Review: Spirit Bound

Spirit Bound by Tessa McFionn
My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Spiritmates, tortured lovers and good versus evils are all up my alley. Full disclosure, I did not read the first book in this series. This book should probably be read after the first one. Still, it is possible to read this story and catch onto what is going on.

Galen Alexiou is an immortal warrior recruited a couple of thousand years ago to protect humanity and fight the good fight. In all these years, he has never met his spiritmate and figured it would never happen to him. Calliope Vandeen is a college student trying to complete her exams when she is kidnapped, interrogated and then tortured.

The setup of this story is good. The concept is attractive. For those who love Sherilynn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series, this book may be up your alley. There are similarities with ancient warriors given a second chance. There is also a leader of these warriors who may resemble Acheron a bit, yet speak like one of the brothers in J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood. Perhaps if I have read this book before the other two series, I would have rated this higher.

What would have helped this story more for me is the character building. Calliope starts out strong. She putters out midway. Her irrational behaviour when searching for her roommate goes against her previous logic when under torture. One can argue this is because she is more fearful for those she loves rather than what happens to herself. Then at the end she pulls off an unexpected feat that just throws me for a loop. This inconsistency does not work for me.

Galen's character is just okay. He is a bit bland and unmemorable. I could not really connect to him nor did I care if he died. The chemistry between him and Calliope is missing. Perhaps it is because the criticality of their binding is forced into a contrived miscommunication to add danger which lessens the impact.

This book started out strong and then became a bit mundane due to my lack of engagement with the characters. The world building is generic enough that it becomes a bit forgettable. This story is recommended to those who enjoy romance with soulmate themes.