Dire Bound’s debut authors landed a seven-figure deal from Hachette Books and so I had to see what the excitement was all about! It’s marketed as Fourth Wing meets The Hunger Games and it did indeed remind me of both books. I liked the direwolves and their magic but, sadly, I struggled with the romance. 

Meryn teaches self-defense to young children in her village. At night she is a street fighter to earn extra money for medicine for her mother who has often violent delusions. Meryn is also trying to protect her younger sister. There are young girls being kidnapped by Siphons, who are vicious enemies from a neighboring country. When her younger sister is kidnapped, Meryn joins the army to rescue her. It’s the only way she can get to the border to find her. (The army is fighting a war with the Siphons at their border.) Meryn’s been seeing a man who is a palace messenger (he calls her kitten) and when she tells him what’s happened, he gives her survival tips and buys her the equipment she’ll need.

When she shows up at the army check in, they tell her she’s been chosen for the Bonding Trials. She and other recruits must climb to the top of a mountain to see if they will be chosen by a direwolf. The climb is vicious and some of the recruits don’t make it. Meryn is a passionate and fierce warrior and I cheered for her when she reached the top with the help of new friends.

Meryn is chosen by a beautiful, white direwolf named Anassa and Meryn’s hair turns silver! She has to survive a four-month program to become bonded with Anassa and it takes her a while to get Anassa to talk to her (telepathically). Once she did, I felt the pace in the story picked up. The book is gruesome and gory in places, especially when the direwolves and their super-hot riders attack.

The book is long, at over 600 pages and there’s a lot going on with the war at the border, the bonded riders and their direwolves, the search for the kidnapped girls, and drama with the royal family. There is betrayal and it gets angsty. The romance is complicated and I can’t reveal much without spoiling it, but there are twists and turns, some I saw coming, some I didn’t like, and there’s quite a bit of spice. I will say, there is a dangerous alpha rider I look forward to seeing more of in the future.

I think readers that are fans of dark fantasy might be intrigued by this story. I liked the direwolves and the strong women and found the world building easy to follow. But the romantic aspects of the novel just didn’t work for me. Still, I wonder what’s ahead for Meryn in the next story, Fury Bound, which comes out in May.