Bound by Duty (Bound, #1)

by Stormy Smith

[cornerfolds]

This review is also available at Cornerfolds!

Okay, I'll admit I didn't expect to love this book. Don't ask me why - I just didn't go in expecting much.

I was wrong.

Bound by Duty was amazing from start to finish. There was romance, action, and magic. And it worked. The author writes beautifully and I was pulled into the world from the first page. Speaking of the world of the Bound series, it's unique! There are no vampires, werewolves, or fairies. There are mages. For those of you who aren't 100% sure where mages fall on the paranormal spectrum, have a couple definitions!

*A magician or learned person.
*An archaic word for magician.
*A skilled magic user who, unlike wizards and sorcerers, needs no staff as an outlet of his magic, but instead uses his hands.
*Wizard class in most role playing games.

So mages are wizard-like magical beings who have powers but do not require a wand. Alright, I can live with that. In this series there are Mages, Animages, and Hunters. The Animages turn into animals so they're like... weremages? And the Hunters work for the evil queen. Ah, yes, the queen. Well, she's bad, she's kind of a psycho, and she wants to use our heroine, Amelia, to secure her place forever. But Amelia is a badass who cannot allow this to happen. "How will she stop it?" you ask. Better read and find out, I guess.

The best part about this book is that the characters are believable, sympathetic, and they're all well written - even the secondary characters. Amelia is a strong heroine who must choose between love and duty as her mother did before her. She's likable and, most importantly, she's not whiney! Her best friend, Bethany, is equally lovable, though her "oh, honeys" started to grate on my nerves by the end (I was born and raised in North Carolina and people don't really talk like that in the South). The men in their lives, Aidan and Micah, were the kind you wouldn't be ashamed to bring home to your dad.

I did have the whole betrothal and mate thing pegged from about halfway through the book, but it certainly didn't detract from the story. When the end came I was at 94% on my Kindle, so be forewarned. I thought I had 6% of the story left to go when, suddenly, the "Acknowledgements" page was smacking me in the face. I'm not sure when the second book in the Bound series is going to be released, but it is definitely at the top of my to-read list.