One of the latest novels taking the romantasy world by storm is Dire Bound — the action-packed, swoon-worthy new title from Sable Sorensen that marks the launch of Hachette Book Group’s latest imprint, Requited.
Dire Bound follows the fiery and fierce Meryn Cooper as she is thrust into the world of the Bonded following her sisters’ kidnapping. The Bonded are elite warriors who form mental links with the direwolves that serve as their mounts and partners in battle.
Desperate to get to her sister, who has been stolen away beyond the front lines, Meryn bonds with a direwolf who seems set against her. With her sister’s life at stake, as well as her own, Meryn must prove she has what it takes to survive in the bloody trials that the Bonded must face, all while juggling romance that grows ever more complicated.
Sable Sorensen is the pen name for Eliza Phillips and Annie Paige-Stone, “two fantasy fangirls who grew up on a steady diet of wizards, magical creatures and sweeping love stories.”
When asked how Dire Bound got its start, they shared that it actually came about during the U.S. election season last year.
“We had a lot on our minds — specifically the insidious rise of authoritarianism and what the consequences of an autocratic government might be, and the rampant misogyny that we both felt was central to the election,” they said. “It felt important to write about both of these things, so we decided to write a story about an imperfect heroine who nonetheless took on these issues.”
Dire Bound deals with feminine rage in a way that is both “cathartic and deeply entertaining,” in the words of the co-authors, and they emphasized that this novel reminds us that “anger is okay if it’s harnessed in the right direction, and women working together are something fearsome and awe-inspiring.”
Now, how best to tell that powerful story? Romantasy.
“We both love the genre, and fantasy has long been used to address the ills of society,” they explained. “Both of us grew up as huge fans of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, and Eliza loved Anne McCaffrey’s books, so it was exciting to see that animal bonding stories were in vogue again with the success of Fourth Wing.”
When writing Dire Bound, they combined what they loved from the romantasy genre, as readers themselves, and worked it into their own story.
“Our goal was to bring in the familiar while also structuring the book and the characters in a way that felt fresh — and a big key to that was the direwolves themselves. We couldn’t remember a recent romantasy that featured wolves in this way. As fans of werewolf fiction — which is not usually quite the same as romantasy — we wanted to nod to elements like conversations with an inner wolf and the pack dynamics while using the more typical romantasy backdrop of an academy and trials.”
Originally self-published, Dire Bound quickly skyrocketed in popularity, resulting in the transition to traditional publishing.
“We initially self-published Dire Bound because we were excited about the level of control we’d have over our publishing journey and the way we’d be able to reach readers directly,” they shared. “To be honest, we never expected Dire Bound to take off at the speed and level at which it did. The response to the book amazed and humbled us, and it also created some very difficult decisions.”
Traditional publishing proved to be the key to unlocking some of their goals, while still allowing Phillips and Paige-Stone the essential time needed to continue writing.
“Requited is incredible, and while they’re a new imprint, the team is full of seasoned publishing experts who have been a blast to work with. We’re so honored that they wanted Dire Bound to be part of their launch, and we’re excited to read all the other books on their upcoming list because they look fantastic!”
One of the interesting aspects about Dire Bound’s creation is the fact that it comes from a writing team, as opposed to just a solo author. Phillips and Paige-Stone shared that working together as Sable Sorensen has been a great process.
“Having a writing partner is, for both of us, such a welcome thing. We’d each tried writing multiple novels over the years on our own and had never finished anything until we had someone to work alongside,” they said. “We’re both open-minded and collaborative, which helps, and we’ve also stayed entirely on the same page with where this series is going and what kind of story we want to tell … While we each write individual portions, we pass everything back and forth multiple times during editorial rounds … We think that being a duo makes our writing stronger, and it certainly makes it more fun for both of us!”
First released by Requited as an eBook, Dire Bound received the trade paperback treatment this August and is set to release as a deluxe hardcover in May 2026 with the next installment in the Wolves of Ruin trilogy, Fury Bound.
According to Phillips and Paige-Stone, the new title “follows Meryn’s journey into both new personal spaces and new places within her world. It’s a very direct continuation of book one in the series; the first chapter picks up immediately after the end of Dire Bound, so the questions we left readers with will get answered fairly quickly.”
Stay tuned for more from Sable Sorensen when Fury Bound hits shelves next year!
Check out BookTrib’s review of Dire Bound.
