Blood Bound (Unbound Novel) by Rachel Vincent 400 pages, Mira, (2011-08-23) $7.99 (Amazon.com)

 

Procurement

I won a signed copy from Rachel herself! It was supposed to be an ARC but she accidently signed and shipped finished copies instead. Her mistake was greatly appreciated. 🙂 Thanks Rachel!

My Grade

Plot: 5

Setting: 4

Writing: 5

Originality: 5

Characters: 5

Romance:4

Overall: 28/30 93%

Title/Cover Bonus: 4

Overall

An epically twisted plot full of tension, conflict, and action. Rachel Vincent has penned a masterpiece of Urban Fantasy.

Summary

Sorry but I’m not going to post the summary! Why? Because to me, it is chock full o’ spoilers. Well, at least one. With a book with as many twists as this one the summary needs to be vague and pointing out one of the final twists right on the back copy really upset me. I ranted about it too.

First Line

Only two-thirty in the morning, and I already had blood on my hands.

 

Most Memorable Scene

The scene with the couch. 😉 And of course the scenes when things "clicked in" and there was a lot of clicking.

And also the party scene. I’m glad that was told from Cam’s point of view.

Plot

Goodness me! Rachel has out done herself. While this book would and should be classified as an Urban Fantasy it is most definitely a mystery at heart. There are more plot twists than I could count. I don’t know how Rachel thought of them all but they were brilliant. There was only one twist that I figured out before it happened, besides the spoiler that I read in the summary, but I only figured it out shortly before the characters only because I thought for sure that twist would be very cool and only logical.

Setting

I don’t recall a town name but it’s a big city that’s divided into three sections like a peace sign, divided by a river. The two sides are the territory of black-market king pins Ruben Cavazos and Jake Tower. The south section is neutral.

Writing

Again, Rachel has written a superb book. I liked the switch up in point of views from Olivia (Liv) and Cameron (Cam). Although, it did get confusing at some points to determine who’s POV it was. The switching wasn’t consecutive from the beginning of each chapter but almost. I like it when the chapter header says who’s POV is it but this doesn’t have that. It probably would have helped if it had been there. I did have to back track a few times because I was in the wrong person’s head the first time but that didn’t happen too often.

The plot twists that Rachel puts in this is just genius. I honestly don’t know how a writer figures it all out. It’s almost like she had to write it backwards to get all the dots connected.

Originality

Rachel has started an amazing trilogy. The world itself is full of Skilled people, such as Blinders, Jammers, Seers, Binders, Trackers and Travelers. I won’t give any more details to prevent spoilers but know that while some of these attributes have been seen in other Urban Fantasy series Rachel has done a fine job of creating a new exciting world.

Characters

Olivia (Liv) Warren is Skilled. She’s a tracker, specifically she tracks with blood, hence Blood Bound. She is joined in cast by Cameron (Cam) Caballero, her ex, Anne, Kori, Liv’s childhood best friends, and of course Ruben Cavazos and Jake Tower, the bad guys.

I loved Liv’s character. I’m always a fan of the ass kicking female lead character. She’s tough as nails because she’s been putting herself through hell ever since her break up with Cam. It was natural that I compare her with Faythe, Rachel’s other leading female character, but I’m happy to say that they are not very much alike, except that they both kick ass. Liv has a potty mouth. Liv is dedicated to her job, and not just because she has to be but because she has a heart.

Cam, oh, Cam. He was a great guy. I loved it when it was his point of view. I felt so bad for him during the first half of the book. I really enjoyed his character and was sad that he didn’t have as big of a starring role like Liv, especially towards the end of the book. It really was all about Liv in the end, even if it switched to Cam’s POV a few times.

I am not a fan of Ruben Cavazos nor his wife but I think that was the point. He may have even out done Calvin Malone as the bad guy.

The only negative thing I think of about the entire book are the last names of Ruben and Cam. I tripped over them every time they came up! I don’t usually have that problem but boy did those two names stump me.

Romance

The circumstances involving Liv and Cam’s relationship are way too sad but bloody brilliant of Rachel. I can’t wait to read Shadow Bound to see if their story continues.

Title/Cover Bonus

I like the title but I’m not a fan of the cover too much. I mean, it’s ok, but nothing exceptional.

Ending

I thought the ending was awesome. I liked how it ended by tying up most of the loose ends. I enjoyed the last scene especially.

Series

Shadow Bound is book two and will release next year.