BWB Review: Shadow Bound

Title: Shadow Bound
Author: Erin Kellison
Page Count: 332 pages
Publisher: Dorchester
Genre: paranormal romance, urban fantasy
Copy for review provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

50 words or less: Talia is on the run from deadly wraiths who want to give her their smooch of doom. Adam is running a research foundation devoted to eliminating wraiths and has one (his brother) locked in the basement. What could possibly go wrong?

Well.

I want to start off by explaining a few things. First: I did not finish this book. I tried and I tried, and around halfway through I was so mired in my issues with and dislike of the main characters (which I'll get into in a moment) that I just set the book down (figuratively) for the last time.

Second: although this book definitely gets a Could Not Finish from me, I'm also classifying it as Don't Panic. Although I was left cold by the characters here, there are enough glimmers of good stuff here that I can definitely see why other people enjoyed this book. I am totally willing to entertain the possibility that this book might rock and it might be me that has the issue.

The raw materials of this book are definitely good. The paranormal elements are unique, taking elements of the fae and of dark magic and creating not only a bad guy creature that I haven't encountered before, but also a pretty cool way of dealing with those creatures. There's the element of the secret, sort-of-government lab, where research is being conducted in order to try to fend off the coming war with the wraiths. There's family drama, the mystery behind Erin's father (we know who he is, but only some of the characters know) and the potential for a really great story is definitely exposed early on.

What ultimately did this story in for me was the complete lack of connection with and between the characters. I'm totally fine with a hero or heroine not being "sympathetic," that is, I don't mind if someone is prickly, awkward, shy, nervous, scared, brave, ballsy, ugly, or boastful; hell, even arrogant, self-centered, brutally honest, cocky, terrified, and dependent can all work if combined in the right ways to render someone whose actions I can at least understand. I was unable to relate to either Talia (the heroine) or Adam (the hero) in any way and consequently didn't find a lot to hold my attention in any of the rest of the story.

I find it very hard to write anything about Talia as I didn't find her all that memorable. She's got these kick ass powers that stem from her mysterious father and the intellect and common sense to be able to process huge amounts of information and present a theory that's substantiated by facts or at least by research, and yet she never really emerges as a "presence" in the book. She either needs to be rescued or is caught in a state of emotional turmoil, which doesn't leave a lot of time for her to really become an individual. She has an inexplicable attraction to Adam which doesn't really ring true; I mean, Adam hired/kidnapped her, trotted out his freaky supernatural brother, and declared himself her protector somewhere in between his endless list of needs and demands, so he isn't much of a catch. Pity and sadness seem to be the primary emotions she feels whenever he's around.

Oh, Adam. While Adam certainly carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, and has a lot of responsibilities and a noble purpose (saving the world usually is, after all) it's immediately apparent that Adam has rules that apply to other people, and a whole different set of rules that apply to him. Adam decides periodically to play hardball with people to get what he wants and then he feels bad about it afterwards and feels the need to bog down the story with thoughts about it, but that doesn't stop him from doing it again in the future.

Example: after snatching Talia off the street when heat stroke renders her unable to fight off a wraith, Adam tries to convince Talia to stay on as an employee at Segue, his research foundation dedicated to eliminating wraiths forever. When the "this is a great research opportunity and it's for the good of all humanity" argument falls flat when he lets it slip that she can't leave, Adam decides the best thing to do is drag her down to the basement to meet Jacob, his creepy brother, who happens to be a wraith. The ordeal is obviously traumatizing for Talia but Adam doesn't seem to care; instead, he figures he's nothing like Jacob, so it's all good. Apparently physically hurting people is wrong, but emotionally hurting them isn't. Who's the monster here?

Not only did he not really object to emotional blackmail, but he put Talia in the rather undesirable position of keeping her skills and identity a secret unless she wanted to get outed to and recruited by the Department of Defense. I mean, most people go out to a restaurant or something on the first date, so Adam's approach is a little...unique.

Then there's the troubling fact that Adam's got so many side deals and secrets and alliances going that he wouldn't know the truth if it jumped up and bit him on the ass. Talia actually opens up about her knowledge of her father and what that means for the fight against the wraiths (although I fully admit that I don't really understand why; open up to someone, sure, but why the guy who's holding you hostage?) and Adam's response is to go and rehash the conversation with other Segue researchers. Talia doesn't feel like she can trust anyone and Adam doesn't do a thing to earn that trust; she gives the trust anyway, which is a whole other kettle of fish. He wants to bang Talia; he wants to study her; he wants her protected; he wants her under the microscope. Well, guess what, Mr. Fancy Pants, we don't get everything we want, and the fact that Adam pretty much does roam around unchecked made the "relationship" these two feel stilted, forced, and awkward. I love a story where the hero and heroine start off as adversaries and end up as allies, but that didn't come together here. Instead I uncovered two people bound together by circumstance who were inexplicably attracted to one another and who, instead of acting on that, should have run in the opposite direction.

The secondary characters didn't fare much better; I'm hard pressed to remember any of their names, and frankly it felt like many of them were introduced just so they could be killed off to advance the plot. Maybe they'll get more attention at some other point but I don't really remember anything about them other than that a disproportionate number of them seemed to meet an ugly, sticky end.

I definitely think that if I'd been able to connect with the characters or found them to be more three dimensional, then I'd have enjoyed the story more. Like I said, the raw materials were definitely there, but after over a hundred pages of not really liking any of the players in the story, I just didn't want to read any more. I definitely support anyone who wants to give this book a go; personally, I'm all set.

Overall Grade: Could Not Finish