I love how so many things happened in the book. I could not keep myself from the book because it was so good

I found this to be an entertaining read, but also touches on love and loss with a good bit of angst. I would recommend to read the other books in the series first - Thanks to Netgalley for the e-arc!

Blood Bound is the third book in the Youkai Bloodlines series by Courtney Maguire. Released 1st Feb 2022 on the City Owl Press imprint, it's 299 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This was such a melancholy read for me. Themes of loss, grief, self-harm, compulsion, commitment, and emotional honesty are central to the plotline and character development. I found it very sad. It's the third book in the series and there is a lot of background information that isn't recapped in this book, so I strongly recommend readers begin with the first books in the series before reading this installment.

The writing is beautifully rendered, often quite sublime, and the Japanese settings are an integral part of the story and very well done. The central characters are diverse and representative and include non-binary and LGBQT+ central characters. There is a fair bit of graphic sexual and violent (and graphically sexually violent) content and descriptions on-page. There were some sex scenes of a questionable consensual nature which left me feeling a bit squicky, but they *are* vampires/demons/monsters (in the characters' own words).

This was outside my normal genre reads (cozy mystery, SF/Fantasy, children's, and nonfiction selections are 90% of what I read), so fans of horror/romance/supernatural romance will find a lot to like here. The writing is way better than much of what I've read in the genre. NSFW, keep this one on the bedside table.

Four stars (probably higher for fans of the genre).

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Thanks, Netgalley and Publisher for the opportunity to read and review!
Amazing continuation of the first book, where Hiro and Hideyoshi's relationship faces a great challenge while the setting changes to modern-day Tokyo. The characters continue to pull on your heartstrings, while immortality brings more grief than a blessing and while they try to preserve their fleeting human sides and balance the darkness within. The worldbuilding continues to amaze and the descriptions of Japanese traditions are very carefully and skillfully intertwined into the narrative. Amazing second installment and I crave for a third book!

I like the fact that it was an easy read, and made me read it easily.

This will be one of my shortest reviews since I did not know the book is part of a series and it wouldn't be fair to rate or write about things mentioned that still to be clarified, since I did not read the previous books.

I enjoyed this latest instalment in the Youkai Bloodlines series. Blood Bound returned our focus to Hideyoshi and Hiro as their relationship went through a difficult stage, which also caused problems for the local Youkai community. As well as being an entertaining story, this book dealt with themes such as terminal illness and then grief, and I felt it did so in a compassionate and thoughtful way. As with the other books in the series, this was a quick and easy read that I got through in two nights. Since the story often references past events and characters, this is a series best read in order. It gets 4.5 stars from me, which I will round up to a five.