After reading Fire Within by Ella M. Lee (and loving it, read my review here), I was pretty pumped to check out her latest, Soul Bound. Soul Bound is an Urban Fantasy/Romance involving magic, demons and vampires.

Arianna Ward has had a heck of a year – not in a good way. After an abduction, Ari has been living the past year as property of a violent, uncaring vampire named Franklin. When she’s sold in an auction to a new owner, she expects more of the same treatment. But her new master, Ren, is not what she was expecting and he has an offer for Ari that could mean freedom and a return to her old life.

Ari is a strong character.

Not because of what she has been through, but because of the decisions she makes over the course of the book. She is a believable heroine and someone I could get behind and cheer on as I was reading. Ren is sensitive and kind, but is a little on the clueless and awkward side, it’s just enough to be endearing as a male lead character.

The best part of Soul Bound is Ren and Ari’s budding friendship and relationship, which I found really cute and fun to read. Without giving too much away, I think there was just enough in this relationship that it’s left me excited for future books so I can see where it goes. Ren’s attempts at being human were enjoyable and somewhat adorable.

There is some good world building in Soul Bound.

I especially liked the lore regarding vampires and demons. Though, I would have liked to have read more and understood more through Ari. Most of the time things were explained to Ari, rather than her directly experiencing them. I would have liked to have a seen a little more showing rather than telling.

Admittedly, I get a little concerned about stories involving characters that are abused or kept as property. Sometimes I don’t entirely know if the author can write that type of scenario with sensitivity. I’m happy to report that Lee handles this well. She balances Ari’s trauma and anger sensitively and authentically, it doesn’t feel forced. I will say that this book comes with a content warning as it does contain hints at rape and contains violent scenes toward the main character early on in the book. I wouldn’t recommend this one for readers for whom such topics would bring up trauma.

This is a pretty solid start to a new Urban Fantasy series. Soul Bound gives you just enough to get into the world and sets you up to see where Ari and Ren go next.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.