Soulbound Review

394 pages

Tril is a world where Barrons and Healers are Bound to each other: Barrons fight and Healers cure their Barrons' wounds in the ongoing war with the evil Graplar King. Seventeen-year-old Kaya was born a Healer, but she wants to fight. In Tril, and at Shadow Academy, where she is sent to learn to heal, it is against Protocol for Healers to fight. So Kaya must learn in secret. Enter two young men: One charming, rule-following Barron who becomes Bound to Kaya and whose life she must protect at all costs. And one with a mysterious past who seems bent on making Kaya's life as difficult as possible. Kaya asks both to train her, but only one will, and the consequences will change their lives forever.

Review:
I love Kaya. She is an amazingly strong heroine and does what she thinks is right no matter the consequence. Sometimes she was a little quick to do things without fully thinking it through but I liked the two men in Kaya's life since they each brought something different to the table. Trayton is one of those perfect guys but he also follows the rules a bit too perfectly. Darius on the other hand is one of those rebellious bad boy types that you just can't help but to love. Besides the obvious romantic edge to this story there is also quite a lot of action. I appreciated Kaya for her willingless to step out of the Healer role and train to fight even if it was against the rules. There isn't really a complete sense of the world Kaya lives in but I'm hoping that the next novel opens up the world around her a bit more. Even though I expected what happened between Kaya and one of the guys, the way it happened at the end completely threw me and just made me anticipate reading the next novel when it comes out. I definitely recommend this novel for those who like fantasy novels with a kick-ass heroine.

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The Trouble With Kings Review

348 pages

Princess Flian finds herself the unwilling object of desire of three royals. Is the one she wants a villain-or a hero? Waking up in a strange place, Flian Elandersi at first doesn't know who she is. One wicked prince tells her she is secretly engaged to an even more wicked king who wants to marry her right away. But before that happens, yet another wicked prince crashes through a window on horseback to sweep her off her feet. Memory returns, and Flian realizes that all any of them seem to want is her considerable wealth, not her pleasant-but-ordinary self. She longs to escape the barracks-like, military atmosphere and return to civilization and her musical studies. Flian endures another abduction, this time in the middle of a poetry reading. Who is the villain? Prince Garian Herlester-languid, elegant, sarcastic? Prince Jaim-he of the dashing horsemanship? Or King Jason Szinzar, whose ambiguous warning might be a threat? Flian decides it's time to throw off civilization and take action. The problem with action is that duels of wit turn into duels of steel-and love can't be grabbed and galloped away.

Review:
This would have been a much better story if the heroine was more of a strong presence instead of a mostly weak one. I really wanted her to be more proactive and intelligent but she was a pretty boring character. I can't say that I really liked any of the guys in the novel either since there wasn't much about them to love. The three royal men were all pretty creepy in their own way so it was difficult for me to say I liked one. I did start to enjoy the romance between Flian and Jason but it progressed a bit too quickly for me to completely love it. What kept me reading was the hope that somehow this story would get better and Flian would develop more as a character but didn't happen so I was left feeling pretty disappointed by the end. I can't say that I would recommend this novel because I didn't enjoy it  but that doesn't mean someone else won't.

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ARC:
Darkness Breaks by Jessica Sorensen

Bought:
Soulbound by Heather Brewer
Tiger Lily byJodi Lynn Anderson
The Trouble With Kings by Sherwood Smith
The Sphinx Project by Kate Hawkings
The Kill Order by James Dashner

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The Forsaken Review

375 pages

As an obedient orphan of the U.N.A. (the super-country that was once Mexico, the U.S., and Canada), Alenna learned at an early age to blend in and be quiet—having your parents taken by the police will do that to a girl. But Alenna can’t help but stand out when she fails a test that all sixteen-year-olds have to take: The test says she has a high capacity for brutal violence, and so she is sent to The Wheel, an island where all would-be criminals end up. The life expectancy of prisoners on The Wheel is just two years, but with dirty, violent, and chaotic conditions, the time seems a lot longer as Alenna is forced to deal with civil wars for land ownership and machines that snatch kids out of their makeshift homes. Desperate, she and the other prisoners concoct a potentially fatal plan to flee the island. Survival may seem impossible, but Alenna is determined to achieve it anyway.

Review:
Wow! This book is violent, a little disturbing, and I loved every minute of it! Alenna is a character who is has inner strength and is also resourceful despite not having started out that way. At the beginning of this novel Alenna is content to just keep doing what the government wants and following society's rules despite how she feels on the inside. As soon as she is thrown into the world of The Wheel, we see Alenna dealing with a harsh new reality. The Wheel is a dangerous place where almost anything goes. There is more to it than Alenna realizes and its interesting to see how she copes with her discoveries along the way. I loved the fact that Alenna found romance, even though it happened a little quickly, but the tie-in to Alenna's background was pretty well done. I do want to see Alenna grow more in the next book and become more of a stand out character. This story was pretty fast paced with a lot of action so there was never a dull moment. I'm interested to see what happens next in Alenna's story and how she deals with the revelations at the end of this book. I definitely recommend this novel if you like action and dystopian books.

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