Review: Blood Bound - Rachel Vincent

Series: Unbound #1
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 400
Publisher: Mira
Date published: August 23rd 2011
Source: I got an ARC from the author, yay

By blood, by word, by magic…
Most can't touch the power. But Liv Warren is special— a paranormal tracker who follows the scent of blood. Liv makes her own rules, and the most important one is trust no one. But when her friend's daughter goes missing, Liv has no choice but to find the girl. Thanks to a childhood oath, Liv can't rest until the child is home safe. But that means trusting Cam Caballero, the former lover forbidden to her.

Bound by oath and lost in desire for a man she cannot have, Liv is racing to save the child from a dark criminal underworld where secrets, lies, trauma and danger lurk around every corner…every touch…every kiss. And more blood will be spilled before it's over…

My thoughts:

This is the start to a new series from Rachel Vincent and after having her Shifter series I knew I wanted this book, and what more can I say then I am sure glad I got it.

The paranormal elements in this series are that some skilled individuals have the power to find someone by a name, by blood, some have binding powers and make contracts you can't break, and some can move from shadow to shadow. There are also more and everyone knows about them, but no countries have done anything about this and pretend they are not there. Then there are those who profit from these skills others have and that bring us to the novel. There are two crime bosses in the city and you do not want to cross them. They hold on to their empires and skills are a trade to them.

Liv has the skill of tracking and these days she tries to stay on one side of the town since she works now and again for one of the crime bosses, Cavazo. She is strong, kickass (we all know I love that), and she has this love for freedom because in this world it's not easy being free. I did like her at once.

Cam is her exlover who shows up asking her to take a case. I can't go into details why they broke up but just say he wants her back and she is running. One thing he did I did not like, but again there were reasons back then. But damn this man loves her and wants her back. He would go to the end of the world for her and that is enough for me to melt into that little puddle. What else can I say then I promise you some romance and passion on the side.

It's not easy trying to move through this mafia world but they try their best. And I do love the world she created, it might just be this tiny obsession I used to have for mafia related things. There is action, danger and a whole lot of questions. Which is also a great part because there is always something there, just over that hill and I am reading like crazy to find the answers to everything that is happening. You just can't put it down, you will want more, you need to know more.

And that brings us to Cavazo, the awesome baddie. He is so evil, and not in that delicious way where you want to have your way with him. But no in the evil evil way. He will not think twice of putting a bullet in your brain, he rules with an iron fist, he is cruel, he hits women, but I like him. Yes I do have problems it seems. The thing is that even though he is totally bad, there is still this glimmer of something decent buried way way way back inside of him and he does have one redeeming quality, which the other boss Tower does not seem to have. What can I say, I love a good baddie, and fine I pictured him as hot. But would not go anywhere near him. He is crazy after all.

Conclusion:

This was a great start to this series and it made me want the next book. Sadly I have to wait almost a year for that one. It also did not end in a cliffhanger,  ok sort of not ended. There was an end, there was a maybe, but I could live with it. To wrap this up, great book.

Rating:

Recommended

Cover:

I just do not like it at all. Are they in a forest? Why would they be in a  forest? I also think the cover might have been why I first thought it was a YA book when I saw it. And trust me, it is not.