I normally don't read Urban Fantasy because there's not much romance and because most UFs are told in the 1st person POV. Well, the current trend in Erotic Romance is having the story told by the heroine's 1st person POV so that has cured me of avoiding 1st person. And I don't necessarily need a romance if the world-building, plot and characters are great.Soulbound starts off really slow. It was hard for me to get into the first half of the story. I understand that the author has to set up the story, provide the background info and the world-building. Unfortunately, I didn't find any of it interesting. I got tired of Xandra's mother and her antics to ignite Xan's latent power. I understand it's hard to stand up to your parent but I draw the line at poisoning. I wanted Xandra to stick to her guns but she constantly caved when her mother would turn on the water works. Even though Xandra knew she was being manipulated, she went along with her mother's antics anyway.The second half of the book gets better. Xandra is enjoying life in Austin, running her coffee shop. And then the murders start happening. They are gruesome and for some reason, Xandra can see and feel the victim's pain. As the murders start happening, Declan, a powerful warlock, is in town. Of course the obvious is to connect him with the murders. And this is where the mystery fails. I had the murderer pegged from the beginning and when he was revealed, I was disappointed. It was so blatantly obvious. I think the story surrounding the murders of the women who look like Xandra could have been more complicated. But so much of the book is spent on Xandra and her latent power that I felt that the murder plot was rushed and not fully fleshed out.Declan is a mystery but I didn't feel compelled to know more about him. He's dark but I didn't find him interesting or sexy. He's kind of pathetic and I kind of wanted him to be more of a badass than what he actually was. I didn't buy the romance or the sexual attraction between Declan and Xandra. The sex scenes were lukewarm and I would have preferred if there were no sex scenes at all. Didn't really see the point other than it was used as a way to forget, and not a way to advance the relationship.Soulbound peaks with about 50 pages left and then it just ends. It's not a cliffhanger but there's no wrap-up of the story. I'm curious where in the story book two will pick up. With that said, I will be reading the next book in the series even though I have meh feelings about Soulbound.
