Darkbound by Scott Tracey

Darkbound by Scott Tracey
"Malcolm Denton wants to be free . . .

. . . of the unbreakable coven bond that ties him to his siblings, of his life as a witch in the hated Moonset coven, and of everything magical.

His longing attracts the attention of a demonic Abyssal Prince who offers Malcolm a deal: uncover the truth about a twenty-year-old murder and the Prince can sever the coven bond.

If only it were that simple. Malcolm soon realizes that working with the Prince means getting everything he ever wanted. But it also means betraying his siblings, condemning the teens of Carrow Mill to the Prince’s dark agenda, and learning that the Moonset orphans’ special bond goes deeper than he ever imagined."- summary from Amazon

In this sequel to Moonset, Tracey switches perspectives to Malcolm, and what I love about him is that while he's gay, it's such a small, accepted fact in the storyline. It's handled in that perfect way- it's not ignored, but it's not a focal point.

Moving on from that though, I also love the witchy world that Tracey has set up. There's communities, rules, a crazy backstory, extremely fleshed-out characters. Even though we've only been in two POVs, the reader really gets a sense of all 5 siblings. The sarcasm present in a lot of Tracey's novels is also welcome because that is my preferred sense of humor, and it's always nice to have that balance of dark and humorous, especially in a paranormal book.

There's some great stakes here in the book, and I'm interested to see where Tracey takes this series next (no new books are announced yet, but I am hoping!). This series is highly recommended!

FTC: Received e-galley from Netgalley. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.