Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted over at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating...

So I first made note of this book last week in my "Waiting on Wednesday/ Top 10 Most Anticipated Books of 2011" post... But in that post I mentioned that I didn't actually know what the name of the book was, when it was going to be released, what it was about and all of that jazz... All I knew for certain? That Rachel Vincent, one of my most favourite authors of all time, was writing it and therefore it was bound to be good (haha... No pun intended)...

So the book?!? *Drum Roll* please!  

Blood Bound (it is set to be released September 1st, 2011)!!!

And this is what Rachel has to say about it (which I completely stole borrowed from her blog):

"Genre: The Unbound series is paranormal. It’s a little more romance-heavy than the early Shifters books are, and about in line with romance/relationship content of the last couple of Shifters books.

Audience: The Unbound books are intended for adults. As my editor said, BLOOD BOUND is “twisted.” (Is it wrong that her quote makes me smile? ;)) If this first book is any indication, these books will be very dark and gritty, violent, and tense, but with some humor (mostly dialogue) to take the edge off.

The world: The idea behind the Unbound world-building is simple. The execution is a little more complicated. For me, it all started with the cliché “a man’s word is his bond,” then grew to include, “the pen is mightier than the sword” and the concept of “word of mouth.”

“What…” I thought, as I was brainstorming, “…if those clichés could be taken literally?”

What if a person’s word really was his or her bond? What if, once given, a promise could never be taken back? Would you be more careful what you say? Wouldn’t we all, if we were bound to our words?

Then I took it a step further. If the spoken word carries that much power, how much more would the written word carry? What about words written in (or sealed in) blood? What about words written in (and sealed in) flesh? Tattoos and graffiti take on a whole new meaning, huh?

Needless to say, once I headed down that thought-path, the world-building exploded—there’s much more to it now (but I’m not going to give you any more just yet). The story lines grew from the world-building possibilities and conflicts. The characters developed based on the experiences they would've had, growing up in this world.

The bad guys are bad (twisted, according to some…), but they have very human motivations.

The good guys are…not exactly wearing white hats. But the innocent are still innocent, and someone has to fight for them. (This may, in fact, be the only thing Shifters has in common with Unbound.)

The characters:

Olivia Warren owes her friend Anne a favor. Anne needs someone found and brought to a very quick, private justice.

The catch? Olivia must work with Cam Caballero to complete this favor. The problem? Cam is Olivia’s ex—the man prophesied to either kill her or die by her hand. It's a tense reunion, at best.

As Olivia and Cam chase their target through public streets, private lives, and a dangerous criminal underworld, everything they thought they knew comes into question. In the end, they can only be sure of three things…

No one can be trusted.
Everyone’s lying.
And someone’s going to pay."

And Rachel also answered another great question:

"What are the characters (re: paranormal abilities/species)? They are human+. But not anything you'd know from other books or movies. That's all I can say right now."

I love how Rachel always writes about unique paranormals, seriously, has anyone else ever read a book about bean sidhes before- or how many authors really write about werecats (most seem to write only about werewolves!)? And though we don't know much about these new characters, they sure as heck sound intriguing! And it'll be out in time for my Birthday! You don't have to guess what I will be asking for! ;)

What are you waiting for?