Kristen’s Take: Dire Bound by Sable Sorensen
Before we begin, consider this fair warning that SPOILERS ABOUND in this review. If you haven’t read Dire Bound, tread carefully.
Fourth Wing by any other name…. But honestly, that’s a feature, not a bug. Fourth Wing was my gateway book into my latest reading obsession and love of fantasy novels - I literally finished the first book and immediately restarted it - so anything that follows the same formula will probably be an automatic 5-stars from me.
Okay so we start out with Meryn, a scrappy young woman fighting underground street fights to support her sister and disabled mother in the poverty stricken areas of Sturmfrost. She’s madly in love with her seemingly-perfect boyfriend Lee. This is where red flags started popping up for me. This is a fantasy romance novel, where are we going to go with the romance plot if our FMC *already* has the love of her life?? We’ll put a pin in that for later.
Her sister Saela gets kidnapped by presumably the Big Bad Guys - the Siphons - to suck out her soul and power their blood magic. So she joins the army to get to the front to try and find her. But! Lo and behold they’re holding the Bonding Trials and Meryn gets swept up into the effort to bond a big scary Dire Wolf (much to her dismay). Meryn is stubborn and scrappy and manages to succeed in the trials and bonds Anassa, despite having absolutely zero interest in becoming a Bonded. This stubbornness helps Meryn stay alive, but also serves to drive the reader crazy when she’s acting like a brat towards her badass dire wolf AND everyone else around her.
Okay so she enters training with her fellow Bonded and she starts to accept that the only way she’ll get to the front to search for Saela is to go through training and stay alive. Anassa proves to be equally stubborn and ices Meryn out for a good chunk of the first half of the book, thanks to Meryn being insufferable and uncooperative. In addition to Anassa being a hard ass, Meryn also butts heads with Big Scary Alpha Stark Therion. Hmmm, is this scary, brooding, incredibly strong and powerful man who only wears black perhaps a contender for Meryn’s heart??
In typical romantasy format, Meryn begins to make progress with Anassa, proving that she is committed to becoming a Bonded and making things right, while starting to prove to Stark that she can listen and adapt. While all this is happening, Meryn discovers that her lover, Lee, is in fact the crown prince of the kingdom, Killian, (shock) and she maintains her little tryst while also trying to be a normal Rawbond (trainee). Now, this is where I was mentally preparing for a Katniss-Gael-Peeta style love triangle and I was NOT having it. As a hater of the love triangle trope, I was equal parts dreading that conclusion and also hoping there was a twist coming to take Golden Retriever Lee/Killian out of the picture and let us focus on the Brooding Shadow Daddy Stark.
Side note, Meryn felt it was necessary to piss off her wolf and block Anassa completely when she was having sexy time with Killian and it just seemed so childish and weirdly prudish? Like, Anassa is a centuries-old WOLF. She doesn’t give a shit about your dalliances.
Anyway… tl;dr Meryn turns out to be a descendent of the long lost Queen of Nocturna. Turns out Meryn’s mom never had a mental illness but was instead experiencing visions of her rightful place as the Queen of Nocturna. Killian becomes King of the Bad Guys, kills Meryn’s mom, and turns Saela into a Siphon (um, rude). And now we wait to see how Meryn and her trusted circle of Bonded will bring down the Siphons and save Saela (and, ya know, everyone else too).
The series continues soon with Fury Bound coming May 5, 2026!
P.S. RIP Henrey :(
Spice: 2.5/5
Vibes: 5/5