Book Review: Dire Bound

Title: Dire Bound
Author: Sable Sorensen
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy

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What It’s About: Meryn fights at night in an illegal betting ring, and she plays with her opponent to make it seem like she’s going to lose, as a form of entertainment for the crowd that has gathered. Lee, the man she has been seeing, shows up with his medical supplies and she finishes the fight, winning. Afterwards, she goes to see Igor, who gives her the money that she has made from the fight—she needs it in order to be able to purchase her mother’s medicine from the apothecary. Then she goes to see Lee, whom she has been seeing for several months now, when he has time away from his duties at the palace. He cleans her up, and at one point a guy gets in her face, claiming that she did something to make the other man throw the fight. He tries to stab her, but she gets the upper hand and tells him to go away, so he disappears into the crowd. Then, Igor comes back with news that an eleven year old girl went missing, and Lee tells her to go. So Meryn leaves the illegal fighting ring, and makes her way across the quarters home, to check in on her sister, Saela, who is eleven years old and who Meryn has had the sole responsibility for as their mother has been sick with maddening visions and mental illness since their father died.

Since it was one of Saela’s friends that got kidnapped by the Nabbers—the Siphons who have made it all the way here from the border to steal children as they have the strongest life-force—Meryn talks to Igor the next day and tells him that she wants to teach the kids the same things that he had taught her so that they can defend themselves against the Nabbers. The classes begin, and some time later, a kid almost gets kidnapped by the Nabbers, but then manages to defend himself, which brings praise from the parents. Meryn also takes Saela on a walk after school, and they watch as Stark Therion, one of the Bonded, pads through the quarter with a man behind him—the same man who has threatened Meryn at the fight. He looks straight at Meryn in a menacing way, like he hates her. Some more time passes by, and one day Lee visits them for dinner, but Meryn’s mother seems lucid, cooking and laughing with them, until she lashes out at Lee. Meryn sets her mother to bed, giving her the medicine, and then afterwards, reads to Saela with Lee. Once Saela is in bed, Lee and Meryn go outside of her house, and they get a bit frisky, but Meryn declines to come see Lee at his place because of Saela. When she returns to their house, she notices a draft in the house, and finds that Saela is gone, having been kidnapped by Nabbers.

Meryn runs out looking for her, and gets both Lee and Igor involved, but Saela is long gone. As a result, Meryn goes into a deep depression and for several days she refuses to eat, or talk to anyone despite the myriad of visitors. Her mom seems to have gotten a bit more lucid, and accepts the help that she can get from the neighbors. Then, she overhears her mom talking with Lee about how they lost their father and Meryn realizes that she can do something about it, so the next day, she goes to the recruitment office and tells the officer that she wants to be sent to the training the very next available spot. He tells her that they usually have their recruits report after 6 months, but she is adamant that she wants to go as soon as possible, so he tells her to report the very next day. She goes to Lee’s apartment, and tells him the truth—she had enlisted. He tells her that she is joining the class that is going to get the opportunity to bond with the Direwolves, via a trial that will require them to climb the mountain near the city, which is a whole brutal process. Lee and Meryn have sex, and then Lee takes her out to a shop to buy her gear that will help her survive the Ascent, telling her that he will use his savings for their engagement bracelet instead to buy her the goods she needs. She’s a little embarrassed, but accepts it.

The next day, Meryn shows up at the recruitment space, and gets through to the other side. Once everyone is there, they get told that they will be going through the exercises to Bond with their wolves, and she makes friends with a girl named Alessandra. They pick up tents, and then march to a location near the mountain, where they pitch their tents and sleep the night. Meryn makes friends with Alessandra, Henrey and a few other commoners, away from the Bonded children, those who had grown up in families where both parents are Bonded, and who live in the richer part of town. They talk strategy, and all of them say that they will take the less risky way up to the mountain, as they just want to make it to the front, though Henrey wants to Bond with a wolf. Meryn agrees because she wants to make her way to the front to find Saela. When they wake up at dawn the next morning, they get told to go up the mountain, and Stark threatens them that for anyone who lingers, he will chase them on his wolf up the mountain. Alessandra ditches Meryn, and Meryn notices one of the Bonded attack another Bonded girl. Hating that sometimes the bigger men try to pick on smaller girls, she helps the girl get rid of the guy, and then her twin sister arrives. The girl who had been almost killed by the boy, Jonah, introduces herself as Izabel, and her sister as Venna. The two girls talk in sign language, and they later explain that Venna is hard of hearing so she finds it easier to talk in sign language. The twins tell Meryn that she will be climbing up with them, though Meryn tells them that she was planning on going the long, safer way, to which the twins tell her that it’s not any safer. Meryn looks over to see Stark looking at her, and knows that he will start chasing them, so she makes a split second decision to go with the twins.

It’s a tough journey to the top, and they get attacked a couple of times, though Meryn helps the twins fight off their attackers. When they finally make it to the top, the twins get bonded to different wolves from two different packs—Venna with Kryptos, and Izabel with Strategos. Meryn notices that Henrey too got selected by a wolf, like he wanted—to the Phylax pack. She keeps saying in her mind that she doesn’t get Bonded, but there is a beautiful, ancient silver wolf that comes up to her and forcefully bonds with her. She gets mad at the wolf because she didn’t want to do this, as she needs to go to the front, and is even more furious with the fact that her whole head of hair had changed to silver. But what is done, is done. Stark looks at her as he tells them that they have to make it back to the castle with their wolf by sundown, or else they are dead. The wolf, Anassa, leaves Meryn on the mountain top alone, refusing to speak to her through her mind, though Meryn asks Izabel for help. So Meryn decides that she is going to make it to the castle regardless, and leaves behind her pack on top of the mountain, running all the way to the bottom. She makes it to the castle door, and Strategos Beta Egith tells her that she can’t enter without her wolf, but then Anassa strolls right in, and ignoring her, heads out to the other side of the grounds.

Meryn spends the night on the bunkbed alongside Izabel, and then they have a presentation, which both Izabel and Venna help her get dressed for. At the event, Anassa comes to stand next to her on the gravel, but the wolf continues to ignore her. When King Cyril walks out, he is holding the Dire Sword, and Meryn is shocked to find out that Lee is actually Prince Killian. The King shoves the Dire Sword into the stone, and has the wolves kill and cull those that are weakest. Anassa jumps to Meryn’s protection, but Meryn misreads it and thinks that Anassa is about to kill her, only to realize it after the fact. Once the fight is over, and the wolves are free to go, Anassa leaves her without a backward glance, while all of the other kids say goodbye to their wolves.

Killian had passed Meryn a note, and so she decides to meet him in the garden at midnight, but she is furious with him for lying to her all this time. She rejects him, and then the very next day she tries to run away from the castle and Anassa, in order to head out to the front to find Saela. Unfortunately, she is hit with severe pain when she leaves the gates of the castle, and Izabel and Venna find her, dragging her back and telling her that there is no way that she can leave for now because the bond with the Direwolf is too new. She tells them about her sister, and they both understand her feelings, because there isn’t anything that Izabel and Venna would do to be together. They tell her their own challenges growing up in the Bonded families and how no one thought they would be able to make it through because of Venna’s disability.

Training begins, and over the course of four months, Meryn struggles with Anassa and also is resentful to be there. She has nightmares from which she wakes up in the arena twice. The first time, she hurries back to her room, only to be attacked by someone from the Daemos pack, and she takes him out but also cuts off his hand and shoves it down his throat, killing the boy who attacked her. The next day, she gets her first tattoo as part of the collar on their neck, which symbolizes the remembrance of the students they had to kill in their training. Then, Edith moves her into a private room, and tells Meryn that it has come from above her, so Meryn assumes that it’s because of Killian. She goes through the Communication Trial with Anassa, though neither of them are getting along, but they manage to get through the trial because Anassa lowers her barriers enough for Meryn to be able to see what she is going to do and adjust accordingly. Anassa is unhappy with their third place, but slams down the iron wall, and later, Edith rips into Meryn, telling her that she will be dead if she doesn’t figure it out. Edith points out that Meryn can’t be trusted by Anassa since she hasn’t accepted it all and is seeing herself as an outside. This is similar to what Izabel had said, and so Meryn makes her peace with it. She goes to Anassa to beg forgiveness, and Anassa also yells at her mentally about how she cannot be trusted, but only time will tell if Anassa can trust her. Anassa also tells Meryn that she knows who her mate is, so the whole sexual component of the evenings that Meryn had been witnessing under the guise of finding their wolf’s mate is unnecessary, but Anassa doesn’t tell her who he is, only telling her that she has to earn that knowledge.

Training starts to go better for the two of them, and Meryn also decides to make up with Killian; he sends her a note to come see him in his room, because he’s found some information on the Nabbers, and so she goes through the tunnel that he had told her about. Except, she finds herself at a fork in the road and goes down, where she finds a statue of a woman with a crown of two direwolves facing a stone, and sitting on top of a wolf. She is entranced by it, but then she passes out, and wakes up to find Killian hovering over her, on his bed. They talk it out, and he tells her that he has found the person responsible, so they go to the dungeons, where Meryn interrogates the man. He gives her the name of his brothers and associates, and then Killian kills him. They make up, and continue to see each other as time goes on. But Meryn shuts down Anassa from her mind when they have sex, which pisses Anassa off, and she does her best to work with her work to be mindful that Anassa needs to feel her emotions to make sure that she’s okay while also getting her the privacy that Meryn prefers. There is another trial, and Meryn and Anassa protect Nevah, one of their friends who has been a loner for some time, since losing her lover during the Ascent.

When the recruits get a chance to visit their family before the Forging Ball, Meryn heads out to see her mom, and sees that her mom is doing well. Igor stops by and they all talk, with Meryn revealing that she has nothing fancy to wear for the Ball that night, but her mom shows her the opal necklace that has been handed down through the family. Meryn takes it and when she arrives back in her dorms, she finds Izabel and Venna with a dress for her, though they apologize to her that it is out of style and season. It’s a beautiful gown, but when she walks into her own room, she finds a different gown—an emerald green one that is beautiful and perfect for her, with jewels. She gets dressed in that, thinking that it’s from Killian, and her friends Ooh and aaah. They go out to the ball, and Meryn gets jealous of all the women hanging around Prince Killian, but while she attempts to seek him out, she finds herself ogled by an old man and his wife, who comment on her attire as it doesn’t show much, and her hips. The two scurry away when Stark shows up behind her, and to avoid any additional gossip, he drags her into a dance. Stark tells her that it’s interesting that she has such a beautiful opal necklace—the one her mother gave her—for so poor a person. Meryn snaps at him, and he tells her that she should learn the meaning of the opal before she goes wearing it around. Prince Killian cuts in, and at first Star doesn’t want to let her go, but she gets him off and tells everyone that she belongs with Prince Killian. They dance, and then Prince Killian takes her to his father, who gives his blessing for the two of them to be together. The two of them sneak out and spend the night in Prince Killian’s room.

When Meryn returns to the dorms the next day, she finds silence and grief in the common rooms. Anassa is also furious with her because Meryn had slammed down the iron wall between them when Anassa was speaking to her about Killian, and as a result, missed the fact that the Strategos Alpha had gotten killed at the front lines. Edith is furious with her about it as well, and both Izabel and Venna refuse to look at her. Classes go on, with everyone taking it out on Meryn, but finally she makes an effort to find Izabel and Venna hiding in the Kryptos common room, where she explains everything to them about Killian, because that is what they are pissed about. Anassa also listens in and melts just a fraction. But before long, a messenger comes and tells Meryn that the Highest Alpha on the chain—Stark’s mother—wants to speak with her. So she goes to meet with her, and finds out that she has been selected as the Alpha of the Strategos pack alongside Anassa. She knows that she cannot lead them as she doesn’t know much about anything, so when Edith shows up and learns that she has been passed over the Alpha role, Meryn tells her to take command of the Strategos pack while she continues learning and finishes her own schooling. Meryn then goes to her pack and tells them that she is the Alpha of the Strategos pack, which gets a lot of surprise and pushback, but Anassa tells everyone to shut up. They all accept it, and Stark shows up later to tell her that she will be starting Alpha training with him the next morning at dawn.

Meryn joins him, and they fight with each other in his room, sparring. She is fascinated by some old books that he has in his room, and he tells her that they are not his but if she borrows them, he won’t stop her, though he’s not able to say more about them. Anassa is curious about them, obviously, but Meryn doesn’t think much of it. They go over her strengths and weaknesses, and come up with a training plan that Meryn sticks to over the next few weeks. She has Venna working on finding out more information about how weird things are in the castle, because she has a feeling about it all, and she had also slept walked a second time, to the same location on the fighting grounds, where she saw a familiar looking jewel in the drainage of the field, the one where the blood goes into when they tear each other apart.

News comes from Edith in the front that she has information and saw something, so Meryn packs to head out, and Stark stops her. When he realizes that she’s not giving up, he tells her that he will go with her, because she’s too inexperienced to handle it all on her own. Together, the two of them ride hours in the snow to a village, where they spend the night and where Stark and Meryn share a bed with nothing happening between them. They make it to the border town, where Meryn watches Stark plan out the infiltration of the temple where they had seen children several days ago. She looks at the drawing of Lucien Brightbane, who looks somewhat familiar to her, but she can’t place him, and then after the plan has been made, she’s with Stark as they infiltrate the temple. Unfortunately, they do not find the children whatsoever, and later Meryn interrogates the Siphon that they had captured, but he doesn’t give her any information, so she kills him. While Stark tattoos the death of the Siphon at her hands on her shoulder, things pull taut between them and they almost kiss, but are interrupted by Edith. Stark and Meryn ride their way back to the capital, though Stark stays at a distance. When they get to the city, Meryn wants to visit her mother, but finds the home boarded, up and later learns from Igor that she had been killed after ranting at a soldier and getting into an altercation. Igor tells her that Lee is helping with the funeral arrangements, so Meryn rides Anassa straight to Killian’s room, where he apologizes to her. He then proposes to her with a beautiful engagement bracelet, and despite Anassa’s protests, Meryn says yes to him.

The funeral for her mother is held in a beautiful cemetery in the richer part of town, and not only do all of the friends that they had from their side of town come, but so do many of Meryn’s friends come, along the remainder of the Strategos pack, who had been told about Meryn’s loss by Stark. It takes her breath away that Stark would think to do that, but she doesn’t give him much more thought because she doesn’t want to dwell on what almost happened between them. She then goes to clean out her house, gutted by the fact that Saela will never be back here, and that she never fulfilled her promise to her mom that she would bring Saela back. While she is cleaning up, she finds the hidden floorboard, where her mom pulled out the necklace from, and finds journals with paintings of that beautiful woman she had seen as a statue. Anassa warns her to hide it, and Meryn does hide it from Killian, though she doesn’t understand why. Meryn visits Anassa to look over these drawings and words—Nocturna, Lumina, and Astreona—but Anassa is not able to tell her anything more than telling Meryn to go research it on her own. This infuriates Meryn, and she shuts down all communication with Anassa, putting up the iron wall between them. She makes her way to Stark’s room, and pulls out the book that she had been interested in. Stark arrives and congratulates her on the engagement, but he doesn’t answer any of her question about the book, and only tells her to be careful with it when she tells him that she will take it with her. Meryn spends her free time reading the book and learning that prior to Killian’s ancestors becoming the rulers of Nocturna, her land, there is at least 500 more years of history, and that at one point it was a matrilineal line run by sister Queens. She hides the book when anyone comes in, though she wants to share that information with Killian.

The last trial comes and Meryn leads the wolves through the strategy to keep the Daemos pack from breaching the walls, but she has to make a decision to kill Henrey, whose wolf had started to attack him after having its foot severed thanks to Jonah’s cruelty. After all, Jonah had warned her and he had become particularly vicious since the culling of Perielle, who was the rider of the wolf his wolf was mated to. He had even attacked Meryn in class while they were learning to use their magic, and Stark had lost his shit on Jonah then, telling him that he will cull Jonah himself if he touches Meryn again. So he’d been staying away, but she figured that Jonah’s threat was for her, not thinking about Henrey. When the fight ends, Meryn’s group wins, and she watches as humans cart Henrey’s body out of the arena into a set of doors that go down. When they’re back celebrating in their rooms, Meryn speaks with Venna and tells her about it. Venna goes in search of the door to find out what is behind it, and hopefully find the drain system that Meryn was asking her about. In the meantime, Meryn and Killian have sex, though they are interrupted by Izabel, who pulls him out for a game. Stark shows up, and has a different member of his pack create Meryn’s tattoos on her neck, completing the collar, but they have a spat. So she takes Killian back and they have sex before falling asleep. She is woken by a soft knock, and meets Venna in the hallway. Venna takes her deep down into the castle, through a maze, until they come upon cells containing children. Meryn sees Saela there, and talks to her, to which Saela tells her that the King comes down here and selects children, then takes them and they’re never seen from again. Meryn realizes that she has to leave her there for now, but promises Saela that she’ll come back for her, and Saela asks her to not dawdle too long because she is sure she will be next.

Meryn returns to Killian, wakes him, and tells him what she found. They talk it out with him being angry about his father’s betrayal, telling her that they will end it the following day at the graduation ceremony. The day arrives, and Meryn is ready, but things go awry because the King decides that there will be another fight between the wolves and uses the Dire Blade to command them to fight each other. Meryn manages to cut through the chaos in her pack’s mind, and together with Anassa, they rally their pack, creating a strategy to get around the king. When they are close enough, Meryn slides off the wolf, grabs the blade and kills the King. Killian turns to her in shock, asking her what she’s done, before smirking in triumph—a subtle movement that Meryn catches at the end before she gets knocked out. When Meryn comes to, she is in the dungeons with Anassa chained across from her in a collar. The two talk it out with Meryn being angry with Anassa and Anassa pointing out that Meryn wasn’t exactly forthcoming either so why should she be trusted. Anassa tells her that her mate is on its way, and Meryn asks that Anassa has her mate’s rider find the crown in the drain with Venna’s help. It turns out to be none other than Stark and Cratos, who is Anassa’s mate. Meryn puts on the crown and sees a vision of the last Sturmfrost queen holding a baby, and then handing it over to a protector with the opal necklace, while she goes to face the Siphon who had arrived, telling the protector to get the child away to safety. When Meryn comes to, Stark reveals that there has been some blood magic that had made everyone forget about the Sturmfrost Queen after the Brightbanes had won the crown and killed her, and they can’t talk about the Queens at all, hence neither he nor Anassa could tell her anything. But it was passed down in his family as the protectors of the Kings through the books that she was drawn to, which makes Meryn realize that Stark is really her protector, not the King’s. He also reveals that he has always known who she was, hence it was why he killed that man for threatening her—having been in room during her fight. Stark tells her that he was the one that moved her into a private room, and also the one who left her that green dress. But he was bitter about her being in love with her enemy, and being weak, which is why he was trying to make her stronger, though Meryn thought he has hated her.

Together, they hatch a plan, with him going to get the children to safety with Venna’s help, while she calls to be taken to Killian. She gets cleaned up and waits for Killian to come back, and then apologizes to him, telling him that she is indeed mentally sick. While she finds it disgusting to be kissing Killian now that she knows who or what he is, she does it to get in control of him, and when she is sitting on top of him, with his hands pinned down, she pulls out the sword and asks him for the truth. He reveals that he has always known about her, because there was talk that the original queen had sent away a child, but none of the other royals though it much threat, but he wanted to learn more. So it was no coincident that he was there at the square where they met—the original queen, and the current royal. Killian also tells her that he is actually Albert Brightbane, the original Siphon that killed the Queen. When Meryn caught onto the King, they had performed a Siphon ceremony to transfer Albert from his father to him, and it requires a lot of blood. Meryn asks about her mother, and Killian explains that it was a necessary thing for him to do so that Meryn could get her powers. Then he uses the shadows to attack her and pull her off of him. Meryn has Anassa show up with her mate and Stark, and Killian floods the room with darkness, while telling Meryn that he has left her a little gift.

Stark confirms that Saela is safe, and they realizes that the engagement bracelet is something that she cannot take off of her arm, as it tightens around her wrist. It’s the way that Killian is able to use her magic. Meryn goes to Stark’s office, where she sees Saela, introduces her to Anassa, and tells her about their heritage as the descendants of the original Sturmfrost Queen. Meryn also tells Saela that their mother is gone, but they are going to be brave together. She then calls Stark back in to make their next moves, and two other Bonded enter with him. Anassa sends the vision of the truth to all of the Bonded, after telling Meryn that she has to claim the throne. The two that had entered with Stark are surprised, but quickly bow down to her as their Queen, and then Saela falls into an epileptic fit. One of the two Bonded makes it to Saela before Meryn does, only to find out that Saela had been turned into a Siphon. Meryn realizes that this is the parting gift Killian had left her, and is enraged—she is determined to do what she can to end the Siphons and save Saela.

My Thoughts: Apparently, Kindle thought I could read this 600 page book in 25 minutes, when I first started it, so it had me chuckling for a good chunk of the time. E-reader woes aside, the world building in this book is really beautiful, and I found the voices of all the characters to be fun. I loved Anassa’s stubbornness in the beginning, and Meryn’s hotheadedness. I was fascinated and really happy to see that the authors included Venna, who is hard of hearing and uses sign language—I suspect that she’s on the moderate to severe scale of hearing loss based on the fact that she does well in one-on-one conversations but then struggles in group environments. I do find that Venna is perfect for the Kryptos pack, the ones who are the spies, but also am confused by that, because if she can’t hear, how does she know she’s silent? I did find it endearing that she was teaching everyone in the Kryptos pack sign language for them to be able to talk even in the quiet. I wasn’t really a fan of Stark or Lee/ Killian from the outset: Killian/ Lee I discounted from the outset because in these types of stories you always know that the guy that the female main character is with is the wrong dude. As for Stark, I started to like him more when they traveled to the front lines together and despite the moment they had in the tent, he put space between them out of respect for not just his Queen, but Meryn as Meryn and her relationship with Killian, despite his knowledge of what exactly Killian is.

I’m really looking forward to reading the next book that is coming out May 5th, Fury Bound. I hope to learn more about how both Stark and Killian knew the Meryn was the descendant of that Queen—how they found out—and about Meryn’s magic. I wonder what that means for Meryn and the Bonded, the Direwolves and the citizens of the country. I want to see the relationship with Stark deepen, and find out how the two of them end up together, and I want to know what happens to Saela—How does Meryn navigate this?

If you are interesting in reading this book, and it’s subsequent book coming out next month, you can purchase them here: Direbound and Furybound.