Ties of Blood and Bone
Books of Binding #2
by
A.E. Lowan
This story begins shortly after the previous one ended, and it introduces a slew of new characters. There’s a little bit more romance in this than in the previous book, and while it’s important to the story, it’s not really the focus. It’s good to see though, as it’s a little point of light where things are otherwise pretty grim.
The plot revolves around how the main character, Winter Mulcahy, needs to die in order for a sorcerer to fulfill a geas laid on them. If the sorcerer doesn’t kill Winter, a demon will eat their soul. It’s a dark story, and while there’s some gruesome violence, it mostly happens off-screen, and the reader is only shown the aftermath. There’s no wallowing in gory details.
What I’ll whine about:
The point of view often shifts from one character to another between paragraphs and without warning. Mostly this is done really well, and it’s clear that it’s happening, but on a few occasions it misses the mark and ends up getting confusing.
What I’ll gush about:
Rabbit shifters. I’ve known Lowan for a while, and they’ve often mentioned they have therian rabbits in their story. I’ve always thought about them as being some kind of cutesy comic relief characters – bunny shifters, you know.
Turns out I’m wrong. Turns out you can make therian rabbits into something rather bleak and heart-wrenching.
The setting. The world shown in the story is very rich, and there are more preternatural elements than you can shake a stick at. The rabbits mentioned above is just one aspect of it. It’s almost all dark, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t points of light speckled throughout.
The relationships. I won’t be going into details about this, as there are potential spoilers for the previous book here, but let’s just say that it’s good. There are a lot of aspects that don’t seem to be common to the genre.
Finally, major vampire called in as actual babysitter.
Final Comments
This is a slightly darker, more mature take on Urban Fantasy, and if that intrigues you, I’d strongly recommend having a look at this.
