Dire Bound
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4.5 • 239 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Fourth Wing meets The Hunger Games in this spicy, page-turning romantasy where humans and direwolves forge unbreakable bonds and fight for survival at all costs. Featuring exclusive bonus content! Only the worthy survive the Bonding Trials. She’ll risk her life—and her heart—to be one of them. Meryn Cooper has always hated the Bonded, elite warriors who form mental links with the massive, vicious direwolves they ride. While they live in luxury, Meryn struggles to keep her family out of poverty. When her little sister, Saela, is kidnapped—stolen across the border by the immortal monsters her country has spent centuries fighting—Meryn’s world falls apart. Desperate to cross the front and save her sister, Meryn enlists in the army and is thrown into the deadly Bonding Trials, where any mistake will cost her life. Now Meryn must survive four months of training at the castle. She is bound to a feral direwolf who refuses to communicate. The other trainees would love to spill her common blood. And her cold and beautiful instructor, Stark Therion, is eager to punish any weakness. Everything is a competition, and everyone is out to get her—everyone except the dangerously handsome crown prince, whose attention adds another target to her back. In the castle, every smile hides a knife…and the halls hide dark secrets. It’s bond or bleed. Duel or die. Failure is ruin. Don’t miss the brand-new bonus chapter from Stark Therion’s perspective! Dire Bound contains mature content including depictions of graphic violence, and is therefore recommended for readers 17+. For a full list of tropes and TWs, please visit the author's website. Readers are already falling in love with Direbound: “ONE OF THE BEST READS OF THE YEAR! This book was insanely good.” Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Stop it right now... I’m actually quite feral for the next book…” Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “The plot was THICK, the tension and banter? Flawless. And the world with the wolf bond, and trials??? NEED MORE NOW.” Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I just finished and still trying to mentally and emotionally recover to what just happened to me. You need to read it IMMEDIATELY.” Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “If you’re into dark romantasy with high stakes, fierce characters, and just the right amount of emotional wreckage, Direbound is your next obsession.” Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “What an incredible read!! … I am blown away. … The romance, the anguish, the BANTER! I love a book with good banter and this was FULL OF IT!” Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I. Am. OBSESSED. … Left me spiraling in the best way possible. The morally grey anti-hero? Perfection. The slow-burn tension? Electric. … I was completely immersed.” Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Perfect for fans of: Slow burn romance Found family Morally grey characters One bed Touch her and die Who did this to you Enemies to lovers Forced proximity Vampires vs. wolves!
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
To help the people she loves, a young heroine becomes what she most despises in this thrilling romantasy adventure. Meryn’s devotion to her poor, struggling family is nearly matched by her hatred for the Bonded: elite warriors her society treats like gods. But when her sister is captured by a neighboring kingdom, she quickly joins their ranks to rescue her. Meryn is an unapologetically tough street fighter, and we adored her fierceness. Even when the new recruits must scale a deadly mountain and form a psychic bond with a direwolf waiting at the top (if they survive), Meryn’s tenacity keeps her going. The direwolves form the basis for some truly great world-building, and Meryn’s feisty direwolf, Anassa, became one of our favorite characters—though it’s her grouchy but insanely hot instructor, Stark, who made us never want to hit pause. Narrators Avery Caris and Gabriel Michael tap into the scorching chemistry of this exciting enemies-to-lovers tale.
Customer Reviews
Great
Loved the narrators so props to them. The book is good, and I had a feeling about Killian but it was so much better than I expected. It hand me on pins and needles and yelling at my phone "red flags run!"
Thoroughly enjoyed it
Engaging Story With Excessive Expletives
I liked the engaging plot, plot twists, story line and general characters. I did not like the author’s constant use of the “F” word— especially when it was an illogical choice of phraseology. It dumbed down the characters and made them seem more irrationally aggressive. Some creativity with the expletives would go a lot further with transporting the reader to the world of the story,
Also, I agree with a previous comment that Meryn didn’t deserve her dire wolf. Although I like that Meryn was not perfect and a messy human being, I felt like her characterization became less appealing for someone who was supposed to be a loving and self-sacrificing person, when she took FAR too long to see her direwolf as a sentient individual that deserved more than just a self-serving, self-centered bond. The direwolf’s personality should’ve had more character development too. Snatches of her story and her connection to Meryn through that story would’ve made the story pop even more.
Also, I think a few more hints early on & throughout the story about the main supporting character not being all that he seemed would’ve been appreciated. It was a shocking twist of the story line that didn’t make enough sense at the end, even reflecting back upon its previous implications. So, yes, I enjoyed enough about the story to keep reading as the important parts were there in spades— but more secondary/supporting character development would really go a long way. So cut the “F” word and get more creative and harmonious with the story’s world for your character expressions and the book would be so much better.
I liked it enough to want to read the next book though.
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Ugh, Meryn doesn’t deserve her direwolf!