Soulbound by Tessa Adams

Soulbound is the first book in Tessa Adams new Lone Star Witch series.

Description:
As the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter—and a member of Ipswitch’s Royal family—Xandra Morgan should be a witch of incredible power. But things don’t always turn out like you expect…

While she hasn’t lived up to her family’s expectations, Xandra has come to terms with her latent magic and made a life for herself in Austin, Texas, running a coffee shop where she makes potions of a non-magical nature. While things aren’t perfect, Xandra is happy—until she runs into powerful warlock Declan Chumomisto.

Xandra hasn’t seen Declan in years, and though she’s still overwhelmed by his power, she doesn’t trust him. And when her own powers awaken one night and lead her to the body of a woman in the woods bearing the symbol of Isis—the same one that has marked Xandra since the day she met Declan—she’s filled with a terrible suspicion, soon confirmed: the woman is connected to him.

Xandra doesn’t want to believe that Declan is capable of murder, but as the body count mounts, and Xandra’s own powers spiral out of control, she’s not sure she can trust her own instincts

Review:

Soulbound is the story of a young witch, from a powerful family of witches.  Xandra Morgan is our heroine, and as the 7^th daughter of a 7^th daughter, she was expected to become very powerful. However, all of her life, she has not been able to perform any magic, and is considered latent.  On her 19^th birthday, when she once again failed during the family magical ceremony, she runs humiliated into the woods, where she meets our hero, Declan Chumomisto.  Declan is a powerful warlock, who uses both light and dark magic.  Xandra is drawn immediately to Declan, as he is to her.  When he takes her hand, she ends up with the mark of Isis on her palm, similar to the one Declan has. They spent the night talking, and then Xandra will not see him again for 7 years. 

The story then picks up 7 years later, with Xandra living in Austin, Texas, and running her own coffee shop.  She still considers herself a magical failure, but is content where she is, living a normal life.  There is some humor where her mother and a witch whisperer continue to try to find ways to bring out her magic.  It is at this time, when Xandra goes back home to visit her family, that something awakens in her.  Her mother gives her a potion, and she later becomes violently sick; she sees and feels a violent vision of a young girl being raped and attacked in the nearby woods. Xandra runs to where senses the attack happening, and the body of the dead girl is found. The victim is discovered to have been marked with the same Seba symbol that Xandra has in her palm. 

Once she goes back to Austin, she sees Declan again, and her strange ability continues. stronger then ever.  Xandra, each time she has this vision, suffers emotionally, mentally and physically. She is compelled to follow where she senses another girl in danger. Declan always seems to come to her rescue, and both do not understand what is happening.  Together, they are determined to find the cause of Xandra’s abilities, and to find the person, who has strong magical abilities to be doing this.  The chemistry between Declan and Xandra is hot, but they both refrain from going too far, until they both need each other desperately. 

I enjoyed learning about Xandra’s family, and her new found friends.  Her brother Donovan, her friend Lily, and a cop named Nate, all play are big part in this story.  Declan is our hero, and a hot one, but he is still private, and I would love to learn more about him.  But the star of this book is Xandra, who is a great heroine; strong, independent, and has no qualms of speaking up.  The only thing I was not crazy about was that Xandra feels everything being done to the other girl, making these descriptive scenes very violent, and at times uncomfortable. 

There is a serial killer out there, and it seems that all the victims resemble Xandra.  Who is the killer?  Why are the innocent girls being tortured? Will Xandra survive?  Is Declan to be trusted, or is he too a danger to Xandra?  Tessa Adams does resolve all the questions at the end.  However, that being said, Soulbound does leave things open for Xandra and Declan to continue the story into the next book, since we need to learn more about Xandra’s powers.

The ending is tense, filled with lots of action, excitement, and surprises. Make no mistake, this is a dark paranormal story, but it is also a great story, with some excellent characters. I love Xandra and Declan, and I will be there for the next book. Great start to this new series by Tessa Adams

Reviewed by Barb