Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication date: May 2015
Pages: 448
Source: e-ARC from Edelweiss
For: Review
When Rachelle was fifteen, she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless—straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.Things I Liked:
Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in an effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her hunt for the legendary sword that might save their world. Together, they navigate the opulent world of the courtly elite, where beauty and power reign and no one can be trusted. And as they become unexpected allies, they discover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic, and a love that may be their undoing. In a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?
I wanted to love this so much more. I was not as thrilled as I was with her last book. It took me so much longer to get into it and to care about the characters - and I'm still not sure about Rachelle. I loved the Red Riding Hood themes and how small bits of that story made its way into here. I thought the ending was intriguing and good, if a bit strange in its execution. Loved the Zisa and Tyr story too. A bit of Hansel and Gretel, I thought. Anyway, good but I was kind of expecting to adore it like I did Cruel Beauty.
Things I Didn't Like:
I was a bit too confused about Bloodbound and Forestborn and all that. It was a bit too vague for me to really get what they were, etc. I thought the setting was good, but I wasn't as enthralled as I was with the setting from Cruel Beauty. I suppose it's terrible to compare the two, but I can't seem to help it. It was still a very good book.
Read-alikes:
Read Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge instead :)
BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !@
a few
mrg-factor: XX
some, mostly not described
v-factor: ->->->
rather a lot of monsters in this book
Overall rating: ***
If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage
Posts
I haven't read this one yet because I loved Cruel Beauty so much that I don't want to hate it. I guess I'm waiting for my expectations to lower.
ReplyDeleteHa! Yes, lower them some more. Then you might enjoy it.
DeleteI found Cruel Beauty to be a difficult read, but I understood it and enjoyed it. The writing is different than I'm used to. I didn't even finish Crimson Bound because I had the same trouble with the writing as well as the vagueness that you speak of. I didn't get it. Oh well.... Thanks for the honest review.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see how it would be hard to finish because of the vagueness. Glad to know I'm not alone in that!
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