Official Review: Bound by Sarah Downing

[Norma_Rudolph]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Bound" by Sarah Downing.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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A slave girl, Coiran, is on her way to a temple, escorted by a priest. The ship they are on becomes caught in a storm. The ships mage needs a sacrifice to save the ship, and the captain decides that Coiran is the most expendable person on board. The priest is unable to protect her and she is taken. But, on the heaving deck in the storm, the magician botches the execution and she survives. The ship crashes and she washes up on the shores of Mocene.

Elam, a prince of that land, finds her on the beach and saves her. In the process he unwittingly begins a coup in which his family is in deadly danger. Elam is distracted from that danger at first, however, by the problem that the ships captain still wants Coiran to finish the sacrifice.

Elam and Coiran pass through trial, torture, betrayal and every sort of test both physical and magical before they unveil the truth and justice is served. There is much more subtle plot and subplot in this story, but to tell it all would be too much of a spoiler. There are magicians, priests, gods, mythical wolves, and above all the heroic prince and loyal slave girl who fight them all.

I give Bound 4 out of 4 stars. It kept me riveted to the page the whole way through. I read it in two long sittings. And, though I did spot a couple of tiny editing issues, they did not take me out of the story enough to lower my rating. I normally don’t care for books with quite so much violence, but this one is so well written that it sucked me in in spite of myself.

I was a little let down with the ending at first, thinking that it left too many questions. But, as I reflected, I came to terms with it. It leaves room for further books if the author so chooses.

I recommend this book to lovers of fantasy, especially those with a thirst for adventure and intrigue. It is clean enough for young adults as well. That is, as long as you are not too concerned with violence issues such as knives, and medieval style torture. However, that is no more than you expect to find in books of this type. Well done Sarah Downing.

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Bound
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Like Norma_Rudolph's review? Post a comment saying so!

[SarahDowning9]

Hi Norma,
Thank you very much for your kind review. Just to let you know, I am currently working on the sequel.
Kind regards,
Sarah Downing

[Norma_Rudolph]

You're welcome. It was a great read.

-- 02 Feb 2015, 13:58 --