Review: Bound by Faerie by W.B. McKay

Posted August 19, 2016 by Lola in Coyer, Fantasy, Review / 10 Comments

LolaReview

Bound by FaerieBound by Faerie (Stolen Magic #1)
by W.B. McKay

Rating: 4 stars

Blurb:
Sophie Morrigan inherited many magical gifts from her death goddess mother. Most of them inflict torture, except the most beautiful. That one kills.

As an agent for the Faerie Affairs Bureau, Sophie loves retrieving dangerous magical objects. The job lets her indulge her covetous nature, and most importantly, it pays the bills. But when a routine job goes south, she finds herself struggling to keep her deadly magic in check while fleeing the wrath of an enraged dragon.

In a desperate search for answers, Sophie stumbles across Owen, a fae nightclub owner who’s as sexy as he is irritating, but just happens to hold the key to her problems.

Sophie wants nothing more than to get her magic under control and return to her normal life, but first she’ll have to face off with all the dangers Faerie can throw at her. Can she fight her way back home? Or will both she and Owen fall prey to a crazed death cult?

My Review:
I received a copy in exchange for an honest review

Bound by Faerie is a fun action packed, fast paced book filled with magic, faeries and more. The blurb really does a great job giving you the gist of this book, a routine job doesn’t go as smoothly as planned and Sophie, the main character, needs the help of Owen. It was such a fun read and I read through this one pretty quickly. There is no dull moment and it got my attention from the first chapter and I kept enjoying it.

There is a main plot line surrounding the mission that doesn’t go smoothly that’s the main focus on the story, but there are also some side plot lines. The main plot line/ adventure gets wrapped up nicely at the end of the book, but there’s enough open and possibilities for later books in the series. Many of those side plot lines are left unresolved, which only makes me more curious about what we will learn about those in the next book. Mostly these side plot lines have to do with Sophie her magic or the side characters. There was a reveal later in the book that was very interesting and I hope we learn more of what this means in the next book!

Sophie is a feisty and snarky main character who isn’t afraid to speak her mind, even if it gets her trouble sometimes. And she fights with two swords, who each have a name. She can turn into a crow and has some other cool magical abilities. She doesn’t go out of the way of a good fight and lands in plenty of them in this book. I enjoyed reading about Sophie and her adventures, although she really could do with some better social skills, but she seems aware of that herself and her bluntness and snark seems to be part of her personality. And while her job is basically stealing magical artifacts she still has some morals or lines she prefers not to cross unless necessary.

Besides Sophie, there are some fun side characters. Like Owen, whom we learn is more than just a pretty face as he seems to be at first. And her prank loving roommate who is a dryad. Then there is Ava who is a bit mysterious, but I liked the glimpses of her that we got. And Art who we only meet shortly in this book was interesting as well.

The world building seems to be a bit of a mash of supernatural things, all labeled faerie. But it worked. It seems a bit confusing at first and I would’ve liked to get more of a view of what was out there, but the authors do a good job of giving the reader enough of a glimpse into this world and what’s possible. I also liked how Faerie actually seemed foreign and they really described the otherworldliness of the place very well.

I also liked how the authors stayed with the whole faeries can’t lie thing and also how the characters can not straight out lie, but can skirt around the truth. There also was a fun tidbit with how saying thank you leads you to owing a favor to the one you thanked, which seemed interesting. I also wonder if we will see more of the favors Sophie owes in the next books. I also liked the cool powers the characters had like how the main character could turn into a crow. Overall it was fun getting to know this world, I just want to see even more of it!

To summarize: I really enjoyed reading this book! It’s fast paced and filled with action. Sophie gets into a bit of a mess and it was fun to follow her adventures and see how she would get out of it. I liked reading about Sophie, she was a bit too vocal about her opinion at times, but overall I liked her and she was a fun character to read about. The world is a mash of lots of different types of faeries and some interesting types of magic, there were some original touches in the world building which I liked. The world of faerie really seemed otherworldly and there were some fun touches like how saying thank you meant owing a favor. All in all this was a fun and solid start of this series and I am looking forward to the next book in the series!

4-star

Links:
Goodreads
Amazon

What’s the most otherworldly world you’ve read about?

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10 responses to “Review: Bound by Faerie by W.B. McKay

  1. I really am loving Jo Walton’s Thessaly series, which goes back in time to an experiment whereby the god Apollo and the goddess Athene create the society propounded by Plato in his book ‘The Republic’. It is poignant, clever and highly readable. The other amazing otherworld is the fictional world of Hav imagined by travel writer Jan Morris. She writes a travelogue about it that is detailed and very disturbing – and completely imaginary. A remarkable book!

  2. Oh, that’s a good question — weirdly, I enjoy it when our world is made as otherworldly as possible, if that makes sense? My favourite series, The Dark is Rising, completely elevated England and Wales into something entirely magical for me. I also get a kick out of th eEnvy of Angels series, which to be fair is because it’s about a catering company for supernatural creatures, working within our world.
    Verushka recently posted…#LoveOzLit: Deborah Biancotti on female characters that make her stop reading a bookMy Profile

    • That’s great too, when the books turn out own world into something magical. This book had a bit of both. Most faeries lived in the human world and there were touches of magic everywhere, but they also had Faerie which was a completely different world.

      That book about a catering company for supernatural creatures sounds like a fun one!

    • I’ve been in a bit of an urban fantasy mood lately, so it’s great to read a lot of these kind of books as it’s been a while since I read a lot of them.

  3. “she really could do with some better social skills” is cracking me up, haha. But it does sound like that’s just a part of her character since you mentioned that she always speaks her mind, and I think that can be a good thing in characters sometimes. And that does sound unique that she turns into a crow, I’ve never seen that ability!

    Also that’s cool that her roommate is a dryad. Now you’ve made me want to read a book about dryads since that’s a creature I’ve ever read about lol.

    I feel like I’ve heard of the faeries can’t lie thing, but I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that included that in their version of faeries. And I’ve never heard of owing someone a favor when they say thank you, but I can see how that would add some more conflict or interestingness to the story. This does sound like it could be a fun, fast-paced urban fantasy read!
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    • I felt it was worth mentioning, but it did fit her character. It was part of her personality. And I loved that she could turn into a crow and she does use that skill a few times in the book.

      I can’t remember any books about dryads either beside this one and it was cool her roommate was one and we learn a bit about them.

      Most of the books I’ve read about fae or faeries had the no lie thing, not every book uses it as strongly or focuses on it though. the favor things was interesting and I can see how it might lead to more conflict in the next book. For now it was mostly an interesting touch and she gave out some thank you’s, but no favors got collected yet.

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