Thursday, October 18, 2012

Blood Unbound by Rachel Vincent (#3 in Unbound Series)



The premise of this story was really good. There are two feuding factions in "the city". Cavazos vs. Tower with one small area of the city considered to be neutral. If you belonged to either faction then you had rings tattooed on your designating both which faction you belonged to (by the color) and how long you had been with them (the number of rings) which also designated how high up the ladder in each organization you were (1 ring=5 years, 2=10 years and so on).

Liv is a blood tracker meaning with your blood she can find you. Liv's childhood friend has come to her with a problem: her husband was just murdered and she wanted him found. Liv was also helping Cavazos to find someone so she has to juggle these two jobs. Liv's ex-boyfriend is also part of the gig to help her friend, Anne and he makes no mystery that he wants Liv back, but Liv left for a reason and that reason still stands. The problems just keep coming and the reader wonders how in the world all of the problems could get resolved by the end. But indeed the problems do get resolved, but brand new ones arise at the end with a bit of a cliff hanger.

We don't get to know Tower at all except through the eyes of secondary characters. Cavazos, though, we do get to know and at times, the reader starts to think maybe he isn't so bad, but then he does something (or many somethings in a row) and the reader again knows he is a "bad guy". I think this is done on purpose as this is what the main character, Liv, goes through regularly.

Cons:
1. The story is written in first person POV of Liv (the Heroine) and while I normally like this, it would switch without warning to first person POV for Cam (the Hero). There was no title or description so that you knew you were going into his head. Just all of the sudden the "I's" stopped meaning Liv and started meaning Cam and I would often forget whose head I was in and has to go back and figure it out. There should only be one person giving the first person POV (my preference).

2. I really, really, really did not like Anne. She was supposed to be Liv's childhood best friend, but she repeatedly made me want to punch her. At the beginning, she asks Liv to track her husband's killer and Liv agrees to that, but Anne was the guy killed and she wants Liv to do it. Liv doesn't want to but she has to because Anne has asked her. That whole conversation was so annoying with Anne being the annoying one. I think that the author wanted to depict Anne as a mother who would do anything for her child, but she came across as a mother who would ask anyone to do anything for her. Later on she asked to go with Cam and to leave Liv with Cavazos even though Cavazos had just beaten Liv up and it would have been helpful for Anne to be there to see if he was lying, but little Anne didn't want to and we should all just give Anne whatever she wants because she is a suburban mom.

3. This is a separate issue although it still falls in the "I hate Anne" group. Anne slept with Cam the night that Liv left! Unforgiveable, but this is never broached at all in the book. Liv just gets over it after a brief discussion with Cam. Gah!

I liked it well enough to finish it, but I'm not dying to read the next one right away (maybe in the future).

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