Review: Blood Bound (Unbound #1) by Rachel Vincent

Blood Bound (Unbound #1) by Rachel Vincent

Published: August 23rd 2011
Publisher: Mira
Page Count: Paperback 463
Genre: Adult, Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy
Find the Author: Website, Good Reads, Twitter, Blog
Buy This Book: Amazon, The Book Depository

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... - Good Reads           

I was introduced to Rachel Vincent through her Soul Screamers series and when I realized she had adult books out as well, I knew I had to read them - I am an adult after all! And every once in a while it's nice to have the maturity an adult novel can have. 


First of all, Rachel Vincent deserves a round of applause for her creativity. She has an excellent imagination and knows how to build an intricate world. I am thoroughly impressed. The world Blood Bound takes place in is full of people with special abilities: trackers, seers, binders, travelers, etc. A lot of the people with special abilities are controlled by one of two fractions, which is reminiscent of the mafia. Liv and Cam take turns sharing their viewpoints throughout the book and both are trackers. Liv tracks by using blood and Cam tracks by using a persons name. Cam and Liv were involved six years previously, but Liv left Cam at a party right before he was going to pop the question. Cam shows up these six years later with Liv's best friend from childhood who needs her help. Liv wants to refuse, but is unable to because she and a group of her friends made a blood pact when they were twelve that they'd always help each other if asked. So, unfortunately she is compelled / forced to do her friends bidding. The world is very intricate as I said, but it's easy to follow and is very captivating.


Liv was easy to relate to and easy to like. She had her flaws, but they weren't imposing and she was the perfect balance between strong and soft. Cam was a very loyal and protective guy. I was a little surprised that he still had it bad for her all these years later, because she didn't give him a good reason for dumping him, just took off. But the romance between them was good and comfortable and I liked it. 


Overall, I really enjoyed the book. It had me guessing right up to the end and surprised me numerous times. The ending was very abrupt though and I would have liked to see Liv and Cam a little more resolved than they were. I didn't quite feel that they were given adequate time alone to really get through their issues completely and unfortunately it looks as if the next book in this series will be through Kori's viewpoint and I didn't really like her a whole lot in this book, but hopefully being in her head will change that. I am eager to hear more about the world this was set it. It's very unique! And I am curious to see what happened to Kori at least, so I'll definitely be continuing this series! 


This isn't a Young Adult book and there is quite a bit of swearing, sexual references and sex scenes in it, so I'd definitely recommend this to older readers.