A review by julieabe89
Soul Bound by Mari Mancusi

4.0

Soul Bound is the seventh Blood Coven Vampire’s satirical series. Like the previous books, this one maintains it’s rather juvenile character development and plot. Don’t get me wrong Sunny is way less whiny and Rayne is way less angry whiny than earlier books, but the overblown way Mari does it is hysterical. This book mainly focuses on Rayne as she tries to find a way out of being sent to hunt down her sister and Magnus while Slayer, Inc. investigates Pyrus and tries to overthrow him. Chaos ensues the moment she and Jareth go looking to warn them that Pyrus is on their tail. What she doesn’t know is that Bertha, the made-over slayer, is lying when she says that they already had an idea of where Sunny is. Actually the Consortium uses Jareth’s secretary to low jack him and track him to them. The end result is that Sunny dies and Magnus is captured. So Rayne journeys to the underworld to save her sister Orpheus and Eurydice style. And there’s freaking wifi…in the Greek Underworld, and Hellbook, like Facebook but for the dead. You can check people’s living status (but not communicate with those still alive) and find people who left this life before you. That’s right, you thought death meant getting away from social media. Oh and most Chinese sweatshops have outsourced to the freaking Fields of Asphodel. You heard me. Sweatshops in the afterlife. The thing that annoyed me most is their use of “Hell” throughout the book when the Greek Underworld was more than just Tartarus. The Elysian Fields are shown but still stormed by demon patrol? It was an odd take for sure. THEN the ending is that they hit reset and we’re back at the beginning of the series to do things right this time? I am not sure how to handle that. I enjoyed the story and the portrayal of Hades as a gamer who is willing to let souls go for good gaming tips. If you enjoy an easy quick satirical read about semi-superficial teenagers with a crap ton of celebrity look-a-likes, you’ll enjoy this series.