Ya’ll remember how excited I was when my friend C.J. Darlington got a contract for her first novel? Well, double it, because Bound By Guilt is C.J.’s second novel. Oh yeah! And she’s working on book 3.

I’m going to admit right up front that it’s possible that my friendship with C.J. may color my review. I also received my copy free of charge as part of this book tour. However, as a reviewer for TitleTrakk, a Christian book reviews site, I get most of my to-be-reviewed books for free. So, keep that in mind, but I think I can be pretty honest here about my Bound by Guilt review.

Bound by Guilt focuses on two characters and how their lives are inter-twined by the actions of one of them. One character is Abby Dawson, a police woman who’s past makes her, well, lets just say a little over aggressive in her police work. Roxi Gold is just a scared teenager. The unwanted child of a druggie mother and a foster home drop out. Her one shot at a home came with strings attached- be a part of the family “business” or suffer the displeasure of Irene, her new foster mom and cousin to Roxi’s birth mother. That doesn’t seem so bad at first, but when the family “business” is stealing rare books, her conscience begins to interfere with her work.

Now, I took copious notes for my review as I was reading Bound by Guilt. Unfortunately, when I read them over, I realized that they were pretty much all spoilers, and one typo. So, I’m just going to wing it.

Bound by Guilt is really, really good. I’m not just saying that for the aforementioned reasons. Seriously- it’s good. There are elements of mystery and suspense, but the genre is pretty much general or maybe contemporary fiction. It’s definitely not a romance novel- although at times you really can’t help but hope that Roxi and her foster brother Diego would hit it off. They think of each other as though they really were brother and sister, and yet the chemistry is so strong and their relationship is so good, that the more romantically inclined among us just can’t help but picture this as their possible future. I swear, if I ever take up fan fiction, my first target will be CJ’s characters. Jim (from Thicker Than Blood) needs to make some woman happy, and Roxi and Diego so need to at least date.

In Thicker Than Blood, C.J. had a tendency to repeat events that we “saw” in her characters’ heads, and a few characters missed a chance to be fully fleshed out. Those are total non-issues in Bound by Guilt. Every character is thoroughly and well drawn, there are no awkward remembering scenes, and even characters that I disliked in Thicker Than Blood are much more likeable and interesting in Bound By Guilt. Oh- I should mention that several characters from Thicker Than Blood are in Bound By Guilt. None of them are major players except for Christy, but they are there.

Both books revolve around rare books from Dawson’s Book Barn, so it’s a totally natural thing that so many characters are involved in both books but without being a sequel in the usual sense. For example, while we get to see the progression of Christy’s life since the end of Thicker Than Blood, Bound By Guilt is focused on Abby Dawson and Roxi Gold- not Christy.

And the villains! Man, C.J. is so good at writing the bad guys. Which is a little worrying, as she only lives 20 minutes away from me and knows where I live… erm… So, anyway… Vince from Thicker Than Blood was a really well fleshed out psycho abuser. I mean, he was a psycho, not that he abused psychos. Irene, from Bound by Guilt is extremely manipulative and devious. And yet she’s extremely human. Maybe a little on the crazy side, but not so much so that it interferes with her life. Other people’s, maybe, but not her own.

The story progressed naturally, but not predictably. She did make me mad at one scene near the beginning, but it also answered all of her evasive “Well, that’s not going to happen… well, it will, but not for long…” answers when I tried to quiz her on certain book 2 happenings. Which actually made it strangely satisfying even though I was still mad. (And I’m still mad, C.J.! You know what I mean!) But page turner? Most definitely. You can’t help but want to know what’s going to happen to Roxi next, or what decisions she’ll make. A foster child run-away at the age of 16? So close to independance, and yet still dependant? Guilty for a crime that she did commit, and also guilty for a crime that she was merely present at… You can see what’s whirring through her head and feel yourself putting yourself in her place and wondering just what you’d do in the same predicament.

And Roxi is so real. I loved Thicker Than Blood, but Christy did come off as rather cold (the main character in book one) which made it harder to get really into the book. But Roxi is so warm, with real emotions, capable of thinking on her feet but not always making the right choices. Just as in reality, there aren’t always right choices to make.

I hate to say it, but there’s not much more that I can say without getting into spoilers, so I’ll finish with the book trailer for Bound by Guilt. And an endorsement. I rarely read anything that isn’t chick-lit or fantasy, but I loved Bound by Guilt. If you are a book geek, you’ll love it too, because not only is it a great story that’s well told, but there are lots of geeky tidbits on the antiquarian book trade, and about specific rare titles. Given that C.J.’s day job is in the rare book trade, those tidbits aren’t just guesswork or gleaned from interviews. It’s the real thing.

For more information, click the Amazon link above, or visit C.J. Darlington’s official website.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free as part of C.J. Darlington’s Bound by Guilt book tour in exchange for a review.