Soul Bound (Moonstone Saga #2)

Hades! That's right . . . Hades. He is an amazing character. I loved him when he showed up in the Bloodstone series, and he gets an even bigger role in this book. Hades is such a wonderfully layered character. He's a hottie with a magnetic personality that automatically draws people to him, whether they want to be drawn that way or not. He's a bad guy. Or is he? Is he simply trying to do his job? Is he simply a victim of the manipulative natures of the entire society of gods? I don't know. He's a little good and a little bad. He seems to have an agenda, but it isn't clear whether that agenda is good or bad. In this book it seems to be mostly good, but self-serving as well. I loved the nuances of his character. I loved trying to figure out his motivations throughout the book. He was the definite high point of this book. There is a revelation about him in this book that sheds new light on his personality, and it was wonderful to read this. I can't wait to see the new revelations about him that are yet to come. He made every scene in which he appeared to be a deeper, richer scene. Loved him!

The setup for the next book in the series and the upcoming battle between the gods. In the Bloodstone series it seemed as if Zeus was a hero of sorts. In this book he definitely seems to be the villain. He was horrible in this book -- manipulative, creating challenges simply because of boredom or poor self-esteem, threatening the mortal world without qualms. He made it easy to see how Empusa could contemplate changing teams in order to fight against him. The drama he creates is going to have to be taken care of, and that should be a major showdown in the final book of this series. I am excited to see how all of this plays out, and Courtney does an excellent job of setting the stage for this great upcoming battle. The world she has created here is so uncertain in so many ways because of the goofiness of the gods that it will be interesting to see how things resolve themselves in the next book.

The Greek mythology of the book. Once again Courtney has created a book that makes me want to reacquaint myself with the stories of Greek mythology that I read as a youth. The world of the gods plays out like a giant celestial soap opera. These gods are not completely benevolent, loving deities. They are weak in some ways. They suffer from human emotions such as jealousy and pride. They use the mortals around them as pawn in their own personal games. Their very human weaknesses make for a fascinating read, and I have enjoyed getting to see this side of mythology that makes it all seem so much more easy to understand and relate to.

The growth of Brennan as a character. I really loved the character of Brennan in the first book of this series. I thought it was fascinating to think about this man who had lived his entire life as a mortal with no understanding or belief in a world of Olympian gods. Then in one moment he finds himself in love with his soul mate, discovering that he is the son of Apollo, and fighting to prevent the annihilation of the mortal world. That could be a really interesting angle to explore in his character. That would have to be a very difficult change to process. Yet Brennan seems to just jump right into his new role with barely a blip. Except for a few "this is strange" looks, he rolls with everything, becoming an automatic strength to Empusa in her times of need. I love this about him. I really do. Yet it makes his personality almost too flat. Had he struggled a bit more with his new role I think it would have deepened him as a character and made him more fascinating to read about. I wanted to hear more about how he was coming to terms with all of this, but other than a couple of thoughts that Empusa had about his recent introduction into this world it is unexplored. If I didn't know any better when picking up this book I would have guessed that Brennan had always been a part of this world. More struggle from him would have made his character even better in my opinion.

The relationship between Empusa and Brennan. I love instalove stories, and I don't mind relationships that speed right into soul mate territory. However, if these relationships do not have any amount of growth at all they can be boring to read about. Empusa and Brennan obviously are meant for each other and have a deep connection to one another. However, they still have much to learn about each other. They have spent the majority of their lives apart, and for Empusa that life is a thousand years old. That is a lot of time to be separated from one another, so there is a lot that they have to learn. Sure, they are MFEO, but that doesn't mean that they can't experience the joy and wonder of discovering the deeper sides to their personalities. It is the depth of love that comes from shared understanding and experience, and that creates a more engaging love story for me rather than an automatic "drawn to each other" reaction to everything. At one point in the story Empusa does something to Brennan in order to protect him that should be a major sticking point in their relationship, and yet Brennan doesn't seem to bat an eye at it. He just jumps back into the relationship as if she hadn't just taken away his free will. It might have been a bit more interesting to have the two of them spend a bit more time working through this issue. Granted, they were in the middle of a ridiculous set of tasks set up by Zeus so they didn't have a ton of conversation time available. However, I feel as if the book could have greatly benefited from the two of them showing more growth in their relationship.

Empusa's struggle with her curse. In the first book of the series Empusa really had to struggle to come to terms with the actions that she was forced to take in order to live. This curse also created a huge stumbling block for Empusa's relationship with Brennan. Simply trying to have any sort of physical relationship was a danger to Brennan and to the world around them. It was interesting to read about how Empusa learned to work around this curse as she attempted to form a lasting relationship with Brennan without destroying the world around them. In this book the struggle is still there, but it almost takes a back seat in the story. There doesn't seem to be as much of struggle as I would have expected after all of the conflict in the last book. Empusa seems to work through it without as much struggle most of the time. It isn't that there aren't plot points where she has to struggle. She does have a few major events in this book where her struggle (Good Night! I'm using the word 'struggle' a lot in this review!) with her curse take center stage. I just thought there would be more of a constant struggle going on than I found in this book. It isn't a huge deal, but I think that the book would have been enhanced by further digging into the struggles that Empusa had with this curse. It would have lent a sense of urgency to her need to lift this curse from her life, and I think that it would have strengthened the drama throughout the book.