When I don’t absolutely love the first book in a series and it doesn’t end with a cliffhanger, it’s 50/50 whether I’ll read the next installment. There’s just too many other great books out there waiting to be read. If it weren’t for the trust I have in those hard-core Mercy fans I know and the fact that the entire series to-date was already conveniently in my hands (thanks Katie), I wouldn’t be writing this review. *Smile* The trust was not unduly given. I liked Blood Bound much more than I hoped for.
Moon Called ended with Mercy owing her Scooby-Doo loving friend and vampire Stefan a favor for helping her save the local werewolf Alpha and his daughter. When an uninvited vampire shows up in the Tri-Cities area in Blood Bound and the violent crime rate soars, Stefan calls in that debt. Afterall, Mercy is the lone walker in the community of things that go bump in the night, and what vampire would suspect a pet coyote companion as he investigates? Soon enough Mercy’s doing what she does best – getting entangled with the supernatural folk’s problems – and this time it’s the local vampire seethe who needs her help, whether they like it or not.
Things are darker in the second book, what with the horrific, bloodsucking, ruthless vampire-types and the mysterious demonic magic users running around. But where I was bogged down by werewolf politics and protocol in the first Mercy book, I was fascinated by undead vampires and their flocks in this one. Somehow no nonsense, dry-humored VW mechanic Mercy makes it all feel like a fun, light romp through a world where normal people and the supernatural live side by side. To my surprise, I loved Stefan. Like Mercy, he doesn’t really belong but knows who he is and what he stands for. There are a lot of goofy, cliched vampire jokes included in this installment, and I laughed at them all. The bad guys were so bad that you can’t help cheering their permanent deaths. And Mercy is just pure cool. She’s got the right friends in the right places, and I’d hang out with her any day. It’s a wonderful thing that I already have Iron Kissed within my grasp.
