Blood Bound (Unbound, #1)

by Rachel Vincent

They say blood is thicker than water. They have no idea.

As a blood tracker, Liv is extremely powerful. And in a world where power is a commodity that can get you killed, Liv has learnt to survive by her own rules. Rule number one? Trust no one. But when a friend s daughter goes missing, Liv is bound by a potent magical oath. She can't rest until the child is safe. And that means trusting her dangerous ex, Cam.

A sinister prophecy tells that she and Cam will be the death of each other, yet Liv s tired of being a slave to destiny. She s ready to play the forces controlling her world at their own game. No matter what the cost.

• ISBN13: 9781848450479
• Publish Date: 16 September 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 15 October 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Mira
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 448
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[Angie]

Proceed With Caution:

This book contains blood, death, kidnapping, domestic violence, and mentions of underage prostitution.

The Basics:

Blood Bound follows twenty-eight-year-old Liv, a Tracker. She's essentially a bloodhound for hire as she can track a person down using their name or their blood. Although her specialty is blood, which is why an estranged friend comes to her to track down her husband's murderer. Liv is reluctant to take the case, since she's also expected to execute the murderer, but a childhood blood bond forces her into the case which is much more complicated than it seemed.

My Thoughts:

The narration of Blood Bound bothered me. It alternates between Liv and Cam, which is fine. I like dual POV, especially when it's in the same perspective (it's first person for both here). But it doesn't alternate consistently. Most chapters are from Liv, and maybe every third or so chapter is from Cam. And sometimes he just pops in in the middle of a chapter, because why not?! They also sound exactly the same, which makes it confusing at times when I didn't immediately realize that the narrator had changed.

To the plot: Was I suppose to feel bad for Annika or for Liv? Annika's husband was murdered and the cops can't do anything about it, so she forces Liv to work for her using their bond from childhood that was never suppose to be exploited. That is a real asshole move. I absolutely did not feel bad for her, even when she was crying about not being able to tell her daughter about this. She could have tried to appeal to Liv's emotions as her friend, and I'm sure it would have convinced her. As is evident by her continued involvement in the case past her contract fulfillment.

I was also distracted by Liv and Anne's history. They hadn't spoken in six years, after Liv left everyone at a party without a word. Obviously, this mystery is part of the intrigue of Blood Bound, but that's not what I'm referring to. Anne has a five year old and Liv was shocked to learn that Anne had even been married, since the night she stopped talking to her, Anne had just been dumped. Anne had to have gotten pregnant immediately after or before that night, so I was suspicious about who her daughter's father was. I'm sure it's possible she had met her late husband and gotten pregnant and married soon after, but I doubted it. I was also thinking way too hard about it, but I knew I was on to something...

Unfortunately for me, I had read three books in a row with plots focused on children. I do not give a single care about in-danger children. Annika's daughter may be traumatized by her father's death, and maybe the murderer is coming back for her, but I don't care. I was interested in Liv and her ability and this strange, dark world and her strained relationship with Cam, but I did not care about some random kid. For me, it's not a good use of the world or premise. I love this idea of Skilled people and essentially a mob city who uses them for their own particular brand of justice. Kids have no place in that except as liabilities, which is proven here.

Fortunately, Blood Bound did regain my interest in the final third. I had figured out the twist, since there were too many coincidences to be a coincidence. But then all of the pieces started coming together. While I didn't care for the "protect the child!" plot, I was invested in Liv and her friends. I still didn't like Anne at all, but the odd dynamic between the four former friends (and Cam) was super interesting. I know there's a lot more to their bond, history, and future, and I'm looking forward to finding those things out.

[Melanie]

Review originally posted at RabidReads.com.

I’ve been on a bit of relisten kick lately, ever since late last year. I decided I would relisten to this series. It is one that I really loved and since wasn’t reviewing when I read them the first time, I thought now would be a great time.

So, the Bound series. It is a PNR series that takes place in a world just like the one we live in today. However, their are people in this world that have special abilities. These “skills” (not a complete list, but the most important ones):

Trackers, people who can try by blood or name
Readers, people who can tell when a person is lying
Travelers, people who can travel from one dark shadow to another
Blinders, people who can create darkness around them
Jammers, people who block the signature of other skilled people. Many hare highly paid nannies to help keep children from being found by trackers
Binders, people who can bind you a contract to the point that it can kill you to break that contract.
That last one is really important. There are two “leaders” in this city. Ruben Cavazos and Jake Tower. They each control about a third of the city, with the last third being “free”. These guys are kinda like mob bosses. They offer to help people who are desperate and then sign these people to an unbreakable contract. Their underlings get chainlinks tattooed on their bodies to show their affiliations. The more links, the longer you’re in the syndicate or how long you’ve signed up for.

I will also mention that names have a lot of power in them. Every Skilled person has four names, first, last and two middle. Each parent assigns a middle name, but they don’t tell the other. This way, only the actual person knows all four names. That is something that they hold close and rarely share. They even go so far as to name their children where the first name can be shorten, so that you aren’t using your full name on a daily basis.

This being the first book in the series, there is a lot of worldbuilding. Not to the point of being overwhelming, but we have to learn the rules of this world.

Liv, Elle, Anne and Kori were all best friends in school. So, when they were kids, the swore that they would always come to each other’s aid, if asked. Kori’s little sister, Kenley, convinced them that they needed to write it down. They didn’t realize that Kenley was a binder. So, this binding ruined their friendship. Especially since the paper it was written on was lost, so it couldn’t be destroyed.

Liv and Cam have a past. Liv, up and left in the middle of a party six years ago. She left everything behind, Cam, her family, her friends, everything. That is until Anne shows up to ask Liv to help her find the person who killed her husband. Cam comes with Anne and Anne wants him to help. This forces Liv and Cam back together. It turns out there is a lot more going on than Anne’s husband being murdered. These old friends are tested. Bonds are really hard to trust.

Narration
Gabra Zackman does an amazing job with the narration of this series. She keeps the voices consistent from book to book. I like her men and women’s voices. As these stories are told from first person POV that switches between the hero and heroine, Zackman even changes the narration parts so you can tell if the male or female is telling the story. Made the switch of POVs very easy to follow.

[littleread1]

I really enjoyed this story, even though the POV switching was sometimes hard to remember who I was reading and I figured out the big twist pretty early on. How ever I probably won't be continuing this series because I am really frustrated with trilogies focusing on different people in each book when the original MC's stories aren't wrapped up. I am sure they make an appearance, but ... well ... it's just not what I am looking for. However, like I said this is a good story, with some interesting rules for the world, so it's worth reading.

[Linda]

This was fantastic! Everything in this story was great, the characters, the plot, the story, the 'world' it happened in, and the skills some of the characters had. It was a very wild ride, heartwrenching, quick, and full of excitement. Liv and Cam would do anything for each other, and they both proved that several times.

It was very twisted, and completely dark, but still left hope that things just might turn out OK anyway. I could not put this book down - even though today is Christmas Day!! I kept clicking and clicking for the next page on my kindle, and I swear my heart was beating so hard in places, cheering for Liv, Cam, Anne and Hadley; this affected me in a way not many books do.

[Jo]

Rachel Vincent is one of my favourite auhors, so when the Shifters series finished, I was really quite sad that it had com to an end, but really excited to see what she would come up with next in the Unbound series. I threw myself into the story, and I was absolutely amazed!

Blood Bound is nothing at all like the Shifters series, as is right, but as you read further into the story, you pick up things that are...not similar, but very Vincent. Like the complexity of of the world's she builds. With the Shifters, it was in the politics of the werecats. With Unbound, it's with the Skills the characters have - the ability to track someone by their name or their blood, the ability bind oaths so that the one who took it absolutely has to carry out what they promised, people who can walk into one shadow and out another somewhere completely different, and so on. There are so many! But with binded oaths... wow. They cause pain that can lead to the shut down of your body if you try to go against the binding, they can stop you from actually speaking about something, and, if your oath is the right kind, it can make you do absolutely everything you are told to by the person you're bound to. Complicated huh? So when people of various Skills and bound to various people are brought together on a mission... well, things can get a little tricky. And I cannot tell you just how complex it is, and how much detail goes into it, it's just brilliant!

There is your fair share of action in Blood Bound - where it kind of puts me in mind of other urban fantasies I love; The Cassie Palmer series and Dorina Basarab series, both by Karen Chance, and the Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost - and it's edge of your seat exciting! But there's also the planning, the discussing, the working things out - the revelations and the strategising, basically, and it's just brilliant! This is where Vincent shines, in my opinion, because it's all in the detail! And there is no detail too small, every little thing is a jigsaw piece to the puzzle of the bigger picture, and it's just incredible seeing it all fall into place! I am seriously in awe of Vincent's ability to have so much that so complicated, but have it work and make completely sense! It's unbelievable!

Blood Bound is also a lot darker. There are characters that are absolutely disgusting, gangsters who care very little for anyone, who will go to any lengths to get what they want - whatever they want, and, my god, it's really awful. There are characters in this book I would quite like to see die a very brutal death, that's really drawn out. They just... oh, they make me sick.

This time round, Vincent has gone for a dual narrative in that Liv and Cam both tell the story. It was really interesting to see their relationship develop through both their eyes, yet to see what one doesn't know about the other and sometimes we, the readers, only get hints at until later. It was awesome! And I think I would say Vincent has made a step up on the romance side of things too. The love they feel for each other is just so strong, it's massive, but there are other things in their way, and it's just a little heart breaking to read, and seeing them trying to fight all sorts of obstacles. It was really moving.

What was really, really nice in this story was mother-daughter part of it, where a main character, Anne, has a young child and is absolutely terrified for them. That's the type of emotion we don't see a lot of in urban fantasy. Ok, so the child isn't Liv's, so we don't have the direct narration of the mother in her turmoil, but even getting it second hand is just so powerful! It was really lovely and really upsetting at the same time. There really should be more of it in urban fantasy.

Blood Bound is an absolutely fantastic book, and with the ending, I am dying for Shadow Bound! Is it asgood as the Shifters series? That's not a question I can answer, because they're nothing alike, but Blood Bound is just fantastic! A must read for Vincent fans! Why? Because Rachel Vincent has still got it!

From Ink and Paper - fantasy book blog.