WhiskeyintheJar Romance

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Soulbound is 6th in Kristen Callihan's Darkest London series and if you haven't read the previous books you will be missing out on a ton of backstory involving characters and story arcs. However, if you wanted to miss out on a lot but not feel like you are missing a lot you could just pick this book up for Eliza and Adam's relationship. The prominence of past characters and story arcs are slowly fading away and new strides are made for the promise of future ones.

In the last book (Evernight) Eliza was finally freed from the chain bounding her to Adam and she is now living with her aunt Mab. After a couple months the shiny veneer is starting to wear off and Eliza is now seeing a darker side to Mab and wondering if she escaped one captive for another. When Eliza discovers Adam chained down in the basement, she really begins to question what the truth is. The story takes off from there with power and survival struggles between all the supernaturals we have come to love from this series (Ghosts in the Machine (GIM) weakening and dying because their "father" Adam is weak from Mab's spell, the fae queen and prince angling for ultimate control, angels meddling in affairs) and Eliza and Adam's growing romantic relationship right smack in the middle of it all.

For readers of the previous books, Adam needed to atone for the way he chained Eliza to him and it definitely happens. Eliza and Adam's roles are really reversed here, Adam is held captive by Mab and tortured ruthlessly, getting more than his just desserts. Through his weakness and sincere remorse for how he treated Eliza, their relationship balanced out. When a secret Eliza had been holding about herself is made known to Adam I genuinely felt his regret and began to believe they could become a couple; Adam is undeniably redeemed. We also get a backstory on Adam that humanizes him while rounding and flushing out his character, making him less of the stone faced demi-god of previous books. Eliza I had a hard time warming up to, she was very hard, cold, and harsh at times. With her continuously and for more than half of the book shutting herself out from Adam, she also shut herself off from me as the reader. This brick wall also kept me from feeling them as a couple as much as I would have liked to. They have their sexy times with Adam's desirous longing for Eliza but lacked the emotional connectedness from past book couples.

The story slowed down a bit at the very end, in fact there were a few times I thought it was ending, and while it isn't my favorite from the series (Evernight holds that honor) it is still a sound entry. The ending also might have a different twist on it but I, personally, still consider it a solid happily ever after. This book and whole series are not just stories but experiences to be read and I highly recommend them all. As I mentioned, Eliza and Adam's relationship is in the middle of some power plays and new story arc developments occurring and I am certainly excited for them. Sin's (the Evernight brother) story looks to be next and I can't wait.