After finishing Call of the Bone Ships I needed a break from emotionally devastating fantasy, so I unwittingly picked up Unbound by Christy Healy only to find it was the most heart wrenching second chance love story ever! My poor heart needs a break!
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Title: Unbound
Author: Christy Healy
Series: Queens of Eire #1
Genre: romantic fantasy, fairy tales, mythology
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing Inc
Pages: 459
Audiobook length: 15 hrs 19 min
ISBN: 9798212613835
Content warnings: violence, gore, death, confinement, fire, death of parent, emotional abuse, references to spousal/domestic abuse, threatened sexual abuse
Blurb
For fans of Hannah Whitten and Rebecca Ross, Unbound is a gender-bent reimagining of the classic tale of a monstrous beast and the beauty determined to tame it, set against the lush backdrop of Irish mythology and folklore.
Rozlyn Ó Conchúir is used to waiting—waiting for the king, her father, to relent and allow her to leave the solitude of her tower; waiting for the dreaded and mysterious Beast of Connacht to at last be defeated; waiting for the arrival of the man destined to win her heart and break the terrible curse placed on her and her land. So when she meets Jamie—a charming and compelling suitor—she allows herself to hope that her days of solitude and patience are over at long last.
But as she finds her trust betrayed—and newer, more sinister threats arising—Rozlyn learns that some curses are better left unbroken …
Review of Unbound
- Format: ebook
- Pacing: medium
- Plot or character-driven: plot
- POVs: dual POV in third person
- Representation: N/A
Let me just start by saying that I think marketing Unbound as a Beauty and the Beast retelling does a disservice to the book, because that’s only a fraction of the story. I would characterize the first half of Unbound as a fairy-tale-like fantasy inspired by Beauty and the Beast, but the story is also strongly influenced by Irish folklore. Regardless, Unbound is a magical second chance love story told across multiple timelines.
Unbound opens with multiple climactic scenes that at first made me think I started a book in the middle of a series. (I actually checked, and yes, this is the first book). We see our main character, Rozlyn, on her wedding day in the opening scene, then when she is very young and her land is first attacked by a mysterious monster, and 10 years after her wedding during an adversary encounter with her husband. It’s a lot, but it didn’t take me long to start piecing the story together. The author doesn’t leave the reader lost for long.
A lot of time is spent in the first half of the book establishing what happened to Jamie and Rozlyn. We know that Rozlyn was married in the first chapter, that Jamie is her husband, but what happened to make them enemies? As Healy peals back the layers of their relationship, she also begins to develop the main plot happening 10 years after Jamie and Rozlyn’s marriage, when Jamie returns to plead for Rozlyn’s help and forgiveness. I really enjoyed this part of the story because it forced me to look at the clues in each of the timelines to figure out what happened. I love stories that trust readers to pick up on the details.
Jamie is charmingly infuriating. I would divorce him too. I could also see why Rozlyn found herself seduced by his wit. He was funny and persistent in his pursuit of her. I’m not sure if I would have forgiven him, or Rozlyn. Their relationship was doomed from the start and as much as I felt the tragedy of that, I also felt like Rozlyn and Jamie deserved each other. I don’t say this as a criticism; I really liked how unconventional the love story in Unbound was.
“You have told so many stories over the past year. I have never thanked you for that.”
“You still haven’t, but nevertheless, you’re very welcome”
(Rozlyn and Jamie in Unbound, Healy pg. 156) – Their banter is so funny!
The second half of the story shifts the focus from Jamie and Rozlyn to the wider plot. Although part one focused mainly on their relationship, it also did a really nice job of setting up the main plot, so the story felt cohesive all the way through.
I enjoyed Jamie and Rozlyn’s story a lot, but there were other parts of Unbound that felt unpolished. There were many encounters with mythological beings throughout the story, but I didn’t get enough information or time to appreciate any of them. Same with the side characters, their role was mainly to boost Jamie and Rozlyn’s character development, but they had little personality otherwise. One particular moment in Unbound that made me cringe was when the villain actually calls Rozlyn a “damsel in disress”, which felt just a bit too cliché for my taste.
Conclusion
I like that the story is told between multiple timelines. It made the second chance love story so much more interesting to see the couple in two different phases of their relationship. I also think the author did a really good job incorporating a lot of different elements into her timelines and still making the entire book a cohesive story.
While there were parts of Unbound that felt unpolished, I overall really enjoyed Rozlyn and Jamie’s story. Christy Healy is definitely an author I’ll keep and eye out for in the future.
I would recommend this book for someone looking for a fairytale and mythology inspired romantic fantasy story.
You’ll like this book if you enjoy…
- Fairy-tale and mythology inspired fantasy
- Second chance love stories
Where to find Unbound:
Have you read Unbound? Let’s chat in the comments!
