Blood Bound Read Along | Week Three
Welcome back to Week Three of our Blood Bound Read Along for Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter, where the pieces are finally starting to come together.
Astrid and Skylar Continue to Shine
Astrid and Skylar trade trauma tit for tat throughout this section.
Both have lost people they love.
Both are preparing to die, preparing to kill, even though neither truly wants to.
They’re growing into their powers, strengthening their bonds with their familiars, and trying to do what’s best for the people who need them most.
They make the perfect dual POV characters.
Strong women.
Pawns in a system that forces them to sacrifice pieces of themselves while carrying the weight of everyone’s expectations.
Yet they’re strikingly different.
Brash and brazen.
Quiet and anxious.
Both heirs.
Both carrying legendary powers.
Everything Keeps Pointing Back to the Heart
One of my favorite revelations this week was learning that both women possess the legendary animals representing their kingdoms.
They’re meant to end the suffering.
They’re meant to reunite the kingdoms.
Two become one.
There’s definitely something bigger hiding beneath that phrase, and we’re getting closer to understanding it.
Because here’s what I’ve noticed—and now, the characters are starting to notice too.
Something is terribly wrong with the Heart.
The king keeps conscripting the Blooded and sending them there for reasons no one fully understands.
Then we learn what happened to Cam.
He wasn’t simply lost.
He was sent to the Heart as a Champion.
At this point, I’m about 99% convinced the king is sacrificing Blooded in hopes of restoring the Heart’s power and stopping the blight consuming the land.
Has the book confirmed it?
Not directly.
Do I think that’s exactly what’s happening?
Absolutely.
More Questions Than Answers
Then we have another mystery unfolding.
The assassins.
The one who mistakenly kills Jessa instead of Astrid admits whoever hired him lives inside the castle.
The Dreki recognized them.
When Astrid and Skylar examine the covenant, they discover a loophole that allows either kingdom to hire an assassin.
Immediately, my suspicion landed on the king’s mate.
She has everything to gain.
Remove the bastard heir.
Protect her own son’s future.
Keep control of the Heart.
It feels like the perfect motive.
And then…
There’s that tapestry.
The army of Exhausters.
The bonded pair with the legendary familiars.
They didn’t fight each other the way history claims.
So how much of history has been rewritten?
And how are Astrid and Skylar going to escape the duel everyone expects?
Let’s Talk Romance
Now for my favorite part…
The romance.
Astrid and Zryan continue to steal every scene they’re in together.
Their kiss.
Her pulling away.
Then choosing him again.
And the fact that Zryan immediately went to get her mother after Jessa died—even though that same mother once sent an assassin after him and was responsible for Axel’s mother’s death.
He’s becoming harder and harder not to love.
Then we have Axel and Skylar.
The tension between them is delicious.
She wants so badly not to trust him, while he seems completely captivated by who she is.
He isn’t afraid of her.
He’s in awe of her.
If the rebellion theories are true—and I think they are—I have a feeling these two are going to fall hard.
I’ll be over here with popcorn when it happens.
A Dark Side Note
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Final Thoughts
Overall, Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter keeps getting stronger with every section.
Questions are finally connecting.
Relationships are deepening.
The mysteries surrounding the Heart, the kingdoms, and their true history are becoming impossible to ignore.
I cannot wait to see how everything comes together in the final quarter of the book.
So tell me…
What are your theories?
What clues have you noticed?
Drop them in the comments below, and I’ll see you next week as we finish Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter.
Until then, happy reading!
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