Oathbound

Bree Matthews has chosen to separate herself from her friends in more ways than one. To refine her powers, Bree chooses to go with the Shadow King himself, a shapeshifter who can move between humanity, the demon underworld, and the Legendborn secret society.  

Now isolated, Bree hopes to become more powerful. As Bree learns more about herself and her abilities, she mourns her past life and the memories she has lost.  She trains with the demon king alongside two other half-demons: twins Zoe and Elijah. Zoe, Elijah, and Bree witness a young black girl being kidnapped and discover the Shadow King feeding on her root—the same power that Bree has. The three friends must find the girl and set her free. Through this journey, Bree discovers that she can be ruthless and that demons can be more human than expected. 

Meanwhile, the other Scions must face war while their Round Table is fractured, leaderless, and missing its Kingsmage, Selwyn, who has also disappeared. When Nick invokes an ancient law that requires the High Council of Regents to grant him an audience, the Order’s Merlins imprison him. No one knows what he will demand of the Regents… or what secrets he has kept hidden from the Table.

As a string of mysterious kidnappings escalates and Merlins are found dead, it becomes clear that no matter how hard Bree tries to run from who she is, the past will always find her. 

In the third installment of the series, Bree becomes more powerful and is more motivated to save others. Even with her friends erased from her memory, she remains a selfless character, willing to make sacrifices for those in trouble. Oathbound is the first in the series to show other characters’ points of view, including healer Will, Nick, Mariah, and Selwyn’s mother Natasia. While this offers intriguing insights into the minds of other characters and provides new perspectives on the events, it can feel disorienting, and the threads are sometimes hard to follow. The new perspectives offer readers an opportunity to see relationships other than Bree’s. 

Oathbound does not have as many action-packed moments as the first books in the series. Instead, the book focuses on the characters’ development, and each character must choose with whom and what they want to align themselves. This book continues the series’ trend of addressing race, grappling with Bree’s complex ancestry, and exploring the questions of what we owe to those who came before us versus what we owe to the people in our lives now. A book about identity, power, and loyalty, fans of the first two books will not be disappointed by Oathbound, which ends with another exciting cliffhanger that sets up the fourth book in the series.  

Sexual Content  

• Bree recalls the memory of kissing Selwyn. “My hip tingles with the memory of heated fingers pressed against my skin through a borrowed dress. Scorching palms beneath my thighs, bark scraping my spine, lips hot and burning.” 
• A Legendborn reminds Nick that his relationship with Bree is forbidden by the Order. “The Lines cannot mix. If you and your girl get caught sparring without clothes on, the Regents will arrest you both for treason.” 
• To avoid being suspected of being thieves, Nick kisses Bree to create a cover. “The only warning before he presses his mouth to mine—then, there is nothing to know, nothing to remember, nothing to earn or fight for, only this.” They are interrupted by a guard.  
• Nick and Bree share a bed. “The warmth of a broad hand curled across my hip… Even through the thin layer of my pajama pants, his touch feels familiar.” 
• Nick and Bree make out. “Now, when Nick grasps my chin, tilting it so he can kiss me more deeply, so our mouths meet more fully… When Nick’s lips coax mine open… Anticipation zips through me, my breaths turn shallow with want.” Nick stops because Bree doesn’t remember him.  
• It is implied that Nick and Bree have sex, but it is not described. “Nick paints reverence across my throat and seals wonder to my mouth. He whispers my own magic into my skin. His hands slip down and down past the edge of my coat to grasp the long skirt of my dress. He tugs the thin fabric up and up until his fingers find my waiting skin, my arched spine, my rolling hips.” 

Violence  

• Bree, Zoe, and Elijah fight as part of their teacher Erebus’ training plan. The three punch and kick each other. The fight ends with Zoe throwing Bree into a barrier. “Instead of smashing into the barn, my spine smacks hard into what feels like a thick concrete wall… My skull cracks against it too, and black spots dance across my vision.” The fight lasts four pages. No one is seriously injured.  
• In Bloodmarked, Nick killed a Merlin named Max. To get revenge, a Merlin named Thompson attacks Nick. Nick “takes a flying leap at a shocked Thompson, swinging his right fist back—to land a hard, crunching blow to the Merlin’s nose…He sends a roundhouse to Thompson’s face at breakneck speed—kicking the Merlin out of the air and back down to the floor before he ever gets the chance to land.” The fight ends when Nick knocks Thompson unconscious. The fight is described over three pages.  
• As a training exercise, Bree attacks an imp and kills it. “With a flick of my wrist, I let [the blade] fly. It hits the imp in the chest, burying itself right to the hilt.” 
• While in a bar, Bree witnesses the kidnapping of a young black girl. Bree hears a man hit the girl. “Then a smack—fist against skin—and a body hits the floor… A bruise is already forming on her cheek.” The girl does not allow Bree to intervene.  
• In a training session, Erebus’ aether-made animals attack Bree. Bree feels as if she is being clawed open. “The first bear’s strike rips my forearm open—and I scream. The second set of claws tears my hand down to the bone—and I whimper. The third bear digs two claws into the tops of my thighs—and drags them to my knees.” Eventually, Erebus calls them off and reveals that the attack and the pain were all in Bree’s head. 
• Nick describes the training that his father forced him to do as a child. “Sel can hit me if it’s done in the name of ‘training’… Wait until you hear about the broken bones… Some injuries were too severe for him to risk inflicting on me, so Dad left those lessons for the Lieges… they’d leave me behind with broken bones, black eyes, cracked ribs… internal bleeding, a concussion or two. Or five.” 
• Two of Bree’s friends, William and Lark, are standing near a car when the Mageguard blow it up. They are not injured and can fight the Mageguard. “Once we’re left to focus on the two Guards, we knock the first one out easily.” The fight is over quickly, and the Mageguards are knocked unconscious.  
• Trying to steal the Shadow King’s crown, Bree attacks a guard. “The guard’s head rises, mouth opening to shout—then gasping in pain when he’s struck across both knees… The root expands, enclosing him in an iridescent sphere, just like the ones I’ve created to protect myself.” 
• As Bree is looking for the crown, Nick appears. They don’t recognize each other, so they fight. Nick “groans. Twists again, this time trying to ram me into the worktable behind us. The sharp edge digs into my back… He drives an elbow down into my shin. Bone on bone, whiteout pain.” They both have bruises. The fight is described over four pages.  
• Bree’s ancestor was raped. “What happened to Bree’s ancestor was not a ‘bad decision.’ It was rape. A violation [the rapist] should have been punished for.” 
• At a party, a demon named Mikael interrogates the guests. Later, Lawson, one of Mikael’s employees, kills a guest named Eric, who had betrayed Mikael. “Without saying a single word, Lawson slips his hand to the back of Eric’s neck… and squeezes. Eric’s body seizes. His eyes roll back in his head—and then he’s gone.” 
• Four warlocks attack Nick and Bree in their room. “As soon as [one of the warlocks] shifts to lift my feet up and into the waiting, empty corridor, I twist my hips and kick a foot into his face. My heel catches his nose in a satisfying crunch.” Bree is scratched by one of them. “The tail sneaks into my opening, dragging its tip along my upper arm. It leaves a trail of fire behind.” Nick and Bree knock the warlocks unconscious. The fight lasts about five pages.  
• A Regent attacks Nick. “Nick is speeding to the outer ward… when he is thrown back by a dark green shadow. Nick flies across the lawn, hits the ground with a deep thud, and skids another twenty feet.” Nick and Bree are knocked unconscious. 
• When Erebus threatens Bree, Selwyn cuts Erebus’ hand off. “Erebus is closer, hand outstretched—until a bolt of green aether slices through his bloodied wrist, severing his hand to the ground.” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

• Nick orders drinks for Bree and himself. “Nick takes a sip of the golden liquid in his tumbler before he answers, wincing slightly at the burn as he sets it down.” Both Bree and Nick are underage.  

Language  

• Profanity is used regularly and includes damn, hell, shit, fuck, and ass/asshole. 

Supernatural  

• Bree is learning how to summon and seal her root. Erebus warns her, “Because if you don’t [seal your power], you’ll be devoured or destroyed before your real training can begin.” 
• Erebus uses magic to erase Bree’s memory of her friends.  
• One character, Valechaz, is a crossroads demon that makes deals to give humans magic, making them warlocks. “He’s a two-hundred-and-five-year-old half-human, half-demon cambion.” 
• Bree’s best friend, Alice, is in a coma caused by magic. Hazel, a rootcrafter, explains, “My theory is that Alice is trapped between two worlds… My diagnosis is that she is in limbo.” 
• Both Bree and Erebus use magic to create physical beings or items made of aether. “My right foot slides back once, then again, to create space between me and the living constructs… each is made of crystalline aether.” 
• Nick allows a piece of the Shadow King’s crown to be embedded in his chest to give him Morgaine’s power. “Morgaine’s daughter embedded a shard of the crown into her own chest and touched her mother as she died, expecting to receive her mother’s abilities—but Morgaine’s spirit transferred instead… Morgaine lived on within her daughter, and that’s how her daughter was able to wield her powers.” 

Spiritual Content  

• None 

by Abigail Clark