Soulbound by Kristen Callihan

Narrated by Moira Quirk

Paranormal romances aren’t my usual cup of tea, but having seen so many good reviews of the first book in this series (Firelight), I listened to the audiobook last year and both story and narration were so completely engaging that I was thoroughly pulled in to the author’s world of Darkest London and eager for more.

I’ve since read the next two books, and although I’m not completely caught up with the series, when the opportunity came to review Soulbound, I couldn’t pass it up. It helped to know that, although the books are all connected, they all work well as standalones, so even though I’ve yet to read or listen to Evernight (the previous book), I was sure I wouldn’t have too much trouble following the story.

We’re introduced immediately to our heroine, Eliza May, a young woman from Boston who has recently arrived in London only to be attacked and to find herself inexplicably watching the moment of her own death. Her soul is saved by two familiar GIMs (Ghosts in the Machine – beings whose spirits are able to leave their bodies) and by their creator, known as Adam, who offers her the chance to live again – at a price.

For seven hundred years, Adam has been searching for his one true soulmate and is elated to realise he has found her at last. Adam was cursed by the Fae Queen Mab and condemned to immortality but without the ability to feel emotion. If he fails to find his soulmate within a certain timeframe, then he will forfeit his freedom, so finding Eliza at the eleventh hour and after seeking her for so long, he is prepared to bind her to him by any means necessary, and chains her to his side.

At the end of Evernight, Eliza was freed from Adam’s chains, and is now living with her Aunt Mab in the midst of decadence and luxury. But something is not right, and she realises that Mab’s pleasure derives from the “pain and suffering of others” and starts to wonder if, in escaping Adam and running to Mab, she has not swapped one prison for another.

Following Eliza’s rejection, Adam is now Mab’s captive, drained of his powers, subjected to humiliation, torture and doomed for eternity. When Eliza discovers him, beaten, bloody and chained in Mab’s cellar, the uncertainties she has begun to feel about her aunt’s activities begin to crystallise, and even though this is the man who took away her freedom and whom she had never wanted to see again, she realises Adam is telling her the truth about Mab’s true nature. For her own safety, Adam tries to dissuade Eliza from visiting him, but she refuses to leave him to suffer and comes to him in secret, tending to his wounds and bringing food when she can. When she learns of Mab’s plans to marry her to Mellan – the man she’d fled in Boston, and whom Mab announces is her brother – Eliza knows she needs to run and that there is only one man who can help her.

This first part of the story which deals with Eliza and Adam’s reunion and gradual rapprochement is wonderfully realised. Eliza is justifiably wary of Adam given his past treatment of her, although I will say that her persistent coldness and insistence on shutting him out all the time made it difficult to warm to her. Adam, who cares for Eliza far more than he ever let on, just wants her to get away to safety without thought for his own. His remorse is deep and genuine, and as she comes to know more of his story, Eliza begins to understand why he did what he did, although forgiveness is a different matter entirely. The rest of the book deals with their search for certain Fey artefacts, the power struggles between Mab and Mellan, and Adam’s fight to save the GIM – and all the while the undeniable attraction between Eliza and Adam draws them ever closer.

The romance is utterly beautiful and really tugs at the heartstrings. Adam is a very complex character, a man forced to become a god-like creature without emotion – yet he cares deeply for his creations, the GIM, regarding them as his children. His yearning for Eliza – for someone to love and to love him – is palpable and I don’t mind admitting I had a lump in my throat towards the end when the nature of the choice he would have to make became apparent.

That’s another of the things I really enjoyed about this story; while the romance between these two characters who made such an inauspicious beginning is passionate, sensual and almost heart-breaking, there is ultimately a lot more at stake than a simple “who loves who”. Adam is inextricably linked to the GIM, and as his powers wane, so do theirs – and as anyone who has read the previous books will know, this has serious repercussions for some of the other characters we’ve met therein.

I did have a couple of minor issues – one being an almost throwaway moment where Eliza tells Adam that her grandfather was a slave and he realises how it must have affected her to have been chained. It came right out of the blue and felt so much like a “slavery is bad, kids!” moment that it was uncomfortable. There were a few moments where the pacing slowed a little too much, but given that for 98% of the book, I can’t fault the storytelling or execution, they weren’t things that negatively affected my listening experience.

It’s difficult to find much to say about Moira Quirk’s narration other than that it’s excellent! I noticed a small handful of minor mispronunciations, but that was about it, and she’s truly gifted when it comes to using a wide variety of accents and switching seamlessly between them. Eliza is American – and I’m no expert on American accents, so all I’ll say is that it was convincing enough for me – as is Adam’s right hand man, Lucien Stone. Lucien is Creole and speaks in a wonderfully casual Southern drawl; Adam has a Scottish burr, Jack Talent is a cockney, Will Thorne is from the North and Holly and St John Evernight have a strong Northern Irish lilt. I mention all these to show how versatile Ms Quirk is and because I want to point out that the scenes featuring Adam and Sin and/or Holly show just how good she is, as the Scottish and Irish accents are very similar, yet she always keeps them distinct from one another. There are many scenes which feature several of these characters, all speaking in quick succession with interspersed narrative, and Ms Quirk never puts a foot wrong. She captures the humour in the story very well, and is terrific in the more emotional moments, but if there’s one thing I wish she had done differently, it’s that she’d given Adam’s voice a slightly lower pitch. It’s a minor issue and isn’t so much a criticism as a personal preference – but he’s described as being a large, powerful man (even though he’s in chains and has lost his supernatural powers for much of the story, he’s still physically imposing) and I’d have liked that reflected more in his voice. But as I say, that’s a very minor point, as Ms Quirk’s performance is still extremely good and her acting choices are all spot on.

Caz

Narration: A

Book Content: A-

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: Fighting – with some more graphic references

Genre: Historical/Paranormal Romance – Steampunk

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Soulbound was provided to AudioGals by Hachette Audio for review.