What do you think?
Rate this book
Hellbound
2,000 years from now, an alien King controls Earth. His young human Queen, Celeste, is beautiful and powerless. She hasn't yet discovered a gift that lives inside her.
Deep in the Andromeda Galaxy, a telepathic master assassin, Sebastian Raynes, has one final mission - kill the King of Earth, then kill himself.
But when the queen sees the assassin murder her husband and then asks him for help to leave her Kingdom - both their plans for the future change.
The queen and the assassin find a love that could shape the course of the universe. But constant reminders of the ghosts of his past and threats to her life now are endangering their future.
Deep in the Andromeda Galaxy, a telepathic master assassin, Sebastian Raynes, has one final mission - kill the King of Earth, then kill himself.
But when the queen sees the assassin murder her husband and then asks him for help to leave her Kingdom - both their plans for the future change.
The queen and the assassin find a love that could shape the course of the universe. But constant reminders of the ghosts of his past and threats to her life now are endangering their future.
501 pages, Paperback
Published December 4, 2015
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 1, 2016
I don’t usually partake of sci-fi books or romance – movies yes, books not so much. However, I wanted to take a chance on this because of its unique and multi-leveled plot. In short, I’m really glad I did and I cannot wait until the next installments are released.
A breed of alien has taken defacto control of earth by marrying into the highest of earth’s royal families. Celeste is the hapless queen and is nothing more than a figurehead until a conspiracy against her husband the king quickly unravels the current power structure overseeing the planet. I really hate to give too much of the plot away, but the assassin (Sebastian) who makes the fateful first move is employed by a shadowy, ambitious conglomeration later to be revealed.
As events quickly unfold, Sebastian and Celeste become inextricably linked, even if one is resistant to it. Also, with both being attractive, they also fight falling in love. Both also begin to deal with each other’s innate psychological powers. You catch hints of the special (and at times supernatural) skills of both Celeste and Sebastian early on and the descriptions are easy to grasp as well as believe overall.
As you can probably tell, A LOT happens within the first few chapters. However, at no time did I feel over-loaded with information. If anything, the author seemed to find that perfect balance of:
1) revealing and advancing the plot while
2) enriching the environment by describing not only the beautifully-exotic setting, but all of the amazing technology and bizarre alien species taking part
3) perfectly pacing the action, of which there is a surprising amount for a sci-fi romance
4) and of course, developing the central characters of Celeste and Sebastian in a believable manner.
I found “Hellbound” to be a completely satisfying read in every way except that I already want to read parts 2, 3, 4, etc, etc. It was an extremely rich, fun, believable story wrapped in an easy-to-visualize future. One of my favorite aspects of “Hellbound,” is that it expands to completely different planets, yet at no time does Brinkley go overboard with her imagination in laying out the setting in differentiating it from the earth we all know.
The romantic scenes can be pretty hot and heavy, but at the same time, I didn’t feel Brinkley went overboard with these either. It is a couple falling in love, but the plot advancement doesn’t become bogged down in that aspect of the overall story. I’m not a seasoned reader of romances, but I assure you, this isn’t a story that will have you yawning or skipping pages, in my opinion. I just find it hard to believe Brinkley is not an already-experienced writer. The story continues expanding as Sebastian and Celeste find themselves trying to hide amidst the center of a high-stakes intergalactic power struggle.
A breed of alien has taken defacto control of earth by marrying into the highest of earth’s royal families. Celeste is the hapless queen and is nothing more than a figurehead until a conspiracy against her husband the king quickly unravels the current power structure overseeing the planet. I really hate to give too much of the plot away, but the assassin (Sebastian) who makes the fateful first move is employed by a shadowy, ambitious conglomeration later to be revealed.
As events quickly unfold, Sebastian and Celeste become inextricably linked, even if one is resistant to it. Also, with both being attractive, they also fight falling in love. Both also begin to deal with each other’s innate psychological powers. You catch hints of the special (and at times supernatural) skills of both Celeste and Sebastian early on and the descriptions are easy to grasp as well as believe overall.
As you can probably tell, A LOT happens within the first few chapters. However, at no time did I feel over-loaded with information. If anything, the author seemed to find that perfect balance of:
1) revealing and advancing the plot while
2) enriching the environment by describing not only the beautifully-exotic setting, but all of the amazing technology and bizarre alien species taking part
3) perfectly pacing the action, of which there is a surprising amount for a sci-fi romance
4) and of course, developing the central characters of Celeste and Sebastian in a believable manner.
I found “Hellbound” to be a completely satisfying read in every way except that I already want to read parts 2, 3, 4, etc, etc. It was an extremely rich, fun, believable story wrapped in an easy-to-visualize future. One of my favorite aspects of “Hellbound,” is that it expands to completely different planets, yet at no time does Brinkley go overboard with her imagination in laying out the setting in differentiating it from the earth we all know.
The romantic scenes can be pretty hot and heavy, but at the same time, I didn’t feel Brinkley went overboard with these either. It is a couple falling in love, but the plot advancement doesn’t become bogged down in that aspect of the overall story. I’m not a seasoned reader of romances, but I assure you, this isn’t a story that will have you yawning or skipping pages, in my opinion. I just find it hard to believe Brinkley is not an already-experienced writer. The story continues expanding as Sebastian and Celeste find themselves trying to hide amidst the center of a high-stakes intergalactic power struggle.
June 1, 2016
I don’t usually partake of sci-fi books or romance – movies yes, books not so much. However, I wanted to take a chance on this because of its unique and multi-leveled plot. In short, I’m really glad I did and I cannot wait until the next installments are released.
A breed of alien has taken defacto control of earth by marrying into the highest of earth’s royal families. Celeste is the hapless queen and is nothing more than a figurehead until a conspiracy against her husband the king quickly unravels the current power structure overseeing the planet. I really hate to give too much of the plot away, but the assassin (Sebastian) who makes the fateful first move is employed by a shadowy, ambitious conglomeration later to be revealed.
As events quickly unfold, Sebastian and Celeste become inextricably linked, even if one is resistant to it. Also, with both being attractive, they also fight falling in love. Both also begin to deal with each other’s innate psychological powers. You catch hints of the special (and at times supernatural) skills of both Celeste and Sebastian early on and the descriptions are easy to grasp as well as believe overall.
As you can probably tell, A LOT happens within the first few chapters. However, at no time did I feel over-loaded with information. If anything, the author seemed to find that perfect balance of:
1) revealing and advancing the plot while
2) enriching the environment by describing not only the beautifully-exotic setting, but all of the amazing technology and bizarre alien species taking part
3) perfectly pacing the action, of which there is a surprising amount for a sci-fi romance
4) and of course, developing the central characters of Celeste and Sebastian in a believable manner.
I found “Hellbound” to be a completely satisfying read in every way except that I already want to read parts 2, 3, 4, etc, etc. It was an extremely rich, fun, believable story wrapped in an easy-to-visualize future. One of my favorite aspects of “Hellbound,” is that it expands to completely different planets, yet at no time does Brinkley go overboard with her imagination in laying out the setting in differentiating it from the earth we all know.
The romantic scenes can be pretty hot and heavy, but at the same time, I didn’t feel Brinkley went overboard with these either. It is a couple falling in love, but the plot advancement doesn’t become bogged down in that aspect of the overall story. I’m not a seasoned reader of romances, but I assure you, this isn’t a story that will have you yawning or skipping pages, in my opinion. I just find it hard to believe Brinkley is not an already-experienced writer. The story continues expanding as Sebastian and Celeste find themselves trying to hide amidst the center of a high-stakes intergalactic power struggle.
A breed of alien has taken defacto control of earth by marrying into the highest of earth’s royal families. Celeste is the hapless queen and is nothing more than a figurehead until a conspiracy against her husband the king quickly unravels the current power structure overseeing the planet. I really hate to give too much of the plot away, but the assassin (Sebastian) who makes the fateful first move is employed by a shadowy, ambitious conglomeration later to be revealed.
As events quickly unfold, Sebastian and Celeste become inextricably linked, even if one is resistant to it. Also, with both being attractive, they also fight falling in love. Both also begin to deal with each other’s innate psychological powers. You catch hints of the special (and at times supernatural) skills of both Celeste and Sebastian early on and the descriptions are easy to grasp as well as believe overall.
As you can probably tell, A LOT happens within the first few chapters. However, at no time did I feel over-loaded with information. If anything, the author seemed to find that perfect balance of:
1) revealing and advancing the plot while
2) enriching the environment by describing not only the beautifully-exotic setting, but all of the amazing technology and bizarre alien species taking part
3) perfectly pacing the action, of which there is a surprising amount for a sci-fi romance
4) and of course, developing the central characters of Celeste and Sebastian in a believable manner.
I found “Hellbound” to be a completely satisfying read in every way except that I already want to read parts 2, 3, 4, etc, etc. It was an extremely rich, fun, believable story wrapped in an easy-to-visualize future. One of my favorite aspects of “Hellbound,” is that it expands to completely different planets, yet at no time does Brinkley go overboard with her imagination in laying out the setting in differentiating it from the earth we all know.
The romantic scenes can be pretty hot and heavy, but at the same time, I didn’t feel Brinkley went overboard with these either. It is a couple falling in love, but the plot advancement doesn’t become bogged down in that aspect of the overall story. I’m not a seasoned reader of romances, but I assure you, this isn’t a story that will have you yawning or skipping pages, in my opinion. I just find it hard to believe Brinkley is not an already-experienced writer. The story continues expanding as Sebastian and Celeste find themselves trying to hide amidst the center of a high-stakes intergalactic power struggle.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews