Review of Blood Bound by Lindsay J Pryor – Release Date 21.09.16

Thanks go to Bookouture and Lindsay J Pryor for gifting me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

 

For anyone who knows me, or follows me on twitter or my blog, they will know I am a huge fan of the Blackthorn series. Dark, gritty and infinitely addictive, I anticipate each release with the excitement of a five-year-old at Christmas.

 

I have read all of the books multiple times – with one notable exception. I’ve only read Blood Deep once, which was the novel where we first met Eden and Jessie. Why? Because it was my least favourite. Don’t get me wrong, I still loved it, but if I had to rank them, that particular novel would have been at the bottom of the pile.

 

And so with the release of Blood Bound galloping towards me, where we revisit Eden and Jessie once more, it felt like the right thing to do was to give Blood Deep another read through.

 

And I’m so glad I did. My memory definitely played tricks on me the first time around. I’d remembered Jessie as not quite as strong as our other heroines, and Eden a little too laissez-faire for my tastes. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Eden is anything but laissez-faire – in fact, he’s an extremely complex character with multiple layers who is also hot, sexy and such a good person. And Jessie has an innate strength that left me breathless. I admire and envy her, at the same time as wanting to be her.

 

With my brain back in gear, I sat down to read Blood Bound.

 

There will be no spoilers in this review, but what I will say is that I read it in one sitting; this is an extremely rare occurrence for me because I do tend to get restless, even with books that I’m thoroughly enjoying, and I have a habit of putting them to one side for half an hour to do something else before I get back to it.

 

Not with Blood Bound. I even took my kindle to the dinner table (luckily I have a very understanding husband!)

 

Lindsay J Pryor has triumphed with this latest instalment of her wonderful series. The emotion has been ramped up to such an extent, there were times I could barely force myself to read on. If you’ve not yet found Blackthorn, let me be clear; this is not some ‘normal’ PNR series where the hero and heroine meet fall in love and eventually live happily ever after.

Some of the scenes in Blood Bound made for very difficult reading, especially when you are so invested in the characters. Once or twice, I found myself gasping out loud at the twist and turns, and I spent a large proportion of the novel in disbelief and fear. For those fans of ‘Friends’, I almost wanted to take Joey Tribbiani’s lead and put the book in the freezer, like he used to do when he got scared reading ‘The Shining’, but I didn’t think my kindle would survive the cold!

 

We learn things about Eden and Jessie’s past in this book which made my heart ache. Jessie – what a woman! And Eden hasn’t so much as wormed his way into my affections rather than he’s barrelled his way in, knocking down several walls in the process. Whilst I am, and always will be, a Kane Malloy girl, Eden is a worthy contender for second place. I’ll happily play kiss-chase with him any time he likes! 

 

Blood Bound is a dark, disturbing, enthralling, breathtaking and downright genius piece of writing.

 

I bow to Ms Pryor for what she has achieved here. If I could give this book ten stars, I would.

 

I’m off to get ready for the finale – Blood Broken.  Whilst not expected to be out until sometime in 2017, I shall need that long to prepare for what is undoubtedly to come.

 

Hang onto your hats folks; you’re in for a bumpy ride.

Below are just a selection of what readers are saying about this series. I couldn’t have put it better myself.