Oath Bound (Unbound, #3)

by Rachel Vincent

"The Tower Syndicate will fall ... The secret daughter of the head of an infamous Skilled crime family, Sera Brandt has hidden her past, her potential and especially her powers. But when a tragedy strikes her other family, Sera needs justice. And the only way to get it is to reveal her heritage including a rare Skill and take the reins of the Tower Syndicate from her cunning and malicious aunt. If he can figure out how ... Kristopher Daniels might have the answer. He's fought the syndicate to protect his sisters, but hed never realized just how close to the new heir he needed to get ... And if they can survive. Neither is used to trusting. But theres something between them that cant be ignored. And so Sera is on the run with a man she can't figure out, a target on her back and the new knowledge of just how powerful she really is ..."--Publisher's description.

• ISBN10: 0778314308
• ISBN13: 9780778314301
• Publish Date: 30 April 2013 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Imprint: Mira Books
• Edition: Original ed.
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

Proceed With Caution:

This book contains blood, violence, kidnapping, Alzheimers, mentions of rape and death.

The Basics:

Oath Bound is the third book of the series and picks up four months after the ending of Shadow Bound. I'd definitely recommend reading at least that one to get the full picture here. This time we're following, newcomer Sera, and Kori's brother Kris. Sera has just arrived in town to ask Julia Tower for a favor when she's interrupted and kidnapped by Kris who was looking for his kidnapped sister, Kenley. From there it's a battle of wills as both try to get what they want without revealving too much about themselves.

My Thoughts:

Oath Bound started out very frustrating. Well, it actually started out intriguing, as I wanted to know about about the long-lost Tower heir and how she'd be connected to the characters from the previous books. But after Kris snatches her from her meeting with Julia, I quickly got annoyed. Over 100 pages in and they were still going in circles.

Sera doesn't know Kris. She doesn't know Kenley. She's not from around here and just met Julia Tower five minutes before Kris burst in. She keeps telling him this, and he keeps insisting that he didn't kidnap her, he saved her, she's not a hostage, but she might know how to get his sister back. How in the world is she suppose to help him get his sister back when she doesn't know anything about anyone, and it's not like Julia would trade Kenley for her either. Yet, Kris is adament that he's in the right and can't let her go. On and on. Back and forth. For 100 pages. Seriously.

Whenever Sera tried to get Kris to take her back because she's useless to him, and tried to get an answer as to why he grabbed a random woman, he can't answer. He tells her to be quiet so he can think. He ties her up and tries to convince her (and himself) that she's not a hostage, she hasn't been kidnapped, he can't trust her. To me, it seemed like it was the author who didn't have an answer to Sera's questions. She just needed to force them together. There is a convenient one paragraph explanation after all this. But did we need 100 pages to get there?

Once we get past that nonsense, I really enjoyed Oath Bound. It was nonstop twists and turns. Every chapter added a little bit to the puzzle that is Sera's complicated life and connection to the Tower syndicate. Of course, there's also her growing relationship with Kris. Yes, it's basically insta-love, as they go from kidnapping to sexing to i-love-you-ing over the course of three days. There's a surprise ending which I though was really good! I didn't see that one coming. But there wasn't really a sense of closure. Kris was obsessed with Elle's journal and what it all means, but we never get that answer.

 

[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.

In this story, we follow Kori’s brother, Kris. He’s a shadow walker just like Kori. He and his sister have been working to save people from the Tower syndicate. When he breaks into Jake Tower’s house and sees a woman in a yellow scarf. He grabs her and saves her from Tower’s men from shooting her. Sera has a lot of secrets. One is really big. She’s Jake Tower’s illegitimate child. He never even knew she existed. She goes to the Tower residence because she’s hoping that long lost family will help her track down the people who killed her family.

This book was a great wrap up to the series, though I would’ve loved to see more of this world. It is such an interesting world and great characters. This series is a fairly dark series (though not as dark as the series that comes after it, Menagerie, which I also love). There are some things that might trigger some people, but you don’t see the abuse on the page, just reference to it after the fact. It is also great that you see these characters overcome the horrors that they’ve had to deal with.

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.

[Linda]

Romance, sexiness, violence, mystery and amazing twists and turns!

Full review to come soon...

This and all my other reviews are originally posted on my blog Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews