Bound

Chinatown Demons, Book One

By: Rhys Ford

Narrated by: Greg Tremblay

Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

Bound: Chinatown Demons, Book One

Chinatown, San Francisco. 

A different place - another time - and where the city’s streets keep secrets and shadowy mysteries, SFPD Inspector Spencer Ricci needs to dig through after he finds himself on a case involving a dismembered, mummified man in a restaurant’s locked storage room. 

Spencer drags around a lot of baggage, including an ongoing battle with the bottle and a long career as an LAPD detective he’d set fire to in a blaze of booze-soaked mistakes. San Francisco is supposed to be a new start, but his old ghosts haunt him, beckoning him back into his self-destructive bad habits. Bad habits that include contemplating doing dirty things with the wrong kind of guy and this time, it’s a sleek, cold-tempered medical examiner named Xian Carter with a complicated reputation. 

For a century-old demon, Xian Carter is content with his secretive life. Hiding his nature from the mundane world, he blends in with the city’s inhabitants as best he can but even the best of predators make mistakes. Delving into the mysteries of the dead provide a welcome distraction from endless nights and hiding in plain sight amuses him, until something supernaturally wicked comes knocking on his door with an extremely hot, broody Inspector close behind. 

Murder makes for strange bedfellows and this one is no exception. The twists and turns of the case leaves Xian and Spencer on a wild goose chase after clues, but Xian can only hope there’s a human at the end of the trail - because the last thing San Francisco needs is another predator. 

©2020 Rhys Ford (P)2021 Rhys Ford

How do I review this? It is NOT a full book

I’m annoyed at Ford for doing what she did. This could have been an absolutely fantastic book. I love her Kai Gracen & Cole McGinnis series. I was prepared to love Chinatown Demons. And the horrible part? I did love the part of the book that was there. However, this WAS NOT A BOOK. This was one of those horrible things some authors do where they write a book, separate it into small pieces, and then sell each piece, calling it a book. And what a rip off. Leaving us without finishing the story. I have no clue how many pieces Ford cut this book up into, but I won’t be wasting anymore money on it unless she puts the whole SERIES together in one book.

Tremblay was off his game with this one. There were so many spots where two characters were talking (the most notable being Carter and his brother) where i had NO clue who was speaking because their voices were too similar.

So a big thumbs down on this one. And I’m mad because I like the way Ford writes. Usually her books are complete. This was a complete farce. It’s like we reached the end of the first act of the story and that’s where Bound ended.

If she wanted to write a piecemeal story, she should have put that in the book info... though the info written there was far too much for how tiny this few chapters was. Bad, bad, bad.

Very disappointed reader.

Abrupt Cliffhanger Ending

This book simply breaks off abruptly in an ending so sudden I’m not even sure it can be called a “cliffhanger.” The book just stops. Considering its short length, the author is merely selling a few chapters of a book as a book. I imagine Rhys Ford intends to sell the novel in pieces to enhance her profit. But, it should have been marketed as a piece of a longer work. So, don’t waste your money. Greg Tremblay does an excellent job as always but too bad his talent was wasted on this.

Excellent story I don't appreciate the CLIFFHANGER

The world-building was exciting. The characters were interesting and likable. I wish some of the reader's questions were answered. That said, I hate, hate, hate undisclosed cliffhangers; particularly when I don't know when the story will continue. Rhys Ford is normally a must-read for me but I feel mislead. Book One implies a series, not a serial. Bound was priced and sold as a book, not as a portion of one. Greg Tremblay performed the story very well but I had a hard time distinguishing the two brothers from each other.

Awesome start to what will be an AWESOME series!

Good things can come in small packages! I've found that can happen with a small book, too! Short on pages, Rhys Ford's 'Bound: Chinatown Demons, Book One' is big on EVERYTHING else! The author manages to give us a big serving of what the series will be about with her usual attention to world-building and character development! Readers can expect to encounter an ages-old demon (Xian Carter) with a special brand of charm that just works so well with the hard-bitten SFPD Inspector Spencer Ricci. I enjoyed this in audiobook format narrated by the simply incredible Greg Tremblay and I could see and smell those dark, scary streets of Rhys's Chinatown at night. Both main characters fit this world so perfectly, and Greg's performance communicates that effectively. The book ends on a bearable cliffhanger that in and of itself is perfection. This (audio)book is ABSOLUTE quality and very well worth the money and time.

Very interesting

So short. I wish the rest was included. I really was hoping for more.

I do hope that the remainder is quickly released.

Great!

So good to hear Greg back with Rhys Ford. They are a fantastic duo if words and voice. Gritty, fascinating story and characters. It is a cliff hanger, but oh so good.

I want more!

The only negative thing I have to say about this book is that I’d have wanted it to be twice as long!

Beautiful any way you look at it!

Never ever disappointed. Need to find book two now and as always thank you for sharing your stories with us.

Enjoyable Story

A bit short in length and detail but I'm hoping this is more of a prelude. The story premise is good and the characters are likeable. The narration was good too.