Fluff, Fantasy, and Cocktails Reads Oathbound by Tracy Deonn

Fluff, Fantasy, and Cocktails is an NC-based women’s book club that formed in 2019. We read books in the Fantasy genre including paranormal, mystery, romance, etc. And Fluffy fun books, like cozy fantasy and feel-good lighter reads.

This time around we read Oathbound by Tracy Deonn. Full disclosure, there are going to be loads of spoilers in our thoughts. So if you haven’t read Oathbound yet, close this window now. And sadly I started this blog series after we read Legendborn and Bloodmarked, so you won't see a book club post on them.

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Oathbound by Tracy Deonn

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Let’s talk characters

Alice

We really need to know what is going on with Alice. When we are given a glimpse into her mind, we see Alice is fighting against death. She's trying her best to come up with a solution where she doesn't end up in a coma. She relives the scene over and over again, the showdown from book two. But how is she able to do this? We're told she has such a strong mind, but there must be something going on. There must be!

Bree is given different opportunities and chances to grow stronger, and overcome the challenges set before her. We're just wishing Alice also gets this chance as well. Oathbound was focused on Bree attaining more power and sadly we aren't going to get any Alice answers in this novel. She's a character left hanging in the background, a temptation for us to continue into the next book and find out her fate.

King Arthur

We're still struggling with the fact Arthur turned out to be the villain instead of the hero in Bloodmarked since it is the main catalyst for how Bree is in Oathbound. While we've been shown how the scions came to be, was Arthur truly always as evil as he is portrayed? Is this a case of the history being written by the winners, glorifying Arthur in legends, yet in fact he was a horrible person? Or is it more a desire to be immortal that pushes him towards his vile actions? Some of us have always had a sense that something was off with Arthur, and this just confirms their suspicions. Make no mistake, we can't stand him, we don't like him, but we're really hoping to see more of his background to understand him as a character more.

Bree

These opinions might bring some controversy among blog readers, but here we go. We really don't think Bree is a good friend to Alice. Granted in this novel she loses her memories of Alice, but overall through the books she hasn't been the best. Yes, she tries to save Alice in book two, but it feels like too little too late.

Being the main character, Bree does often have her own resolutions to challenges, where as the secondary characters aren't given as much ability to succeed. She is also selfish in this novel. While she doesn't know she'll lose the memories of those she loves, she's also ready to charge forward and train with the Shadow King to become stronger no matter the cost. She is essentially asking for her teenage self to be locked away instead of learning to regulate herself on her own.

Selwyn

Sel is no longer the boy we grew to love in Bloodmarked. His morally grey and edgy presence has given into Demonia. Coupled with the fact he is a teenager and his emotions are at the forefront of his reasoning, the Demonia makes it all the worse. Confronted with a mother he thought no longer lived, he's unable to see past his own anger at feeling abandoned. Without the ability to see the whole picture, and understand what might have his mother, Sel fixates on her not saving him, not trying hard enough in his eyes to help him. He's become pure emotion, wanting only what he wants and doesn't care about the consequences or what happens to anyone in his way.

And there is a burning question with Sel. How in the world did no one know he is the Shadow King's son? Was his mother memories stolen? How could she have not known? And what does this mean now that Sel wears the crown? He won't have to drink aether anymore, but is that even going to stop him? We're seriously missing the old Sel.

Parents

The situation with the parents of Bree and Alice continue to catch us off guard. Bree's dad we at least see towards the end of the novel. He's also been in communication with Bree on and off throughout the series so far. But in Oathbound he is under a sort of house arrest, though he doesn't understand why. The fact he hasn't taken actions to understand his situation, or try to get out of it is a bit confusing. Then we have Alice's parents. Where are they? Is just one big mesmer that is keeping them from searching for their daughter?

And let's talk about Natasia, Sel's mother. While the reader is given some chapters with her point of view, we don't actually know much about her. This character is remaining a mystery to us. She explains her experience with Demonia, but it's just a part of who she is in the current story line. She has a whole lot of explaining to do in the next book, but just how much are we going to see?

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Overall Thoughts on Oathbound

Ready for some random thoughts? When we weren't talking about the characters, we tossed out questions and ideas on the overall book.

Young Adult vs. Adult Writing

We have to remind ourselves the characters are teenagers. They are run by emotions, and don't have enough world sense to sometimes make better decisions. Had this been written with the characters as adults, we all agree that story would have gone in a completely different direction.

We did notice that the teenage male characters tend to be more mature than the female characters. In particular there is a scene where Nick and Bree may very well become intimate, but Nick steps away. We don't quite believe as many teenage boys would be as chivalrous as Nick. But it does endear us to his character, which was most likely the goal.

While the concept of this series is great, we are interested in how it may have been written as an adult novel. The emotions would have been better handled, and a new depth of understanding could have been achieved for bother readers and character.

Auction House

I brought up the question, how has no one heard of the auction house? To which the ladies brought up a great point. The auction house is like the black market, or the dark web. There are rumors of it existing, but the public is never going to know the truth, or see it.

World Building

This series is very much go with the flow, here is the information to form an idea, and run with it. Not to say this tactic doesn't work, but some people prefer to have more detail put into the background of situations. For instance, when Bree and the others are being broken out of the Shadow King's prison hold, suddenly someone is able to tunnel through the floor. How did this come about? Granted, we don't have a POV from the character who launches the jail break, but this seems a bit convenient for the plot.

There are also quite a few secret societies now in the mix. While some are better explained than others, we really want to know what each of their end goals is. What agenda are they playing at, are each waring with one another, or do they want separate things. We know the Morgaines are after the Merlin's but what about the Legion? What about the experiments to create another Bree? Are we going to see more into that side of the story?

There is so much left to see of this world. Just how much more are we going to be able to uncover, and what is going to happen to our characters? This one left off at quite the cliff hanger and some of us just need the book asap.