Mirror Bound

by Rhiannon Held

Verity is a phantom, a being of the mirror realm who can change her face—or she could before she was bound by a mage of the grounded realm. Now she’s trapped in a human form, forced to tell the truth and obey the one who holds her Dakota, a hunter who, with her team of other mages, keeps the world safe from the more monstrous creatures of the mirror realm. But Verity’s binding is weakening. Every time she teleports the team to safety, she gets a little closer to freedom.Except the number of monsters coming from the mirror realm is increasing and the mages’ governing body, the Quorum, can’t figure out why. With monsters killing humans and all eyes on Verity, she’s fast running out of time to free herself—especially when she discovers that unless she can stop them from gaining access to the mirror realm, the Quorum’s plans for her realm and her people are far more dangerous than anything they might do to her.

Genres: Fantasy

354 pages, Paperback

Published March 17, 2018

About the author

Rhiannon Held writes urban fantasy, along with space opera and weird western (as R.Z. Held). She lives in Seattle, where she works as an archaeologist for an environmental compliance firm. At work, she mostly uses her degree for copy-editing technical reports; in writing, she uses it for cultural world-building; in public, she'll probably use it to check the mold seams on the wine bottle at dinner.

Reviews

[Gabrielle Hashimoto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Verity is a phantom, a being from the mirror world who can change her face, that is until she is bound by a mage in the grounded world and is forced to live in human form. She is forced to obey the one she’s bound to and is unable to lie. Dakota is a hunter, and with her team of mages, she hunts dangerous creatures from the mirror world. Verity is able to transport herself, and others, from place to place and she’s found that each transport slowly wears away her binding, so she’s biding her time hoping to wear her binding down enough to allow her to escape and return home. Unfortunately, more creatures than ever are coming from the mirror world and the mages’ governing body, the Quorum, can’t figure out why. If Dakota, Verity and the team can’t solve the problem soon, the Quorum will take over Verity’s binding and use her in ways she would do anything to avoid.
This was an interesting and unique story and the author does a great job developing the characters, with Verity, of course, being the most strongly developed character as the rest of them basically revolve around her. Dakota is one of my favorite characters and I liked how much she trusted and stood up for Verity when so many others were mistrustful or scared. While many see Verity as little more than a pet, to be tolerated, Dakota treated Verity with kindness and only hesitantly commanded her against her will. I also liked Davin and Siobhan even as I constantly questioned their motives where Verity was concerned. Deeply and vividly descriptive, action scenes jump off the page and the reader gets a good feel for creatures, magic and surrounding areas as if they’re right in front of you. In addition, Held deftly crafts the story so the reader will feel the gamut of emotions these characters endure. This is a well thought out, well done story and my only complaint is that I sometimes felt the book lagged here and there. Although many of the conversations were meant to reveal information to the reader, I felt that some of that was a little too prolonged and could have been a little more concise. With magic, romance and action, this is an entertaining read with well developed, engaging characters and a strongly built, unique world. I received a copy of this book from Booksprout and am voluntarily reviewing it.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, I have to be honest. I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book when I first started it. I blame my expectations. I try very hard not to have them, but I realize I do when I read a book that isn’t like almost every other book I read. Yes, I know, that’s why people branch out in other genres, but I like the genres I read; that’s why I read them. And then a book comes along like this one. It is both really like the books I read, but at the same time very different. In one way was while I didn’t exactly engage much with the main characters, I don’t think I was exactly supposed to. Verity is a being from a mirror universe, and she isn’t human. However, after being trapped her for so long, she was more “human” than she realizes and comes to that realization slowly. I’ve read the author before but it’s been a while, but I do remember she approaches things differently as you’ll see when you read this book. The book is very well-written, I loved how unique the plot was, I was very intrigued with how no one is exactly the “good guy” or the “bad guy,” the writing was very descriptive, and at the end I really wanted to read more to see how everyone will go forward from where the book ended. Give it a try! Highly recommend! I was provided the e-book which I voluntarily reviewed.

[Dawn Vogel · Rating 5 out of 5]

(This review originally appeared at Mad Scientist Journal.)

Mirror Bound is a stand-alone urban fantasy novel by Rhiannon Held. Breaking from the tropes of this genre, the story follows Verity, a non-human sidekick to a team of monster-fighting mages. Bound to the leader of that team by another mage, Verity struggles between belonging and independence.

Verity comes from a mirror realm, and denizens of that realm are invading the real world, also referred to as the “grounded” realm. She is bound to Dakota, a mage who leads a small team of other mages who are working to stop the monsters that are coming through from the mirror realm. When a new pair of mages arrive to help their cause, Verity finds herself far nearer to the center of attention than she’s comfortable with.

Telling this story from the perspective of the non-human sidekick of a team of monster hunters is a fun twist on what might otherwise be just another urban fantasy novel. Verity is an amazingly deep character, filled with great quirks and flaws, and seeing this “case” from her point of view really makes this a different sort of read. And Held’s storytelling is always enjoyable.

The author provided us with a free copy of this novel in exchange for review consideration.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

she is bound to the human world and use to help others but all she wants is to get back to her mirror world. the link is slowing weakening which means she will soon be back where she belongs. see if she can make it back home

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Essy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book it was very well written an inserting but fun read .The characters are good story line fun I look forward to reading more by this author.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Nicole Luiken · Rating 5 out of 5]

The heroine made this book. I very quickly got invested in Verity's plight and went through a few tissues along the way. An interesting world with a mirror realm of phantoms and other creatures sometimes coming through into ours.