oathbound – GoodeyReads

Rating: ★★★★☆
Audience: YA Urban Fantasy
Length: 656 pages
Author: Tracy Deonn
Publisher: Simon Teen
Release Date: March 4th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Severed from the Legendborn. Oathbound to a monster.

Bree Matthews is alone. She exiled herself from the Legendborn Order, cut her ancestral connections, and turned away from the friends who can’t understand the impossible cost of her powers. This is the only way to keep herself—and those she loves—safe.

But Bree’s decision has come with a terrible price: an unbreakable bargain with the Shadow King himself, a shapeshifter who can move between humanity, the demon underworld, and the Legendborn secret society. In exchange for training to wield her unprecedented abilities, Bree has put her future in the Shadow King’s hands—and unwittingly bound herself to do his bidding as his new protégé.

Meanwhile, the other Scions must face war with their Round Table fractured, leaderless, and missing its Kingsmage, as Selwyn has also disappeared. When Nick is detained by the Order’s Merlins, he invokes an ancient law that requires the High Council of Regents to convene at the Northern Keep and grant him an audience. No one knows what he will demand of them…or what secrets he has kept hidden from the Table.

As a string of mysterious kidnappings escalates and Merlins are found dead, it becomes clear that no matter how hard Bree runs from who she is, the past will always find her.

Thank you Simon Audio for the gifted audiobook and Simon Teen for the gifted copy.

I’M STILL PROCESSING.

Bless an incredible audiobook that helped me move through this quicker because this era of life calls for audio reads and I have been waiting for this one for so long!!! And it delivered!!! DELIVERED.

I’ll start with my one small hiccup. The first 30% was rather slow with some key people being separated and on these side quests that I was waiting to wrap up and move along. But when they moved along? GOODNESS. I was glued to my headphones.

I loved the addition of more POV’s. I really liked seeing more angles of the story and thoughts from other characters. It expanded the world and politics and magic system too.

There was one character (trying to stay vague to prevent spoilers if you’re catching this review before reading the books) that I missed and wanted more of. I think that will definitely be happening in the next book but this had a middle book vibe that was hard to ignore.

STILL. Incredible writing, an amazing journey that touches on so many relevant and important topics. I love that these characters are strong AND also show weakness and growth. I am here for it all and can’t wait for book four!!

OH AND DON’T FORGET THE ROMANCE HAS ME IN A CHOKEHOLD. That is all.

Overall audience notes:

YA Urban Fantasy
Language: mild
Romance: emotion based fade to black
Violence: moderate – high

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Fantasy Romance
Length: 304 pages
Author: Victoria McCombs
Publisher: Enclave Publishing
Release Date: January 1st, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Beware the waters. The dangerous deep brings ruin to all.

Emme has spent her life avoiding anything to do with pirates. But the fates are cruel, and now a hidden sickness leads her to partner with pirates for the one thing that can save her—a cure on an island none are certain exists.

The pirate captain’s secrets are darker than the deep and threaten to kill them all. His obligations are tinged with betrayal, for his oathbind must be fulfilled. To ignore it is to invite peril of unimaginable destruction.

As the adventure unfolds, the sea takes more than she expects and the sea gives more than he wants.

A BIT SOFT.

I don’t know that I’ve ever called a pirate, high seas adventure fantasy, soft. But that’s the only word that keeps triggering in my mind after finishing. I don’t fully think it was a bad thing for me, just different. Nobody wanted to unalive anybody and I had a hard time grasping that ideal with the way the story is set up.

The romance is super soft, minimal angst, added in with some drama. Once I got that vibe I thought it was cute. Emme and Arn were clearly into each other and they learned to work together and solve problems with the rest of the crew.

For the plot, it’s a typical pirate adventure with mysterious sea creatures, ship battles and hidden treasure. I still had a good time reading it and didn’t have any noticeable issues. It’s a solid younger YA read and I do have plans to continue the series and see some other points of view.

Audiobook note: I thought the narrators voice overall was great. BUT this is dual POV between Arn and Emme and the voice did not change enough between the chapters that I felt confused at times as to whose POV I was listeing to.

Overall audience notes:

YA Fantasy Romance
Language: very little
Romance: kisses
Violence: moderate
Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of life, loss of a parent, creature attacks, murder, alcohol consumption