Oh, the disappointment. After my initial excitement with the concept of this world, SHADOW BOUND is a story I had to remind myself to go back and finish. All the intriguing magic and boundaries that fuel my interest turned out to be the mechanism that lost it again. The main characters are so hampered by the Oath system and their own lies, it really wasn't exciting to read how things would turn out. Even the most definitive victory is diluted by the "realities" of the syndicate system, a system which is so powerful and corrupt the very existence of these special few "heroes" just doesn't seem real.

Too depressing for my tastes.

You'd really have to be in the mood for some darkly disturbing stuff to enjoy this because Kori's character is really not in a good place after being raped, tortured and confined for weeks prior to the beginning of the story. Add in the deceptive, manipulative thoughts from the love interest as it's told once again in alternating first person POV's between the H and h, and it's clear it's not going to lighten up any time soon.

This was a DNF for me, despite reaching well past the mid-way point.