Honour Bound, from Helen Harper (Highland Magic #2)

Hi, there! I’m back with another breathtaking book that almost killed me with its cliffhanger, haha! I could only be talking about Honour Bound, the second book in the Hightland Magic series, from wonderful Helen Harper! I had read Gifted Thief in the end of January and fell in love with it [you can read my fangirl review here lol], so it was only natural for me to pin hard for the next book ❤ Helen was more than happy to include me on the reviewers team and send me Honour Bound in exchange of another honest review 😀 Thank you so much!!

from my Instagram 😀

The Story

After helping the Sidhe clans to rescue the source of their power, Integrity decided to play it low and live by her name instead of resume her thievery career with her crew and stepfather. Now they all lived in a small city and Integrity’s new job was to rescue people lost in the mountains.

All was well until one particular rescue, involving two Sidhe members of the Moncrieffe clan; Byron’s clan. To her complete surprise, the demon himself came to pick the lost members off and Integrity sees the perfect opportunity to start restoring her own clan’s domains and name: the Sidhe Games. The winner could ask for anything of the Sidhe council and have it.

Integrity just wasn’t prepared to face honourable games with so much lack of honour. And for the fact that she and Byron were more than frenemies now. Or for all the implications of the real activities held by Byron’s father, Aifric, the most power and dangerous man of all Sidhe.

The Analysis

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂

I was dying to read this book since I finished Gifted Thief, but at the same time, I didn’t want it to end. Integrity is one of my best bookish friends and it always hurts to say goodbye to her… I wanted to have this review up by February 29^th, the day of Honour Bound release, but I couldn’t bring myself to end it. I needed more Integrity on my life [haha]. I needed more of this world, of those characters. Hell, I still need more! I can’t believe May is going to take SO LONG to arrive! I need the next book right now! Oh, and before my mind takes me too deep into this lament, I’d like to say that this sequel left me as shaken as the first book and it is a five full stars title! 😀

The narrative style followed Gifted Thief’s tone: first person styled from the point of view of Integrity. I still can’t believe how well this worked for me, I’m really not a first person narrated book person lol Harper knows her business very well, I’ll have to check her other books out!

Integrity is one of the best narrators that I have ever encountered. She’s an ultimate nerd and loved a good pop culture reference just like all of us and tells jokes that are so incredibly bad that you find yourself laughing out of the stupidity of them. She also has the most amazing come backs for jerks or stuck up people. And all of this without losing her gentle nature ❤

The plot was simple, as it is a development of Gifted Thief, with a major problem at hand and many questions to be answered through the series. I loved how everyone had to tiptoe all the time in Sidhe society, as the intrigue and power games were never ending. I love a good gossip, haha! Also, it is the first time that we see how the Fomori demons really behave and I sense that things will get even more dark and dangerous on the next book. Chills!

The characters are still the highlight of Highland Magic series, starting with Integrity. There is a scene that other participants of the Games threat to rape Integrity and not even then she lost her balance and gave in to violent answers. I highly admire her for being so powerful and capable and still not taking full advantage of it to battle others. Not even Byron is that diplomatic – and the guy makes a run for his money. His personality still dazzles me and I do believe that the sex tension between him and Integrity could supply energy to all realms for generations to come, haha!

something like this lol

The weirdest thing is that I’m not in a hurry for them to really be together, as I really like this frenemies relationship that they got. It is too hot, haha! I will love the moment that they become something real, but I’m happy with the wait – and believe me, this is really new and weird for me to be both saying and feeling, haha!

As a bonus, I took the liberty of highlighting some lines that explain why Integrity is the best narrator ever:

“I curtsied and wished him [Aifric] dead, before remembering that I was a pacifist and I shouldn’t ever wish for someone to die.”

“I sounded like a comic book villain. Maybe I should wear a cape.”

“Feeling like a character in a computer game, I prepared to run again. The only difference between me and Lara Croft, though, was that I didn’t have an automatic save or infinite lives.”

And, to deliver the final blow, this piece of dialogue between Byron and Integrity:

‘It’s me or you,’ he said.

I lifted an eyebrow. ‘It’s always me or your,’ I replied softly.

my face when I read this

Overall, this series is taking a fantastic turn. If you like dystopian, magic, strong females, hot males and nerd references all over, just pick this up now!

That’s it, thank you for reading 😀 And thanks again for Helen Harper for sending me this book, you made a fangirl very happy! I can’t wait for the next 😀