Blood Bound (Unbound, #1)

by Rachel Vincent

[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.