Shadow Bound (Unbound, #2) by Rachel Vincent

Mira (May 22, 2012)  | $7.99 (Mass Market, Amazon) | $6.79 (Kindle, Amazon)

Procurement

eARC via NetGalley from Harlequin UK (my request should have been declined because it was the UK publisher but I was so excited it was approved!).

My Grade

Plot: 5

Setting: 4

Writing: 4

Originality: 5

Characters: 4

Romance: 4

Overall: 26/30 86%

Title/Cover Bonus: 5

Overall

A nice addition to the Unbound series with a likeable hero and a broken woman with a sailor’s mouth who cares more about her loved ones than she does about herself.

Summary (Goodreads)

If you live in the dark long enough, you begin to forget the light…

KORI DANIELS is a shadow-walker, able to travel instantly from one shadow to another. After weeks of confinement for betraying her boss, she’s ready to break free of the Tower syndicate for good. But Jake Tower has one final job for Kori, one chance to secure freedom for herself and her sister, Kenley, even if that means taking it from someone else…

The job? Recruit Ian Holt—or kill him.

Ian’s ability to manipulate the dark has drawn interest from every syndicate in the world, most notably an invitation from Jake Tower. Though he has no interest in organized crime, Ian accepts the invite, because he’s on a mission of his own. Ian has come to kill Tower’s top Binder: Kori’s little sister.

Amid the tangle of lies, an unexpected thread of truth connecting Ian and Kori comes to light. But with opposing goals, they’ll have to choose between love and liberty….

Trailer

None as of yet.

First Line

If you live in the dark long enough, you start to forget what light looks like.

(UK eARC edition)

Most Memorable Scene

I liked the scene when Ian finished his shower and is clad in a towel and water specs. 😉 Also, I enjoyed the wine cellar scene too.

Plot

While I enjoyed the overall plot of the story I wasn’t a fan of how long it took to find out exactly what the hell Ian was up to. His character was a bit sketchy at first, although he seemed likeable, I wasn’t sure if he was “real” enough to the reader or even to Kori.

Setting

This book is set on the other side of town than Blood Bound with the rival thug Jake Tower as the ring leader. Nothing spectacular setting wise except maybe the wine cellar scene and the scene in the alley after they grab dinner. Rachel tends to give details to emotions rather than setting in most cases.

Writing

I miss Faythe and the rest of the Shifters series characters. I think Rachel is doing an awesome job of the first person, alternate point of views for this Unbound series. However, I did find myself wishing that some of the chapters were told from the other characters point of view. Specifically, Chapter 20, which was told from Ian’s PoV and should totally have been from Kori’s PoV (IMHO, of course).

On a side note, I did find an error in Chapter 16 and let Rachel know about it via Twitter. It’s a pretty big error and she was not happy to hear about it. Of course errors are excepted and do happen in just about every book. However, I really feel sorry for Rachel on this one. It’s a pretty bad error to be missed! I told her I was available for hire as editor. 😉

Originality

This whole Unbound series is turning out to be pretty original. Shadow walkers, however, are not a new thing to me. I did read a Jacquelyn Frank series that had them as well and I enjoyed them very much.

Characters

Here is where things get tricky.

Kori. Kori is broken. In Blood Bound she was asked to help Olivia and since she’s bound to Olivia and her other childhood friends she had to obey. To obey Olivia’s request she had to disobey Jake Tower’s binding as his protector. He gets shot and gets super pissed about Kori’s breech of contract. Hence, the torture and now the new Kori who breaks down just as much as she beats the shit out of things or people. I found Kori’s break downs, eh. They weren’t spectacular break downs and really didn’t make me feel sorry for her. They made me want to slap the shit out of her honestly.

Then there’s Ian. He has a hidden agenda that doesn’t get reveiled until at least 1/3 of the way into the book. I found this quite confusing at times because I felt like I didn’t get to know him as quickly as I should, or fully understand where the plot was going. Also, the entire story takes place over two days so not very much gets reveiled very fast or in great detail. Anyways, I liked Ian.

Kenley is Kori’s younger sitter. She’s a super strong Binder and the root of all problems for Kori and Ian. I liked her display of back bone when she’s alone with Ian. If she’s in the next book I hope she continues to have back bone.

Romance

Eh, I felt like the romance was a little cheesy and expected and not given enough time in the spot light. As I mentioned before a few chapters should have had the point of views switched between Ian and Kori. I wanted to know what the other one was thinking when the other one was speaking and vice versa. I didn’t get that so I didn’t fully connect with the emotions.

Title/Cover Bonus

Awesome title and an amazing cover. I also like the UK cover too, maybe even a bit more than the US.

Ending

Oh boy. I HATED the ending. Why? Because there really isn’t one. It just….ends. There was no wrap up, no promise of what’s to come, no letting the reader know how the characters pulled through after the ordeal they were put through.

SPOILERS! Highlight to see text

What the hell happened to Steven and Meghan? Are they both okay? And Vanessa?

Ok, rant done. Well, not really. I was highly disappointed in this ending. Let’s just hope that Oath Bound picks up right where Shadown Bound left off. Otherwsie, I’m going be highly upset!

Series

Blood Bound (08/23/11)

Shadow Bound (05/22/12)

NO COVER IMAGE YET!

Oath Bound (2013)