by Heather Brewer
Published July 5th 2012
by Dial
Summary from Goodreads:
What's worse than being blackmailed to attend a hidden school where you're treated like a second-class citizen? How about nearly getting eaten by a monster when you arrive? Or learning that your soulmate was killed in a centuries-old secret war? And then there's the evil king who's determined to rule the world unless you can stop him...
Meet Kaya, a young woman with the power to heal and the determination to fight. But struggle as she will, she remains tied to three very different men: a hero who has forsaken glory, a tyrannical ruler who wants to use Kaya, and a warrior who's stolen her heart. Kaya learns the hard way that some ties can't be broken...and blood is the strongest bond of all.
Thoughts:
When I finished reading the book, the first thing that popped into my mind is how misleading the cover is. Kaya do not even have a sword since she is a Healer destined to be bound to a Barron eventhough she had two runaway Barron as parents. Barron is a group of people who become warriors due to their incredible strength, skill and agility and each Barron is paired up with a Healer who can cure them of any injuries or sickness with a single touch.
The overall concept of the book is quite interesting and appealed to me greatly but halfway through the book I realised that it's actually the usual teen in a boarding school story set in an alternative fantasy world complete with the cliché mean beautiful bitchy girls, hunky love interest, snarky sidekick and another mysterious guy which ultimately leads to a love triangle. Damn!
I really wanted to love this so much because of the cool fantasy elements but the plotline has been done countless of times and Kaya's swear words just seemed so weird in the supposedly medieval setting. Kaya is a puzzling character for me. At the beginning she seemed like a headstrong and outspoken character but after meeting Trayton she changed into this giddy schoolgirl that I found confusing. Kaya only realised her true potential near the end of the story but I found that it's rather unbelievable that she can defeat a Barron after only learning how to fight for a short time. I'd rather prefer her friend and servant; Maddox who remained snarky throughout the story.
Hopefully the next book will be better and feature a lot more action scenes rather than those petty teenage drama moments. I will definitely continue the series since the ending just left me literally dumbfounded. The beginning and the ending is so good. Too bad the middle parts are kind of slow.
Recommended for: fans of epic fantasy
Verdict: 3 stars.
Available on: Amazon
Weird about the cover. I'm in two minds about reading SOULBOUND. Funnily enough, it was the cover that got me interested, but now...
ReplyDeleteI'm disappointed to hear that it has such a typical plot line and romance. Sometimes unique fantasy elements can override that for me, but it just depends.
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