Volik by S.J. Tilly

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

VOLIK – Bonded Souls Book One

Forget what you think you know.
Forget the fairy tales and lore of old.
Vampires are real.
And for the past seventy years, they’ve walked openly among us.
They’re bigger and stronger than humans, with black eyes, horns, and powers that shouldn’t be possible.
Volik is one of these vampires.
Living in the small town of Hemlock Hills, he spends his days locked in his office at Stalden University. Wasting time. Waiting.
Until Nix, the new journalism professor, arrives … and changes everything.
This is the story about the day they met. What happened after. And how their bond started a sequence of events that changed the world.

NIX
It’s my first day as a substitute professor. I’m in a new city, with new coworkers, and all I want to do is keep my head down.
And maybe catch a glimpse of Volik.
I’ve read everything there is to read about vampires. The good and the scary.
But I have all semester to sneak a look, so I focus my attention on the clock. Because in three minutes, I turn thirty.
But when the moment strikes, an invisible force slams into me.
Weight swells inside my chest, and heat roars through my veins.

VOLIK
I pause, feeling a shift in the air, telling me something is about to happen.
Then the clock ticks. And my world tilts.
The power inside me pulses. The building shakes around me. And I grow.
I get bigger. Taller. Stronger. Thicker.
My fangs lengthen. Sharpen. And I smile.
Because the moment I have waited centuries for has finally arrived.
The other half of my soul… She is here.

NIX
Screams echo down the hallway while people flee.
Impossibly heavy footsteps shake the ground.
But I don’t run. I can’t. The pull in my chest won’t allow it.
Then the giant vampire I’ve been daydreaming about ducks through the doorway.
And when he calls me his Mate, I do the opposite of run.
I reach for him.

Volik

A Giant Vampire, a Human Professor, and Instant Chaos

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙💛💚🖤
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Chemistry: 🧪🧪🧪🧪🧪
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: 😋🙂😁😍
Narrator(s): 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration type: Duet Narration

Character Backgrounds and Plot Summary

I went into Volik expecting a dark, possessive vampire romance, and S.J. Tilly definitely delivered the possessive vampire part, but the world itself surprised me too. In this story, vampires are not hiding in the shadows. They have been openly living alongside humans for decades, and Volik is one of the most powerful among them. Despite being nearly three hundred years old, he spends his days at Stalden University in Hemlock Hills, mostly isolated in his office and seemingly waiting for something he cannot quite name.

Nix Novak arrives at the university as a substitute journalism professor just as she is about to turn thirty. She is fascinated by vampires and has already developed a particular curiosity about the mysterious Volik, but she has no idea that her birthday is about to change her entire life.

The moment the clock reaches the exact time of her birth, everything goes completely sideways. Nix is hit with an overwhelming physical sensation, while Volik feels his own power erupt. The building literally shakes as he transforms, becoming even larger and more powerful, and then he follows the pull directly to her. I loved the absurdly dramatic image of terrified people fleeing through the university while Nix does the exact opposite. When this enormous vampire comes through the doorway and calls her his mate, she reaches for him.

From there, the story follows Nix and Volik as they try to understand their unprecedented bond and what it means for both humans and vampires. Their relationship also sets larger events into motion, bringing other supernatural beings, old grudges, and dangers surrounding Volik’s family into the picture.

Highlights and Limitations

The strongest part of this book for me was absolutely Volik and Nix together. Their relationship is instant and intense, so readers who need a long, slow build before a couple gets together may struggle. Personally, though, I thought the sheer ridiculousness of the initial mate connection was part of the fun. The ground shaking, Volik’s power exploding, and everyone else panicking while these two are basically drawn together like magnets gave the beginning a wonderfully over-the-top paranormal romance energy.

Volik is intensely possessive and protective, but what I enjoyed most was that he is not emotionally distant with Nix. He actively wants to know what she is thinking and feeling. Nix also does not spend the entire book being dragged along by events. Her curiosity and willingness to ask questions make her feel like an active participant in discovering this strange new reality.

I also really enjoyed Tilly’s different approach to vampire lore. The physical changes Volik experiences when he finds his mate and the idea that a human-vampire bond could have much larger consequences gave the story a fresh angle. I also liked the fact that vampires are born not made like in the lore by drinking vampire blood. Though some things were a bit unbelievable, especially that the Vampires have all black eyes like the demons from Supernatural, and the horns, it is hard to believe they could remain hidden for so long before they came out to humans. Plus, the fact that they knew almost nothing about what would happen when a human was the fated mate of a vampire. Though I did like the results.

My biggest limitation was the external villain storyline. The romance is given so much page time that the danger involving Morell felt comparatively underdeveloped to me. The conflict eventually escalates into a kidnapping and a major confrontation, but I wished the villain had been developed more consistently beforehand. I also wanted a little more time spent exploring the emotional side of Nix and Volik’s relationship beyond the immediate certainty of the bond. I believed that they were devoted to each other, but I would have enjoyed seeing more of them discovering each other outside the supernatural pull.

Narration

The audiobook narration was a major strength for me. Having Chloe Ryan, Sean Masters, and Samantha Brentmoor involved gave the story a lot of energy and helped keep such a long book moving.

Sean Masters was especially effective as Volik. He captured that larger-than-life, ancient, possessive vampire quality without making Volik sound cartoonish. Volik can be intense and completely unhinged when it comes to protecting Nix, so the narrator had to sell some very dramatic moments, and I thought he did.

Chloe Ryan gave Nix the right balance of curiosity, humor, and emotional openness. Nix is dealing with an impossible situation, but she does not come across as constantly helpless or overwhelmed. The narration helped reinforce her personality and made her feel like a genuine match for someone as overwhelming as Volik.

Samantha Brentmoor also added variety to the overall production and helped make the supporting characters and expanding world feel more distinct. With so many short chapters and shifting perspectives, the multiple narrators kept the audiobook from becoming monotonous.

Final Opinion

Overall, Volik was a wild, spicy, unapologetically over-the-top paranormal romance. The relationship moves at lightning speed because this is very much a true fated-mates story, so I would not recommend it to readers looking for slow-burn tension or a long courtship. But if you enjoy an obsessed vampire who has waited centuries for his person and then completely loses his mind when she finally appears, this book delivers exactly that.

For me, the romance worked better than the suspense plot, and I definitely wished the villain storyline had received more development. Still, Volik and Nix were entertaining enough that I stayed invested. I particularly liked that their bond did not turn into endless manufactured misunderstandings or a frustrating third-act breakup.

The university setting, the openly supernatural world, Volik’s dramatic transformation when he finds Nix, and the larger mysteries surrounding the other paranormal characters all made me curious about where the Bonded Souls series is going next. Volik may be a little chaotic, but honestly, that was part of its charm. I had fun with this giant, possessive vampire and the human woman who saw him coming and reached for him anyway.

I can’t wait for the next book, Vameer, who is Volik’s brother and has a completely different story. I also would love to see a book about Dread the Druid.

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