Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Book Review: Soulbound

Soulbound (Lone Star Witch, #1)Author: Tessa Adams
Publication Date: February 5, 2013
Publisher: Signet Eclipse
Series: Lone Star Witch # 1

As the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter—and a member of Ipswitch’s Royal family—Xandra Morgan should be a witch of incredible power. But things don’t always turn out like you expect…

While she hasn’t lived up to her family’s expectations, Xandra has come to terms with her latent magic and made a life for herself in Austin, Texas, running a coffee shop where she makes potions of a non-magical nature. While things aren’t perfect, Xandra is happy—until she runs into powerful warlock Declan Chumomisto.

Xandra hasn’t seen Declan in years, and though she’s still overwhelmed by his power, she doesn’t trust him. And when her own powers awaken one night and lead her to the body of a woman in the woods bearing the symbol of Isis—the same one that has marked Xandra since the day she met Declan—she’s filled with a terrible suspicion, soon confirmed: the woman is connected to him.

Xandra doesn’t want to believe that Declan is capable of murder, but as the body count mounts, and Xandra’s own powers spiral out of control, she’s not sure she can trust her own instincts…


“Behind me, my mother shrieks my name. In a booming voice, my father demands that I return to the ballroom at once. But I’m running full out now, scrambling to get away from the pity and the revulsion radiating from so many of the guests. They’ve come from all over our territory, all over the world, to witness the Kas Djedet of the youngest, and supposedly most powerful, Morgan daughter. What they’ve witnessed instead doesn’t bear thinking about.” – Finished Copy pg. 5

 
“Two thoughts hit me at once. First, that I was right about the power. The man who is even now slowly, inexorably, crossing the last few feet between us, is a warlock of almost unimaginable skill. One who straddles the line between light and dark, white magic and black. One who even my very powerful parents speak about only in whispers, despite the fact that his brother has been dating my sister for years now. Though Ryder celebrates most holidays with us, Declan has never before been invited to our house. After all, my mother is adamant that we don’t associate with his kind of power.” – Finished Copy pg. 9

 
“For long seconds, my brother doesn’t say anything. But I can feel him searching for the truth and it makes me a little sick. Not because I don’t believe what I’m saying, but because I need so badly for him to believe it too. I’m tired of being poor Xandra, the one everyone in the family – in the coven – feels sorry for. That’s why I liked Austin so much. No one there expects me to be anything more than what I am.” – Finished Copy pg. 37

 
“I don’t bother trying to sleep. One, because I have to be up at four to get to work and two, because I’m terrified that if I close my eyes I’ll be bombarded by images of that poor woman. Of Lina. Or worse. I’ll get sucked into a world where I’m fascinated, instead of repelled, by Declan Chumomisto.” – Finished Copy pg. 139

As the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, Xandra Morgan should be an unbelievable witch with power so great that you would need to approach her with a shield of steel and a ten foot pole. Only she’s not. Xandra’s world is consumed by magic and all of her loved ones expect her to carry on with the magical gene, in fact they will stop at nothing to help her obtain her own witchy powers. However, Xandra comes into a gift all her own; she starts to have visions that lead her to corpses and she begins to see the cause of death. This gift she has obtained turns out to be a little more dangerous than she could have ever imagined and puts her between a rock and a hard place: good and evil.

 
This cover of this book really drew me in and I was spellbound by it; no pun intended! Xandra Morgan appears helpless and naïve within the first few pages, but readers quickly learn that she anything but that. She is a strong, brave, and ruthless heroine who I will follow as long as this series continues. Her behavior after learning that she doesn’t possess the same powers as her family was so overwhelming and I greatly admired her. I wanted to get to know her better from the first page and I was Team Xandra the entire way through. Half the time didn’t even care what might be going on with other characters; I just wanted to know how she fit into the situation. I love characters like her who get me so involved with the plot of the book that I feel like I am the Robin to their Batman!

 
In books like this one world building is key. From the very beginning I was thrown into a world full of dark magic, witches, warlocks, and things that I could never dream up even within my wildest imagination. The new terminology was awesome and the suspense had me on the edge of my seat. Sometimes I think that only with supernatural worlds like this one you can come across this intense character building and suspense that plays on the nature of the world that the characters are submerged in.

 
Overall, I was extremely pleased with this new series and I will be anxiously awaiting the next book. Declan was a great “bad boy” character and I loved the romantic aspects of this book as well. Xandra appeared more scandalous and sexy when he was around, and it was nice to see a different side of her! So fearless!

 
***A big thank you to the publishers at Signet for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review***






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