The search is over for your next book. If you’re looking for a must read this summer, look no further than Shadow Bound. This book blew me away and I believe it will have readers talking and discussing for a long time to come. Debut novelist, Erin Kellison has created a book that’s almost hard to categorize. It’s a well-crafted mystery, thriller, paranormal romance that will absolutely hook you. Romance readers will definitely get their romance; urban fantasy fans will get a gritty urban underground fantasy; and paranormal lovers will get the unexpected, because there isn’t a vampire, werewolf, or shape shifter in sight. What there is, is magic, believable characters, an engaging romance, and a world I’ve not seen in other books. In short, it’s an absolute original.
The premise of Shadow Bound is fascinating. It begins with the journey mortal men and women take as they pass from life to death. Accompanying them through the passage is the fae lord Shadowman, but, when he breaks the rules and falls in love with a mortal woman, there are enormous consequences. His love for a mortal woman causes the veil between worlds to open and through it comes the Death Collector. As the name suggests, the Death Collector is a malevolent evil who grants men and women immortality and eternal youth by turning them into wraiths: possessed humans who feed on other human souls to stay ‘alive’. His ultimate end game is world domination.
Adam Thorne, CEO of the Segue institute, has a different end game in mind, and it’s personal. When his brother Jacob sold his soul for immortality to become a wraith, it became Adam’s mission in life to destroy them. Using his family’s fortune, he created the institute in an effort to rid humanity of them.
However, Adam will need more than money and a plan to rid the world of these soul suckers, he will need a weapon. And that weapon comes in the form of his newest employee, Talia O’Brien.
With her Ph.D. in hand, Talia is ready to take on new opportunities at Adam’s institute and leave behind the mysteries of her past, in particular the special abilities she’s been hiding all these years. Unaware that Adam needs her in his quest to shift the world’s balance toward good, she is caught between Adam and the deathless wraiths that hunt her down.
Erin Kellison is a new voice on the scene, a voice I want to hear more from. Hit the ‘buy now’ button, because Shadow Bound is an original, fast paced, captivating page-turner with an ending that will leave you stunned and eagerly wanting more. Fortunately the sequel Shadow Fall will be released in August.
The hero, Adam Thorne will do anything to rid the world of evil. What’s your most admired trait in a hero or heroine?
Until next Thursday, lay off the chocolates. And remember, there’s always a great discussion at Romantic Reads.
Maria Lokken is an avid romance reader and an award winning television producer.
