🩸 Blood Bound 🩸

• Ellis Hunter

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘You duel, or you die.’

Astrid has always known she was destined to die. She is a Nachstern witch and a Princess of Arturea. As is written in their law, the heirs to the queendom of Arturea and the kingdom of Vatra must duel. The winning heir will secure the Heart for their country – an infinite source to power. Astrid’s people desperately need the Heart to fight the blight that is scourging their queendom. The problem for Astrid is that her opponent is the fearsome Prince Zryan, the most renowned Vatran dragon rider in generations. 

Meanwhile, Skylar is part of a travelling troupe of performers and thieves. She harbours a deep hatred of anything Vatran, ever since the King’s guard executed her mother, but the prospective of lucrative winnings from the crowd gathered to watch the duel draws her troupe to the Vatran capital. Except, her path is destined to intertwine with the royals more than Skylar could have ever predicted. 

I do really enjoy a dual POV, especially between two FMCs – such as Twin Crowns or These Notorious Virtues. I really enjoyed both Skylar and Astrid’s POVs. The plot was incredibly fast-paced – it felt like we were getting new information and developments virtually every chapter. It’s a longish book for current fantasy standards, which I appreciated. It felt the authors took their time with the story. I also really loved that female friendship was put at the fore of this story! It’s something we rarely see in fantasy, aside from in subplots and it’s something that all of us can relate to. 

Additionally, the romance crept up on me – I didn’t go into it expecting to be giggling and kicking my feet quite as much as I was, even though it could have done with being a taaad more slow-burn for me. Still, I think Skylar’s romantic subplot might satisfy that slow-burn urge in the sequel. The witches’s familiars and the bonded dragons was a surefire way to my heart; I will always love an animal companion and this book was brimming with them.

It did read slightly more YA at times – for instance, it’s comped to Fourth Wing and Quicksilver, and I think those could be slightly misleading. I’d say the comps to the early Throne of Glass books and the Red Queen books are more accurate. For instance, some of the nicknames used lent the characters the air of being younger than they were – they were early 20s, but behaved more like 16/17 year olds. Definitely not something that put me off, as I love my YA fantasy romances, but just something to be aware of!

Overall, I will definitely be picking up the sequel whenever it releases. Was it a stand-out book in my month? Alas, probably not, but I did thoroughly enjoy my reading experience. It had a distinct Twin Crowns vibe about it, so if you enjoyed that series, I’d recommend this.

Have you read Blood Bound? It’s this month’s Illumicrate pick and I’m so excited to have it in my hands and see what they’ve done with the edition!