“The greatest enemy of knowledge isn’t ignorance, it’s the refusal to do anything about that ignorance. That’s what we should really be afraid of.“

Title: Brimstone Bound
Rating : 3.5 ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Spice : ✖️
Tropes : Slow-burn romance, Whodunit Mystery, UF Sassy Heroine, Age Gap, Crime Fighting Duo, Close proximity, Protective Alpha.

Blurb : Emma Bellamy is one placement away from becoming a fully fledged London detective when she is brutally murdered by an unknown assailant. She wakes up in the morgue and discovers that werewolves are disappearing and a mysterious vampire is following her. She must solve her own vicious killing before death comes for her again.

Trigger warnings : Graphic Death, Murder,Gore, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Staged Suicide, Poisoning, Knife cw, Gun cw, Staged auto-erotic asphyxiation, Gunshot.

Brimstone Bound is a crime, UF novel rather than a romance in my opinion, but I hope that will change as we get further into the series.

We’re following Emma as she attempts to become a fully fledged London detective when she is brutally murdered by an unknown assailant in vampire territory, only it doesn’t end there. She wakes up in the morgue after she sparks into spontaneous combustion resulting in her twitching and being alive. Ya’ll she woke up in the freaking morgue on a slab!! Just imagine the horror for her and those poor workers. The goddamn trauma of that alone would give me nightmares. This is where the whodunit trope comes into play, and we’re taken on an adventure of supernatural and human politics. And who else to go along for the ride other than the lord of vampires?

I get a sense he could be a potential love interest as we get further into the series, despite her having a boyfriend, but for now, he is interesting as the other half of this crime-fighting duo. Although my interest is fairly cautious, after all, we don’t know his motive. It could be to maintain the illusion of Supe Squad, and preserve the vamps' and wolves' status quo all the while manipulating Emma like a chess piece, moving her where he sees fits. I guess we’ll see. Oh, and speaking of said boyfriend, Jeremy, I don’t like him. He seemed fairly controlling and just gave me off vibes. The ick is real with this one.

I’ll be honest, it took me awhile to warm up to Emma as a character. She is really judgemental towards the “Supe Squad” and I understood the mindset behind it ( that you only get sent there if you’ve messed up badly), but come on man, a little respect goes a long way. The Hoity Toity attitude slowly fades as she’s immersed in the Supernatural world, which thanks the gods for that. Her dialogue is a little clunky at times, but it didn’t put me off too much. I’m hoping that is a character flaw rather than an actual writing one.

The writing itself was fast paced and it was easy to keep up, the world building was slight in the fact that we didn’t get overwhelmed with information. We got to know some of the Supernatrual around London and their leaders. It will be exciting to see how they deal with new leadership within the supe Squad—especially since it’s obvious she’s not exactly human herself.

I enjoyed how the other murder cases was wrapped up, but the ending and the reveal of why Emma herself was attacked was abysmal. I actually rolled my eyes so hard and that made me drop it from a four star to a 3.5. I couldn’t stand it, it was too stupid, but because I am intrigued and we didn’t get any answers about what Emma actually is or how she woke up after dying in the first place, I will continue on with the series. It kept me entertained enough throughout, so I will follow through to the end.