Scan barcode
whatthefridge's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I’m rating this based solely on vibes, and since I don’t have any major complaints, well, may as well.
Haven’t read an action thriller in a long while, and I forgot just how edge-of-your-seat stressful it can get lol. The romance is truly a B-plot to the urban fantasy, but it’s a damn good romance with the rare sex scenes being actually good.
This comes with dense worldbuilding, but it manages to hook me regardless. I like Patrick’s snarkiness, which makes sense since he’s got that resigned Constantine vibe to him. The things that damned him have become his greatest assets, and he’s stuck being the best at something that’s only chipping away at him. So of course his sense of humor is going to be cynical, and it works.
Jono’s role is really to be Patrick’s anchor, in every sense of the word. We don’t get a lot of time in his head, but he’s a chill dude who’s able to maneuver around Patrick’s personality.
If I had any complaints about he story, they're pretty mild:
Haven’t read an action thriller in a long while, and I forgot just how edge-of-your-seat stressful it can get lol. The romance is truly a B-plot to the urban fantasy, but it’s a damn good romance with the rare sex scenes being actually good.
This comes with dense worldbuilding, but it manages to hook me regardless. I like Patrick’s snarkiness, which makes sense since he’s got that resigned Constantine vibe to him. The things that damned him have become his greatest assets, and he’s stuck being the best at something that’s only chipping away at him. So of course his sense of humor is going to be cynical, and it works.
Jono’s role is really to be Patrick’s anchor, in every sense of the word. We don’t get a lot of time in his head, but he’s a chill dude who’s able to maneuver around Patrick’s personality.
If I had any complaints about he story, they're pretty mild:
- The way PoC characters are described feels a bit forced at times, but at least it’s on the clinical side, not lingering or over-emphasizing.
- No way is a “billionaire” slumming it with normies. Marek wouldn’t be allowed to hang out casually with the Poors.
- No way is a “billionaire” slumming it with normies. Marek wouldn’t be allowed to hang out casually with the Poors.
- I was also a little bummed when Hades was associated with Hell, but thankfully it ended up more nuanced than just having Hades be evil.
- As always I gotta side-eye copaganda, but it is what it is. At least it’s not an incompetent military like in Hollywood.
- There’s a tiny plot inconsistency near the end where Jono is told not to break his lease that’s ending in 6 months, but then we get Jono and Patrick moving in together a month later anyway with no mention of that lease.
Overall, while I was reading this book, I told my friends it felt like I was binge watching an entire season on Netflix. Fortunately, there’s more books in the series if I want to keep going. I’m kind of worried where it’ll take the story since the stakes were already very high here. Very easy to jump sharks, but I’m cautiously optimistic.
- As always I gotta side-eye copaganda, but it is what it is. At least it’s not an incompetent military like in Hollywood.
- There’s a tiny plot inconsistency near the end where Jono is told not to break his lease that’s ending in 6 months, but then we get Jono and Patrick moving in together a month later anyway with no mention of that lease.
Overall, while I was reading this book, I told my friends it felt like I was binge watching an entire season on Netflix. Fortunately, there’s more books in the series if I want to keep going. I’m kind of worried where it’ll take the story since the stakes were already very high here. Very easy to jump sharks, but I’m cautiously optimistic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Sexual content, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Torture
Moderate: Alcohol and Gun violence
Minor: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Child abuse
wardenred's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
“The SOA isn’t the military with a multibillion-dollar budget and the ability to write off your destructive tendencies with a mere warning.”
“That’s a shame. You might want to look into changing your budget.”
This book was actively recommended to me as something that would scratch the itch left by Charlie Adhara's fantastic but sadly finite Big Bad Wolf series. I fully admit it's possible that if I picked it up for some other reason, I would be a bit less strict. Beyond the surface similarities, like being investigative urban fantasy with werewolves and m/m romance, these books really have little in common. The Soulbound 'verse, for once, is a lot more expansive and varied—and I feel like it's both this novel's strength and downfall.
On one hand, I'm extremely impressed by the rich lore the author crafted and by how all those elements—magic users, shifters, demons, gods, vampires, and more—all mattered to the plot. On the other hand, the plot often got seriously bogged down in all the worldbuilding, especially given the way the lore was introduced. There were SO MANY infodumps, OMG. It's unreal. Especially at the beginning—it felt like the story just couldn't start properly, because every page or two everything paused and there were a few paragraphs of densely worded explanations that I could barely process. Because I expected to read an exciting urban fantasy novel, not a guidebook on a made-up world. It was also so awkward and unnatural given the third person limited POV—as if the main character felt the need to suddenly just stop everything and think about a number of things that are supposed to be perfectly familiar to him. It's like if you, hypothetical future reader of this review, paused right this moment to conduct an elaborate inner monologue on what Storygraph and book reviews even are. I bet you don't feel the need to do that, do you?
This heavy-handed delivery made it hard to follow the plot in more than one way. Like, I'm still not sure if it's a plot hole that during their second meeting Marek tells Patrick something like, "You didn't say you were a mage, we thought you were just a cop." Like, come on, Marek cast an anti-eavesdropping spell when they first met? Although he did describe casting it differently than his previous spell, so maybe Marek assumed he was a witch and not a mage? How am I supposed to know that, though? Was that information contained in one of those guidebook-style detours that I glossed over because I wanted to get on with the story parts? It certainly wasn't in the story parts.
As for the romance plot, to be honest I didn't feel any strong chemistry between the leads and I felt like their mutual investment in the relationship grew too quickly. What frustrated me that given these guys' respective backstories and personalities, there was a lot of potential for me to absolutely fall for their romance, but something was constantly off. Probably the balance of the action/mystery storyline and the relationship storyline, for the most part. And again, there was plenty of potential for syncing up those plots to help them move together more smoothly! But it was completely missed in favor of infodumps and some other needless wordy moments.
I'm probably still going to continue with the series, because the setting intrigues me, and there are a lot of characters here who seem interesting. Though unfortunately few of them are anywhere near what I'd call "fully realized," possibly because there are just too many people and other individuals on these pages to give anyone proper screen time and significant chance to establish themselves. But... yeah, this wasn't the reading experience I hoped for, especially when I kept comparing this book with Charlie Adhara's far more thoughtfully crafted works.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Gore
cattails's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Murder, Violence, Sexual content, and Gun violence
Moderate: Torture
Minor: Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Suicidal thoughts
More...