Dire Bound

Dire Bound by Sable Sorensen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gah - this book was great but also frustrating. Are there a lot of tropes (like “oops, there’s only one bed available at the inn” and “ooh that bad boy hates me and we definitely won’t have a sizzling attraction”), but somehow managed to subvert them in little ways that had me forgiving the author. Since I’m not usually a historical paranormal reader, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect here but, wow, this was a good way to get me hooked on a new series, antiquated technology or not!

Meryn is a woman who will do anything for her family. She dropped out of school and became a street fighter for money to make sure her mom gets medication and her sister can attend a good school. In this world, vampires are the bad guys and the ruling kingdom employs dire wolf-bound warriors to lead the fight against them, keeping them out of the city. This somehow excludes the kidnappers who steal children from their beds at night. When this happens to Meryn’s sister, not even her handsome boyfriend can convince her to not sign up to take up the fight and join the war.

The path to join ends up coming with a surprise bonding opportunity with some unbonded dire wolves. This, of course, leads to a lot of twists and turns in the intended path Meryn wants to take to get her sister back. I’m not going to spoil anything but there is a TON of world building that happens here. There are a lot of different classes all her fellow chosen recruits end up in, each special in their own way. There is also a lot of betrayal. Layers and layers of it, but not necessarily in the way I expected.

This book was filled with all the good stuff - a rich world that includes so many interesting characters to learn about, customs to see, fights to be had - and it also left us with so many unanswered questions. It is a sort-of cliffhanger scenario at the end, but I can once again forgive this sort of reveal because it makes me want book 2 even more!

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