Thank you so much to Literary Bound Tours and Beck Michaels for the digital ARC of Bonded Fate! I liked book one, Divine Blood, quite a bit and was so happy to join the tour for the sequel!
Let me give you the link to the tour so you can check out what everyone else is saying too! Found here!
Bookish Quick Facts:
- Title: Bonded Fate
- Series: Guardians of the Maiden #2
- Author: Beck Michaels
- Publisher & Release: Pluma Press, 8/3/21
- Length: 516 pgs
- Rate & Recommend: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 yes if you enjoyed book one!
Here is the book blurb:
JOINED BY BLOOD.
BOUND BY DESTINY.
Reeling from Cassiel’s confession, Dyna struggles to understand what the Blood Bond means for them both, all the while trying to stay one step ahead of a newfound enemy. When reuniting with a familiar sorceress, she realizes the only way to defeat Tarn is to find her Guardians—all of them.
Cassiel never meant to tie himself to a human, especially one that inexplicably draws him. But then the bond develops a startling change, and it puts into question everything he thought he knew.
Zev straddles the line between human and wolf, unsure if his dark thoughts truly belong to the Madness. It’s growing stronger, determined to take over—and he may just let it.
The journey to get the answers they each need will test them all. But what Dyna doesn’t know is that it comes with a price, and it may cost more than she bargained for
This installment picks up where book one left off, with Dyna and the Guardians making their slow way towards Mt. Ida to find the Sol Medallion.
The new characters are great additions. Lucenna was the key to Dyna and everyone in the group finally facing their past traumas and setting the journey on the right path. I liked watching the two women learn how to trust, while Dyna learned some hard lessons including how to fight. We learn more about the others and its fun watching the group come together.
The author brought a lot more magic into this book, with images of suspended waterfall terraces over a palace, azure trees and animals, a fae revel, and even a mage fight. The history, lore, and expanding local flavors of Azure all helped the worldbuilding.
I liked learning more about the various types of magic. Since the mages and elves and celestials all have different inherent abilities I think it was good to expand upon this.
Dyna and co. only have a little over a year I think to make it back to North Star when the Shadow demon will return, but they have only covered a tiny fraction of the map. With two books covering only one island…I know i mentioned this is my book one review but the scale of the map must be enormous, so much that I wonder about consistency in distances and speeds of travel. Either way I am excited to see how in the next book they will cover so much ground so quickly.
Content wise – there was a little more intercourse than seems necessary for YA, but it was between a husband and wife and fairly non-detailed. There is death and fighting, a little bit of gore, and one character is ready to die, if not quite actively seeking it at times. She recommends 16+ which seems appropriate.
Lastly just let me say that the “cliffhanger” in book one didn’t bother me much because I could care less about romance – but HOLY COW this one was just mean! When do we get the next book!!
I totally recommend for fans of epic fantasy, solid world building, engaging characters, and a ton of magic crammed into such a small space
Meet the author:
BECK MICHAELS is the bestselling author of the enchanting YA epic fantasy series The Guardians of the Maiden. She has been working on the Guardians series for over fifteen years, so she’d like to believe her characters exist in some tangible dimension, even if it’s only in her imagination.
At seventeen, she won a scholarship to the Herron School of Art to further pursue graphic design. She now runs her own imprint, Pluma Press, and works part-time as a graphic designer through her business, Whimsy Book Cover Graphics, designing book covers for fellow authors.
Beck lives in Indiana with her husband and two children, where she spends her time reading and daydreaming of adventures in faraway lands.
She is on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/beckmichaels_writes/
and on Facebook at https://m.facebook.com/BeckMichaelsWrites/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/guardiansofthemaiden/?ref=share
Her website is https://beckmichaels.com/
Find the book on her website or purchase on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08RYPCXF9/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1628181874&sr=1-1
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