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    Shadow Bound
    Shadow Bound
    Shadow Bound
    Ebook457 pages

    Shadow Bound

    By Rachel Vincent

    4/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    “Bestseller Vincent returns to a world of syndicates, bindings, magic, and blood in the engaging sequel to Blood Bound . . . an action-packed conclusion.” —Publishers Weekly

    Kori Daniels is a shadow-walker, able to travel instantly from one shadow to another. After weeks of confinement for betraying her boss, she’s ready to break free of the Tower syndicate for good. But Jake Tower has one final job for Kori, one chance to secure freedom for herself and her sister, even if it means taking it from someone else . . .

    The job? Recruit Ian Holt—or kill him.

    Ian’s ability to manipulate the dark has drawn interest from every syndicate in the world, most notably an invitation from Jake Tower. Though he has no interest in organized crime, Ian accepts the invite, because he’s on a mission of his own. Ian has come to kill Tower’s top Binder: Kori’s little sister.

    Amid the tangle of lies, an unexpected thread of truth connecting Ian and Kori comes to light. But with opposing goals, they’ll have to choose between love and liberty . . .

    “Fast-paced, action-packed . . . It is very difficult to put this book down . . . Rachel Vincent fans should not miss this one!” —Fresh Fiction
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateJun 1, 2012
    ISBN9781459229976
    Shadow Bound
    Author

    Rachel Vincent

    New York Times bestselling author Rachel Vincent loves good chocolate, comfortable jeans, and serial commas. She’s older than she looks and younger than she feels, but is convinced that for every day she spends writing, one more day will be added to her lifespan. Now absorbed in the dark, tangled loyalties of her UNBOUND world, as well as the travails of a teenage banshee in her SOUL SCREAMERS world, Rachel can be found online at www.rachelvincent.com or urbanfantasy.blogspot.com.

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    Reviews for Shadow Bound

    4/5

    57 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Kori Daniels is facing the consequences of her inadvertent assistance in the activities of the first book in this trilogy when the story begins. Kori is being tortured, starved, and otherwise being abused in Jake Towers' basement having been ordered by Jake not to fight back. She is released only to serve as a lure for a Skilled man named Ian Holt who Jake wants in his syndicate.Ian has his own reasons for bringing himself to Jake's attention. Ian brother Steven is dying from breaking an oath that was bound by Kori's sister Kenley. Ian wants to get close enough to Kenley to kill her in order to free his brother. Once he meets Kori his plans undergo a revision. He falls for her because of her courage and strength. Unfortunately, Kori has been ordered to do whatever Ian wants so she can't trust his feelings or her own. This was an amazingly difficult book to read because Kori had so many awful things happen to her. She is bound to Towers's service in order to protect her sister Kinley but she feels, and is, powerless against the bonds that have been imposed on her by Jake Towers. Ian also has a very difficult time because, for a while, it looks like he will be forced to choose between his brother and Kori. It doesn't look like there is a way to save both of them.This is the middle book in a trilogy and has the same wonderful world building as the first book. People who have Skills are bound by oath into crime syndicates. They literally cannot break orders given to them by their masters. There is no way out for the most Skilled. As long as they have people the love, harm to those loved ones can be used as a threat to keep the Skilled one in line.I can't wait to read the third book in this series to see how things are resolved.
    • 5/5
      NOTE: I received this book for review from Netgalley.

      Gosh, what can I say??? No words are good enough to explain just how embarrassingly marvelous this book is!!! You'd ask why embarrassingly, I'm sure, and here's the answer: Because it puts to shame any other urban fantasy/paranormal novels I've ever read. Then again, Rachel Vincent is one of my most favorite authors out there, so yeah...

      I just want to start off with saying that the world building was freaking awesome! And I mean that with no reserve. Even though book one - Blood Bound - already gave us a pretty good clue what things are like in the fictional world of events, it was sort of like one side of the story - Ruben Cavazos's side. Shadow Bound takes it west - to Jake Tower's empire. Seen through the eyes of Korinne Daniels and Ian Holt.

      We learn of new Skills, new people involved in the whole business of binding, new life stories. And we learn just how ruthless a man can be. And that's a lot.

      I hated chapter one, because as a woman, it made me cringe at every word, every freaking thought of pain. It simply got to me, and I can't deny how fresh and how realistic it all felt. Sure, the weight of the pages kept me on my side of the world, but Kori's side was also there. I could see it. I could feel it. And I hated it.

      Until Ian showed with that shining armor of his, ready to conquer to world, just so he could rescue the princess. Who was no princess at all, but a broken thing with no future. Kori had suffered through so much that she couldn't trust even herself. She tried to be strong, and she was good at it, but at night, when darkness took over, the strength abandoned her. All she had left were nightmares that she couldn't escape, couldn't run away from.

      Ian had no idea what he was getting when he requested a petite blonde to show him around Jake Tower's world. He'd bargained for one thing and gotten something completely different. But not for one second did he regret it. No, he played his game smartly as far as he could under the circumstances, given that he was slowly falling for the girl whose sister he was supposed to kill. And if that didn't complicate things enough, he was also being hunted down by the other syndicates, because his Skill was just that valuable.

      The emotional roller coaster was the size of Hulk in this novel, and I wasn't sure at all how things would end until the last page was turned. And I love it when I can't predict a book's ending. It sort of makes it unique. Makes me think of it.

      I also want to say that the characters never got out of their personality. Not even once. They followed their own traits throughout the novel, no matter how difficult it was. For example, Kori did not abandon her attitude, or her fighting spirit, even though she felt like she'd lost herself. Ian kept to his chivalry, even when threatened with death. Tower didn't waver from his ruthless self, despite all the problems that caused him. Nor did any of the minor characters. Rachel didn't even once compromise with their personal traits for the sake of the novel. No, she only described the way she saw them. The way they were. And that was what made Shadow Bound so intense, so incredible and entertaining. So much that I couldn't put it down.
    • 4/5
      This was another great story be Rachel Vincent. At the beginning of this story you know that Ian and Kori are going to end up together at the end, but seeing how the story comes together is great. It's amazing to me how she pulls her characters out of impossible situations and still keep the story realistic (or as realistic as a fantasy fiction can be) :) there are some surprises in this story and we see many of the characters for
      Blood Bound. Can't wait to see where we go in the next story.
    • 2/5
      Oh, the disappointment. After my initial excitement with the concept of this world, SHADOW BOUND is a story I had to remind myself to go back and finish. All the intriguing magic and boundaries that fuel my interest turned out to be the mechanism that lost it again. The main characters are so hampered by the Oath system and their own lies, it really wasn't exciting to read how things would turn out. Even the most definitive victory is diluted by the "realities" of the syndicate system, a system which is so powerful and corrupt the very existence of these special few "heroes" just doesn't seem real.
    • 3/5
      There is no doubt that Rachel Vincent is among the best authors of paranormal novels on the market today. She has a more than proven track record. That said, I was somewhat disappointed with Shadow Bound. With the Unbound series, Vincent has created another amazing, horrifying world for her characters. It is a world where very few people have any kind of freedom especially if you happen to be one of the skilled. If you have an skills (Kori, our heroine is a traveler and Ian the hero is a Blinder) at all then you are wanted by one of the powerful syndicates (think the ultimate mob lords). Kori is bound to work for Jake Tower. After the events of the previous novel, Kori has been removed from Jake's elite security team and has been punished, tortured, and locked in the basement. Jake finally removes Kori because he has a job for her. A very talented blinder has emerged with extremely rare skills. Kori needs to woo Ian and get him to sign on with Jake's team or he will hurt Kori and her sister Kenley, a binder. What Kori doesn't know is that Ian has an agenda of his own. Ian wants to get to Kenley.This world is truly horrifying. The consequences for disobedience are often fatal. Shadow Bound was interesting enough and I flew through the pages fairly quickly. The problem for me was that it felt like not a lot really happened. Kori and Ian meet and fall in instant love, much like it is in any romance novel. There are secrets between them. They talk a lot. They go out in public and get attacked every time. After awhile I wanted to yell at them for being dumb enough to go outside again. Then they come up with a plan to let everyone hopefully make it out of the book alive. I really liked the last part of this book. It was a great climax and the ending leaves the series in a very intriguing place. However, I just didn't think there was enough action along the way. This book ended up being just okay for me.
    • 4/5
      BLOOD BOUND was a slam dunk for me so when I saw that SHADOW BOUND was set to release it was a must have on my wish list. I was all set to purchase the book so that it could join BLOOD BOUND on my bookshelf and then I read a review on SHADOW BOUND and was so disappointing that I might not like the book so I was all set to not even read it at all. Netgalley ended up throwing it up for review so I was like what the heck at least I will know what happens so I can read book 3 when it comes out and not be lost. I just got done reading it and THANK GOODNESS I didn't pass it up It looks like SHADOW BOUND will be joining book 1 on my shelf after all. If you have read book 1 you know who Kori is and what went down. SHADOW BOUND starts up 6 weeks after the previous events with Kori getting out of her punishment for her role in what happened in the Tower house. She has been beaten, raped and all around tortured. She is then send for more punishment as Tower forces her to be a new recruited personal recruiter and get him to sign anyways she can or else he will subject Kori's sister to the same treatment she herself was forced to endure. Ian is on a mission to kill Kori's sister to save his brother from a binding that was placed on him and that is slowly killing him. He never expected to be attracted to Kori let alone not want to kill her sister for fear of hurting her.The main parts of SHADOW BOUND takes place over a very short couple days so some of the stuff written is a little unbelievable. Kori and Ian's attraction right off was a little off because of what Kori went through but in her defense she was far from throwing herself at Ian. I think Vincent did a good job of writing in her feelings I just think it would have made more sense if a little more time had passed. I enjoyed both of their characters and the world building of the unbound series was again pretty darn awesome to witness. I love that past characters got a little role and I hope that that continues with the next books. The emotions are pretty dark and I admit I was bawling my eyes out a few moments throughout. I went in thinking that I was going to hate SHADOW BOUND but I ended up pleased with the outcome. I'm interested to see who will be the main characters in OATH BOUND.

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    Shadow Bound - Rachel Vincent

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