Blood Bound by Rachel Vincent (Unbound #1)

 

I have been looking forward to this book coming out since the moment Rachel Vincent announced there would be a new series. I'm not sure I knew what to expect or even if I cared what the book was about, all that mattered was Shifters was coming to an end and this new series meant I got to keep reading Rachel Vincent's words. It's funny that I didn't panic a little that the books had nothing to do with the typical supernatural creature, a big departure from the were world Vincent had already created, but I have never not liked anything I have read of Vincent's so I knew it was going to be good, thankfully it was.

If I had to pick one thing as Vincent's best writing skill is she is great at world building. She never throws it all at the reader, she gives just enough a little at a time. I never feel confused by whatever world I enter when reading one of her books, and the same was true for this one. The concept was really interesting, everyone is human, but some of those humans are Skilled. It's kind of like magic with a weird twist, only some people have certain skills. Liv and Cam (main characters) being different forms of trackers, blood and names respectively. I don't know if the Skilled people would be nearly as interesting if they didn't live in a city that can only be described as mob controlled times 10. The difference is being in the mob is taken to the extreme because you can be bound to that organization by blood, meaning not fulfilling your contract means death.Talk about intense.

Liv is a great lead character, she's broken to an extent but still fighting as hard as she can. She can dish it out and she can take it, as shown numerous times throughout the book. Cam is also broken to extent, losing Liv before the events take place. Them separating ultimately ends up with them being on two different sides of the city and in one way or another bound to a different syndicate. This certainly complicated every aspect of the plot.

Liv and Cam come together for the first time in six years in order to do a favor for a mutual friend, a friend that Liv happens to be bound to help. The events that happen all happen very quickly, in the course of maybe a day and half. Books that move that fast almost always make me wonder how the following book is going to be, will it be months into the future, or will the main characters just live an insane month over the course of several books, makes me wonder how Vincent is going to handle the second book.

I think one of my favorite things about this book is so many people within the book betray each other in so many different and sometimes terrible ways, and as a reader you want to hate those people and then you have to remind yourself, they did all those terrible things against their will. I have to admit being rather annoyed at some people and then being annoyed that I couldn't really fault any of these people for their actions, because they were compelled to do; especially since most of the characters in the book fought their bonds and found as many loop holes as they possibly could. Although towards the end on the "mob" bosses said something that stuck with me, that while people are just following orders they all entered into their bonds on their own, and everyone was responsible for their actions. As much as know some of the actions were done against their will, they all made the decision to give up their free will, so that has to be considered. I makes for quite a quandary when trying to decide if I like a character.

I loved the book, like seriously loved this book, I literally had to resist the urge to read it a second time immediately after I finished reading it in one sitting the first time. I don't know why by Rachel Vincent's writing sucks me in more than any other author I have read. Her books are not just an enjoyable read, but they make me think. No one is ever perfect in any of the world's she creates, and it's those imperfections, both big and small that make me enjoy her characters so much. I love the dimension of the characters, that everyone is in one way or another a little broken or jaded from life. I also love that even though this book is one of a series she wraps up the plot. Nothing is more annoying than when I have to wait an entire year for one plot to be concluded. Sure in the last two pages it is clear that there are going to be new challenges for Liv and Cam, they are going to be new challenges, and I am not going to have to wait a year to find out how the first plot ends (thank you so much for that Rachel). I would recommend this book to anyone, even those who aren't really big on the supernatural, while this book does give some humans a type of power, they are still human and I think it would make a great read for people who aren't into vampires and weres. Already looking forward to the next installment.

Buy Blood Bound on Amazon! It's a MUST read!

My Soul to Lose by Rachel Vincent

 

As always SPOILERS WITHIN

To begin I would like to say I LOVE Rachel Vincent. I am slightly willing to be unfairly kind to her because her the world she creates with her mind makes me so uber happy I am sometime willing to overlook things I would sometimes give other authors grief about. This all stems from the Shifters series, of which I fell madly in love with. That being said I remember when Vincent started releasing information about Soul Screamers and then finally the novella. I toyed with the idea of reading it over and over again, mostly because I love her and there were times between Shifters books when I needed a fix. But alas I avoided the YA. My reasoning behind this is this, I also have a bit of a love affair with Rachel Caine (PS I love that both of these amazing women live in Texas). I started with Rachel Caine's Weather Warden books, and then moved on to her Morganville books. While I enjoyed the Morganville books, they clearly have a different tone to them, and because of that I picked up on things I found annoying. And then when I went back to Weather Warden books because a new one had come out, I would find those same things I found annoying in Morganville, and then my love for Rachel Caine got a little bit smaller (I still buy all her books and read them religiously so it's not like I'm a Rachel Caine hater now). My fear with Vincent is that the same thing would happen, and I was not willing to do that. Well Shifters has been over for a while now, my tears have dried over the amazing ending to a great series. And now I need a Rachel Vincent fix. After stalker her website for months, and searching the internet far and wide for any information on her new series I have given up and gone for Soul Screamers, or at least the novella, it's hella cheap on my Nook so I figured why not. It's short if I don't like it no harm no foul, I will just wait patiently for the new series.

So with that really long and probably unnecessary introduction, I read it. I liked it. Vincent is a great writer, she never dumbs things down for the reader, even the YA department. Another thing I like about her is her world building. I remember reading the first Shifters book and coming away from it thinking I have a really good grasp on what is happening in this world. This not always the case for some series, some series I can be three books in and confused because my foundation isn't good. This is not a problem Vincent has, she's great at the world building (and if her twitter posts are any indications it's because she works her but off on getting everything the way she wants it).

That being said this novella was no world building, it was Kaylee building. Kind of a new concept for me, I'm used to character building while world building. Vincent doesn't explain what Kaylee is, doesn't really introduce any other characters in any kind of major way. You leave the novella knowing that Emma is Kaylee's best friend, and a good one judging by the fact that she wrote to Kaylee while she was in a mental hospital. That her Uncle really loves her, and probably understands her best out of all of her parent figures. That her Aunt loves her but doesn't get her. And that she has a "cool" cousin who we never meet.

Most of the novella takes place in the mental hospital, which is a traumatic experience for Kaylee, as I think it would be for any young girl suddenly waking up tied to a bed. Vincent's descriptions of Kaylee's reactions were real and easy to relate to. I could easily see myself reacting the same way as Kaylee did if I were in her situation.

Mostly this novella leaves the reader with a feeling of knowing what Kaylee is going through and how she feels, and more than that the reader wants to know what the heck is going on with her as much as Kaylee wants to know. It is clear Kaylee knows when someone is going to die, which she knows when she has what she refers to as a "panic attack" and the overwhelming desire to scream. So I kind of have a feel of where this is going but in no way do I have any specifics, or have any idea how Kaylee is going to get a handle on this, but I want to know.

I think the novella achieves its purpose by making me want to see what happens to Kaylee. Vincent gives just enough to make me like Kaylee and find out what happens next. That being said I follow Vincent on Twitter so I know the names of characters and kind of a round about idea of what is going on (I think there is someone named Todd and I think he might be a reaper, don't quote me on that). Either way I am intrigued, and thoroughly enjoyed the writing, will be reading the next book in the series sometime soon.

Buy My Soul to Lose on Amazon!