Review: Blood Bound by Rachel Vincent

AH’s Review – 4.5 stars – Grade A-

Finally, a paranormal book without a single vampire, were, or other paranormal creature. Yes, it can be done. I loved the concept of this book.

Blood Bound has a rich and extensive world. This is a world where a single drop of blood holds the power to expose one’s whereabouts, and where a full name allows a person to be tracked. In Blood Bound, people with specialized Skills are highly sought after commodities. Many different Skills exist:  Trackers, Binders, Seers, Readers, Travelers, Blinders, Jammers, etc. Some Skills are more desired than others.

The crime syndicates stepped in collecting people with these Skills. Most Skilled people are affiliated either with Ruben Cavazos’ or Jake Towers syndicate. These syndicates play dirty and their recruiting methods are cruel but effective. The Skilled often find themselves bound to years of service to these syndicates. They are bound with tattoos that signify their rank and length of service. These bindings ensure that no one disobeys direct orders. A clever Skilled person always finds the loopholes in their binding and quickly learns how to be creative.

I loved the main characters Liv and Cam. Both are Trackers and they have a history together, even though they had been apart for a while. They are very much attracted to each other but they find themselves in opposing syndicates.

Cam was wonderful. I loved how devoted he was to Liv. Liv was such a contrast to Faythe in the Shifters series. Liv behaves like a mature young woman, carefully weighing all of her options. She is smart, resourceful, and stands up for herself against Cavazos’ abuse.

While there is a romance between the main characters, I did not find it first and foremost to the plot. Yes, I was rooting for the main characters. Who doesn’t love sexy times? The focus of this story was not the romance, but finding the missing child.

The secondary characters were interesting. Ruben Cavazos made a ruthless crime lord, but by the end of the book I was quite impressed with his character. Michaela was Ruben’s unbalanced and vindictive wife. Quite scary! Liv’s friend Anne was a Reader, a human lie detector, while her other friend Kori was a Traveler, a person able to travel from one place to another through shadows.

The book is written in first person point of view. I did find the change in point of view a little confusing at first, but I did enjoy the book. I was surprised to learn that the book only spanned a few days. It is jammed packed with action, flashbacks, and information. I really could not put the book down.

This is a great start to the Unbound series and I highly recommend it. The next book in the series is Shadow Bound. Can’t wait to get my hands on that book!

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