Review: Bound, The Witches of Doyle Book 1

By: Kirsten Weiss

Available on: Amazon, Audible, and Barnes and Noble.

Overview:

Blurb: Karin, Jayce, and Lenore are dealing with a lot right now. Jayce has a corpse in her coffee shop. Karin has the hots for a total stranger. And Lenore sees death on the wind. There’s a lot going on that is happening unseen, and magic is thick in the air for this starter to the Witches of Doyle series.

Trigger Warnings:

Animal Death, Blood, Death, Drug Use (Non-Consensual), Drug Use (Prescription), Food, Gun Violence, Murder, Violence, Violent Imagery, Witchcraft

Body Count: 3

The Specs:

• Series 
  • Series Name: The Witches of Doyle
  • Book Number: 1 of 6
• Genre
  • Technical Genre: Witch and Wizard Mysteries, Magical Realism, Amateur Sleuths
  • Theo Genre: Urban Fantasy, Suburban Fantasy, Magical Murder Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Feminist Fiction
• POV: Limited 1st
• Publication information:
  • Paperback page count:
  • Publisher: Misterio press
  • Language:  English
  • ASIN: B01M4ROH89

Other Fun Stuff:

To Read or Not To Read (Again):

Bedside Bookshelf Donated Furniture Support

Rating out of five: 4.0 out of 5

Representation and Sexism Tests:

• Bechdel–Wallace Test: PASS
  • Do two female characters talk about something than a male character? YES
• DuVernay Test: FAIL
  • Are there fully actualized characters of color? NO
• Ellen Willis Test: PASS
  • Would two related characters still work to carry the story if their genders were reversed? YES
• Mako Mori Test: PASS
  • Is there a female character? YES
  • Does she get her own arc? YES
  • Does it do anything other than serve to support a man’s story? YES
• Sexy Lamp Test: PASS
  • Would the plot fall apart if the female character was replaced by a sexy looking lamp? Absolutely
• Vito Russo Test: FAIL
  • Is there a character on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum? NO
  • Are they a character beyond their orientation? N/A
  • Do they affect the plot? N/A

Overall review:

Thoughts: Well, after finishing Bound, I went through and added the other four books to the series to my EBook Wish List, if that means anything!

Jayce, Karin, and Lenore are three magic-wielding triplets that came under the care of their Aunt Ellen after the death of their parents. If dealing with your surrogate mother having terminal cancer isn’t bad enough, try stumbling across a dead body or two! One sister arrested, one foreseeing the death of Aunt Ellen, and now Karin finds herself having the honey-glows for the attorney that’s supposed to be keeping Jayce out of prison.

The main character, Karin, does her best to deal with things. She makes some bad choices (looking at you, raven feathers), but is a genuine, flawed character I greatly enjoyed. I want to read the rest of the series to find out more about all three of them.

There are some twists and turns I absolutely did not see coming. And this particular universe has an interesting relationship with magic that I would like to see more of; there is a spell at the end of the book, too! Well, two spells if you count that there’s a to-do spell and an undo.

Overall, it is a good solid starter to a series. Clean, beyond a few kisses. And well-written twists.

Smutty moments/smut review: There wasn’t any smut, though the potential is there. A few scorching kisses though.

Was it engaging?

Yes

Favorite Character:

I would have to say that my favorite character was Karin. She’s clever, human and enjoyable.

Review cross-posted on Goodreads as well!