Maeve O’Neill grew a hard shell while growing up on the streets of Boston. Just as she’s on the cusp of getting her life on a better track, she starts having agonizing visions of torture. Desperate to rid her mind of the awful scenes, she follows her visions to the scene of a murder. Instead of answers, she gets an unexpected gift from the victim: Magic.
Maeve’s newfound abilities soon make her the target of two powerful and dangerous groups, the Council and the Brotherhood, both of which will stop at nothing to gain the magic locked inside her. In an attempt to stay alive, Maeve strikes a deal with the Council’s disillusioned enforcer, Silas Valeron. His motives are suspect, and his arrogance is frustrating, but his plan might work.
With more visions sending Maeve deep into a world of magic with enemies all around her, she must learn to control her powers long enough to get rid of them. If she can’t, all of Earth’s magic could fall into the wrong hands.
B.P. Donigan was born and raised in Alaska. She left to attend college in rural Idaho, graduated from not-so-rural Utah, and finally moved to very-not-rural Boston, where she lived and worked for ten years.
After paying her dues to extreme winters, she resides now in sunny California, with her two kids, two dogs, and one amazing husband. Like any good superhero, she spends her days building her cover story behind a desk and her nights saving the world (on paper, at least).
I received this book as an ARC and boy am I so happy I got to read it! It completely captured me. I really it in less than a day because I had to unravel all the mysteries: Maeve's identity, her past and her abilities as well as what was happening in the magical realm. The characters were all complex and well-drawn. The world building was excellent, clear but not so much that one got completely bogged down with the details. The magical elements felt really natural and made consistent sense. It was all very well down.
What I really appreciated, however, was how the author created a world with no easy answers. Everything has a cost. That emotional realism really kept me on the edge of my seat. I felt Maeve's predicaments and murky her choices became. I'm so excited to read what comes next.
Fate Forged Bound Magic Series: Book One B.P. Donigan
I just loved this one. Maeve is a great character. Her introduction to magic was unreal for her. Now she has no choice, and must do the best she can. I love how she interacts with Silas. That is of course a story in itself. Amazing story!!
Book source ~ ARC. My review is voluntary and honest.
Maeve O’Neill has been having terrible nightmares lately. They seem so real and they’re beginning to interfere in her daily life, so she decides to find the place in her dreams and put them to rest once and for all. But what she does instead is turn her life upside down. Nothing is what she thought, not even herself. Now she has to trust a stranger to help her before she ends up dead. She’s never been good at trusting, but dead seems so much worse, so trust it is.
The beginning of this story will draw you in and not let go. It’s a bit confusing at first as to who are the white hats and who are the black hats, but it plays out in a surprising way. Maeve is a bit too wimpy at times for me, but overall she doesn’t take much shit from anyone. I love the twist and turns her path takes, but the final conflict falls flat for me. I also have a hard time with the insta-love. I just don’t feel any build up for it. It’s just suddenly there. I love the world and the characters though. All-in-all this is a great tale about magic, discovering yourself, and standing against corruption.
A woman named Mauve is the protagonist of Fate Forged. Once a homeless teen, she has pieced together a new life by working hard under-the-table at restaurants and volunteering at the homeless shelter that took her in. When nightmares of torture take over her dreams, she loses sleep because of them, then starts to miss shifts at work. Her life begins to fall apart; she’s no longer sure she made enough that month to make her rent. Her life undergoes a quantum shift when, desperate to get rid of the horrific scenes, she follows these visions to a fortune cookie factory in Boston, the scene of the torture she’d dreamt about which ended in the death of the victim. Instead of answers, she discovers she has previously unknown magical abilities, but in wholly unable to control her magic. Her magic soon makes her the target of two powerful groups of magical beings, the Council and the Brotherhood, both of which want access to the magic locked inside Maeve. She strikes a deal with the Council’s Guardian, Silas Valeron. She is suspicious of his motives, finds his arrogance is frustrating, but is drawn to him sexually. More visions send her deeper into the world of magic. She must learn to control her power, or the magic that ties all life forms to the Earth itself, could fall into evil hands.
The writing flowed well and had few grammatical errors. What bothered me were multiple instances where a paragraph combined two characters’ actions/thoughts/dialogue. For example, Silas has a line of dialogue followed by Maeve’s internal response to that dialogue. I was pulled out of the story momentarily trying to re-orient myself.
Overall, an interesting premise with a page-turning plot with multiple twists, superb world-building, an compelling protagonist who often acts in her own best interest because she’s a bit of a smart aleck, and a love interest who is as emotionally tormented as the protagonist all make this a good read.
For a debut novel it's OK. Lots of twists and turns in the plot. I liked the pratoganist at first, but as the plot unvailed, had a few moments of wanting to strangle her and get it done with. In addition there were whole sections that were real slow and took me forever to trudge through... Three quarters into the book it picks up again.
This is book one in the Bound Magic series. The main character at the start of the story is Maeve who has grown up in foster care and looking after herself on the streets of Boston. Suddenly, she starts having very vivid nightmares that seem realistic. Her nightmares are visions of torture. After being unable to sleep for a number of nights, she follows the visions to the scene of a murder and gets more than she bargained for. She receives magic from the victim and a lot of it. Not that she has any idea what it is nor what it means.
Now her large store of magic has drawn the attention of two rival groups, the Council and the Brotherhood. They both want her magic, for different reasons, but will do everything they can to get the magic from her, even if it causes her death. With this magic she has to make a deal with Silas, a disillusioned head of a powerful family in a magic world hidden on another realm, linked closely to Earth. He is gruff and very blunt with his words and trusts no one.
Maeve receives more visions as she starts to get used to her magic and has to work out what they mean and who she really is. The Council want to strip her of her magic, as do the Brotherhood and she can’t let them do this. Silas takes Maeve back to his world to face the Council, but has put her under his protection and the force of his house, to ensure nothing happens to her. The Council are facing a shortage of magic force and want to drain more Earth sources to fuel all their people, but mostly the well off in their realm.
Maeve has to decide which side to help and who she can trust. The only person she trusted in Boston was Father Mike, a priest at the local church who helped the homeless and had helped her a lot in the past. She finds out more about where she really came from and who her people are. Her place in the world is an important one and she and Silas, as well as others that join them, will have to fight for their way of life.
A really involved and complex story, from simple street life to finding your nightmares have given you magic. Then being escorted to a magical realm, possibly to her death. This story certainly draws you in and keeps you reading. Great start to a series! I look forward to reading some more of this series. The fight isn’t over. I received an ARC copy of this book from Hidden Gems and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.
Preface: I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review
Overall, this was pretty solid. The plot was generally clear and easy to follow, though it takes some odd turns here and there. The backbone of the novel is the main romance, and it's honestly pretty good. Normally I'm not really into the paranormal romance tropes, especially with fairy-ish leads, but the chemistry between them actually lured me in. Sadly, it's at its strongest about 1/2 of the way in, then kinda dithers around with the "omg does he like me or not" thing (complete with multiple side characters talking about how "good" they are for each other, ugh), which I wasn't a fan of, but I imagine that won't be as much of a problem in later books.
The worldbuilding was solid, though not terribly flashy, and I enjoyed seeing Mauve come to grips with her abilities more and more. I'm definitely a huge sucker for extra-special protagonists who can do things no one else can, and this has that in spades (though that might annoy some readers, I suppose). The other characters were all pretty decent, too. Honestly, though, my biggest problem with the story is that Mauve is just teeth-gritting-ly stupid for a good chunk of this book. She's constantly ignoring directions given to her, and directly acts against her own self-interest because she doesn't understand the world she's in and just assumes everyone is lying and trying to use her. She blatantly disregards warnings/help Silas gives her early on, and just generally acts really childishly. Tbh, if I were him, I would have tossed her into the villain's arms and been done with it. She's just very impulsive and needlessly bratty in what I think is supposed to be a "strong female character" way. This gets better over time, but it seems like a trait that will probably rear its head again in later books.
Overall, though, this was a pretty good read, and I'm curious where the series will go from here.
I loved this story and found the characters to be both complex and compelling. I did feel that I had to take a star off of my rating because, when we first find out about the Lost Sect, Silas tells Maeve that everything with the sect becoming lost happened for decades ago. Nothing, until the very end of the book, contradicted this statement (though there wasn't anything confirming it either). So I spent the majority of this book enjoying the action and developments, but constantly being bugged that we have the very long lived Aeternals who, somehow, remember very little about people who would, supposedly, have been friends only a few decades prior. The timeline just didn't make any sense. Then, at the end of the book, we find out that the Lost Sect has been hiding for generations, as well as another reference to centuries, which makes me think that the word 'decades' was probably a typo. Unfortunately, that typo happened to be about a significant event that the whole understanding of the events of this book are based on.
With the understanding that it hasn't only been 40 years, I can say that I was captivated by Maeve and Silas' journey. I loved that Maeve could be strong without being strident; and that she refused to back down from Silas' temper. I loved that she had a strong moral code and wasn't willing to accept things like slavery and torture simply because that's how Aeternals did things.
I am excited to see where this series goes, in future books.
What a FANTASTIC start to a new series! I am so taken by this book!
Okay, superlatives out of the way, I truly enjoyed this book. The writing is so vibrant and dynamic, it felt like someone was telling a story rather than me reading the words on paper. I was immediately intrigued by Maeve, with her uncommon name (for humans, at least), and her demeanor when faced with danger. I loved her spunk and determination, sarcasm, and strength of will. Definitely not a damsel in distress! Lord Valeron also held my interest. He was so multifaceted and intentional; I couldn't dislike him though at times i wanted to. The other characters are well written with depth and personality, and they really add to the story. The world building was good, enough that I was easily able to picture and understand as I read, though I'd love a more thorough understanding. I'm certain this will occur as the series continues. My only complaint is...it ended! The book is a great length, but I wasn't ready to let them all go. Thankfully, it was fairly obvious by the ending that this is just the beginning of their story. I SO can't wait for the next book!
I received an ARC copy of this book and voluntarily chose to leave a review.
WOW!!! Mauve is a homeless teen who's been having horrible nightmares. Her life starts to spiral out of control after she received a magical ability that was transferred to her due to a tragic incident. The death of this man caused Maeve to become the next target for the Brotherhood. Maeve's life is turned upside down as she set off to get rid of this magic that she suddenly has. In her quest she makes a deal with a Council Guardian, Silas Valeron. She is drawn to him sexually but they clash and fight constantly. Together they must find a way to stop all of Earths magic from falling into the wrong hands, Titus. Maeve is clever, caring, good with knives, and stubborn. She starts to exhibit amazing power, that she needs to figure out how to control. Silas is arrogant, caring, clever, loyal, stubborn and her knight. Silas has secrets that can destroy her trust in him. This book is full of action, adventure, battle scenes, fantasy, romance, magic, love and the struggle of power. There is a cliffhanger at the end that will leave you wanting more. It's a great book. I received this ARC for my honest opinion. I loved it!
Rcvd an advanced reader copy from the author for giving my two cents. Wow....just wow..I couldn't put the book down. We meet Maeve, a woman trying to make ends meet when she is followed into a dark alley to be confronted by a creepy dude. Then another creepy dude jumps in to save her life before she is struck in the chest with some sort of power. She is dreaming...she has to be. It's bad enough she doesn't remember her life b4 15 yrs old...living on the streets, keeping herself alive. Bit Father Mike has been there for her and when she tells him what happened, he is freaked out and the creepy guy who saved her is in his office...WTH. a conversation about who she is, and her blood has her going to the Fates with grumpy dude...great. an action packed story with lots of adventure, shocking revelations, a bit of romance and biting off more than Maeve can chew!!
A new spin on a magical world, great story great characters. A woman with weird memories, who believes she's an orphan, saved by a weird and annoying stranger with hidden purposes. A magical community on the brink of collapse because the magical source is thining, lower class uproar, political corruption and a villian who has connections on all sides. With new memories Maeve must figure out who's truthful in their thoughts and hearts while dealing with her newfound magical powers. Great story as a stand alone, but with possibilities for future books, especially focusing on other characters that I would love to see more of.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Fate Forged is a fun, fast-paced urban fantasy set on Earth and the magical realm of Aeterna, where a shortage of magic sets some of its people looking to Earth to supply the deficit. When Maeve, an orphan from Earth, suddenly finds herself bestowed with magical abilities, she must unravel her past and protect herself from those who would take it from her. B.P. Donigan has crafted a complex, compelling character in Maeve, who can take care of her own damn self and doesn't need to wait around for someone to save her. Her biting sarcasm had me smiling all the way through the book. I enjoyed reading this debut and look forward to the next book in the series.
This story immediately sucks you right in. The world the author creates is very creative and expertly described. This is a huge plus. The descriptions are witty and descriptive without being overly wordy. The author makes this world of magic believable with all its own intricacies. I loved the combination of genres - lots of action, magic, urban fantasy, romance, sexual tension, etc. The cliffhanger at the end is just enough to make me want to read more without being frustrated. A lot of the details are wrapped up and there's some realistic things to consider at the end. A perfectly happy ending would have been unbelievable for the story but I was still very happy with how it ended.
When the story first starts, and we meet Silas, all I could think of was "what a JERK!" But as we progress further, we find out more of his unusual situation. It takes a while, but we finally get to see more of makes him who he is and why he the way he is. I was very surprised by some of the other characters that were introduced as time progressed. 'Father' Mike was the biggest one. But the author weaved the story quite well and you came to understand the why's and because's . I thoroughly enjoyed the story and would read more from this author. Thank you, BP.
Finally finished, and only because I dont like to just give up on a book, but this was not worth my time. Too many things crammed into one book. It ruined the story, ruined the premise, ruined the characters. This could easily have been multiple books, taking each twist and properly expanding it so that it made sense to introduce it. However, we are just left with lots of pieces that leave you saying "WTH, where did that come from" or scratching your head unable to understand why the character would do something so out of norm. Anyway, if this is book #1, I am not caring about any more.
"Who is she?" and "Her flare!" Just the beginning of a good story.
Totally enjoyed this one. Maeve believe she is an ordinary girl, one that is an orphan. She starts to have nightmare and ends up starting her adventure into magic. She finds that there are several groups that use magic and they all want her, but not in a way she wants them to want her.
When Silas meets Maeve, he is forced into protecting her. He wants to take her back to his people but is force to compromise and goes to see a fate.
This is a must read to see how much Maeve can antagonize Silas. Also there are some really interesting characters that just help the story along.
Maeve has been having nightmares, visions of a violent death that send her out questing for answers. Only to fall prey to an attack where she exhibits amazing powers and then she is taken into protective custody by a supernatural warrior. Suspense, intrigue, even romance and a deathly stalker follow her wherever she goes. And the answers she seeks are a lifechanging force that will affect one and all! Just a little warning. This book sadly ends in a cliffhanger.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I absolutely loved this book! I went into it absolutely blind, and I'm glad I did. I couldn't put it down! It was a page turner from the beginning to end. I loved the chemistry between the two characters right from the get-go and hoped that they would get over their stubbornness and admit their feelings. The magic and fantasy in this story were satisfying to read, as I've been disappointed by other stories in the past, so it was refreshing to read something a little more complex. Now I can't wait until the next book!!
Fate Forged (Bound Magic Series: Book One) by B.P. Donigan is a wonderful story to read. This is a wonderful story by a brand new author I have never read before this story. I loved reading this wonderful story it have strong wonderful characters and a wonderful story line. I highly recommend this story to everyone .
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received Fate Forged as a free copy from the author/publisher. The gifting did not determine the review/rating, which reflects my honest opinion. What a wonderful book. Fast pacing, complex plots, characters the reader can empathize with, and plenty of twists and turns to delight. I was pulled right into the story and found myself up until the early hours. I'll be looking at more novels by this great author.
To read or not to read: This is definitely a "to-read" for all you dystopian lovers out there. I fell in love with Maeve and her headstrong attitude, that is both a blessing and a curse (author did a fabulous job of illustrating that a strong character can have a negative impact on situations). This book has many multi-faceted characters and plot twists that will keep you guessing until the very end. I know it didn't end how I expected it to - it is resolved but still left open for a possible sequel (she types hopefully into the goodreads review).
Overall: This story did take a bit for me to warm up to, it did not grab me from page one. However, by about chapter 3 I was enticed and continued to read for interest.
Other interesting notes: As a side note, I would like to say the creative usage of "curse" words in the book was a fun bit of humor for me. This book does have a few "close encounters" of sexual nature and some language is not clean, incase any of that bothers you, but it is used strategically for story advancement.
This is by far the best book I've listened to (or read) is ages. Fate Forged is a fast paced fantasy with brilliant world-building, a unique twist on magic and paranormal creatures, a kickass heroine and swoony hero. The perfect amount of fiery banter between Silas and Maeve, teamed with their slow burn romance had me listening to this book at any opportunity. Let's just say I can't wait for more of these two! I'm eagerly awaiting the next instalment in this amazing debut series. Well done!
She has been living in the streets and just when her life looks up she has terrible visions. She follows where one will.send her and there is a dead boby. She ends up having the magic from them. Now she is in danger from two dangerous groups wanting that magic. What will she do? Will she get help? Will she learn control? See how it is going to end
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.WowshE has
Loved this book! A new genre for me and a new author. So much packed into this book! A definite page turner I had a hard time putting down! This book had it all. Magic, sexual tension, action, adventure, murder, regret, lies, betrayal, love, and hope. A must read even if it's a new to you genre. I started reading this book not knowing what to expect but I am so glad I did! A definite 5 star book with wonderful and easily relatable characters.
I enjoyed this book. The pacing and action kept the story progressing as the world developed concurrently. Lots of great characters . The heroine is strong and acts with a strong sense of doing the right thing. The various factions are diverse and create complexity. This is a book where there are many unknowns at the beginning. As the story progresses secrets are revealed. The book held my interest. I will read the next one.
I loved this book! It was absolutely amazing entering this new literary world! I adored FMC Maeve a tough but resilient young lady just trying to get by in life. The story jumped off the page and flowed I couldn’t put this book down! I loved going on the journey with Maeve discovering her identity. This book had intrigue mystery and adventure! I loved it!
I really enjoyed this book. It was well written and the story and characters were well developed. I loved the individual character personalities and watching their relationship dynamics change and evolve through the book. The story was action packed and full of twists and turns. It had suspense, intrigue, emotion and hot chemistry. I can’t wait for the next book!! I’d highly recommend this book!!
I really enjoyed the story. It grabbed my attention at the very beginning and was able to hold it to the very end. There were some moments of predictability, but I think that it made the story that much more interesting. I am waiting impatiently for the next book to come out.