposedly a series because I'd love to read more in this world.

The main premise here is Sinclair who is a Living Vampire (there's living and turned ones which alone I found an interesting premise) and he wanted to study Supernatural History which was only a study subject in a Werewolf run University. He gets accepted and he moves into this University surrounded by wolves and he felt totally left out and they hated his guts until the Alpha wolf, Mitchel, took a liking at him. That alone was interesting for the wolf since he hated the Vampires due to the War they had and due to the fact that his parents got killed in the process. He still started to develop feelings for the Vampire and it brought a whole new set of problems. That alone would have been okay if the humans wouldn't have found out about the supernatural beings and started a riot. Things went downhill real quick and Vampires and Werewolves had to force themselves to work together to set peace to everything since they didn't want to have another war. Not with the humans and not in todays society of social media and easy video taking on phones. They needed to find peace.

I really liked the world and I can't wait to read more in it. I absolutely love the characters. All of them and I'm super excited for more.