Of Soulbound Sacrifice: A Sapphic Siren Romantasy (Manacles of Ice and Blood Book 1)

✨Love is the heart of this story, it is shown in several ways and that's what makes this story so special. ✨Brina is a tough unapologetic bad ass siren who has done everything her clan expects from her. But when she rescues a land dweller, she makes a decision that will carve a new path to her destiny. Daring to defy everything she has known for a chance of true happiness. ✨Zaynab is not in her ideal situation has her crossing the sea with the least desirable crew. When the ship is attacked, she is saved by a mysterious siren that has her taking a second look. But when it is revealed what it took to save her, she is frustrated and it doesn't help that she is attracted to her savior. Learning her new life path, she sets off on an adventure she will never forget. ✨I love Scarlet's world that she’s created, immersing the reader in an underwater realm life and land life. I absolutely adored seeing a character from her first book (OH&B) make an impactful appearance! ✨Scarlet shows different types of love throughout her story. It is not just the tender and complex love between the leads, but a love between a mother and daughter. Daring to defy generational expectations in the name of such love. A story of courage and selflessness, discovering that true love is messy but worth fighting for. 🩵

Another 5 star read! Scarlet is amazing at making her characters come to life amd feel actual emotions and go through the motions. Brina has had alot of growong up to do and to look back on the choices she has made. I actually love zen for her, she is the level headed women she needs to keep brina in line. While yes there is ALOT happening all at once i was able to keep up with most of it. There is plenty of spice, emotionial stupidity, emotional growth and battle action to keep you on youe toes in this story. Its like watching your teen do what you warned them not to do and they have to suffer the consquences. (Brina). With joking aside i really did love this story, it brings alot of critical,emotional thinking to the front and problem solving. It shows the depth of what us adults with mental illness , disabilities, trauma and addictions go through. That being said, i will riot if there isnt away to save brina and keep her alive past 20 years 😭😭 there has to be someone wgo can give them a equal life span.

After reading the prequel Of Rifts and Promises I couldn’t wait to read Brina’s full story in Of Soulbound Sacrifice. This book is a standalone sapphic siren romantasy full of desire and life and death adventure. Brina is a Chieftess-in-training of Clan Brinneagh who is tasked with being a distraction on a human ship while her Clan attacks said ship. Brina does not agree with killing everyone on the ship especially not after she set eyes on the ship’s cook Zaynab. There is an instalove trope here that actually pulled me out of the story a bit. I guess instalove is just not my thing although I do like the one night to forever trope. But in Of Soulbound Sacrifice the instalove is actually very dangerous. It leads Brina to sacrifice most (hundreds of years) of her life to save Zaynab’s life. She actually becomes Soulbound to Zaynab and turns her into a siren also. Admittedly I have not read a lot of books with sirens but I thought it was really unique that someone could be “turned” into a siren. Brina’s Clan is furious that she has reduced her life to only last about 20 more years while becoming Soulbound to a land dweller. She is severely beaten as punishment and the Clan intends to kill Zaynab. This book was full of nonstop excitement with barely a moment to rest and breathe. Both characters were severely injured multiple times and I honestly feared for their lives. I loved how well developed the characters were and the dual POV with Brina and Zaynab. There was also plenty…

Of Soulbound Sacrifice was an intense emotional read that had everything I was missing in OR&P. I received this as an ARC for free. All opinions are my own. While I was expecting a sapphic dark fantasy romance, there was so much more to unpack here. It was an amazing read that I did not want to put down! The character work is exquisite! I adored getting to see more of Brina's world, even if it has rough parts to it. She's still extremely relatable to me in her self-esteem struggles. I love that we got more of her headspace, and she really comes into her own through the course of this book. Zaynab was a really fun read and I liked getting to know her. She goes through so much in this book and I really liked seeing how she handles things. The open door scenes were fun and didn't feel out of place. Though I feel like Zaynab should have reacted a little differently during one of them. I also would have liked to see a bit more discussion in the early book before some of the scenes. I really liked that about Brina's prior novella and think it would have been good here too. This is so much more than a romance. There's a lot of focus on self-care, shadow work, and taming your personal demons. I loved all the work each character put into helping the others. Working through generational trauma, self-esteem, PTSD, among other spoilery things that I will not list here. There's a lot of good stuff in here for working through some of that and some sections had me all kinds of…

Of Soulbound Sacrifice is book two in the Manacles of Ice and Blood series by Scarlett Tempest. The physical book is beautiful with a lovely cover, map pages, illustrations, and a pronunciation guide. The writing style is well done and immersive, featuring vivid imagery, strong world-building, and layered characters. Multiple heavy themes are explored, such as body positivity, sex positivity, female pleasure, diversity, identity, freedom of choice, trauma, grief, and toxic family dynamics, among others. I particularly liked the juxtaposition of strength and vulnerability, as well as confidence and insecurity, present in the main characters as internal challenges, while they simultaneously manage external adversities. The opening was unexpected for me and emphasizes the creation of a space in which women are allowed to seek pleasure and enjoy their bodies. The addition of these well-placed scenes painted a broader view and challenged the typical expectations of women. Additionally, the examples of physical and mental strength, resilience, and tenacity of these women were well-received. The romance in this romantasy was very insta-love and lusty. That's not my thing, and I had to suspend my disbelief on that aspect, but I was truly engaged by the plot and invested in the outcome. Tempest did a great job of keeping the story interesting and fast-paced with a lot of action, suspense, and high stakes. On a personal level, I did not connect emotionally with the characters.…