Spell Bound

By Rachel Hawkins

327 Pages

Published by Hyperion Book CH

★★★

By Em 

 

I'm actually kind of sad to say that this book wasn't the ending I was hoping for for this series. All in all, it was pretty darn predictable. There were some nice surprises, sure, but it was a rather unexciting read and the ending in no way thrilled me. Which I am honestly quite sad about, because I was in love with the first two in the series. This one just felt dry and bland to me. 

Sophie had just gotten used to being a demon, when her powers were snatched out from under her by the Prodigium Council. Now she's powerless, and stuck with the Brannicks, a family of kick-butt women who hate Prodigium. But the Brannicks aren't the ones Sophie needs to be worried about. In truth, they know that an epic war is on its way, and their ready to fight along side her. They think she is the only one powerful enough to stop the end of the world. What does Sophie think? Definitely not that. 

So, like I said, this wasn't as good as I was hoping it would have been. But there were some elements that I liked. For one, that Brannicks. I will be the first to rave about an women who knows how to kick some serious butt. This family is so the one for me. With Aislinn, Izzy, and, my personal favorite, Finley, you have a bunch of tough chicas who are ready to take down and werewolf, vampire, or demon that stands in their way. (Which is why Sophie isn't really planning on doing that!) They live in a little compound in Tennessee, complete with barb wire and a magic mirror (with a little twist!). The addition of them was about the one real thing I solidly liked about this book.

 Beyond the occasional twist or turn in this book, I was able to predict most things that happened in this one. I'm not going to say what, for fear of ruining possible surprises for those who have yet to start this book, but some of it was, dare I say it, cliche. I really hate to use that word, but there were relationship problems and certain sections that I would not have expected from this author. I was expecting to be totally blown away by the ending of this, but my overall reaction as I closed the book was, 'Meh... Mom! Drive me to the library! I need something to read!' There wasn't much pause for me to think about what was so unbelievably great about it.

I also thought that the humor I so loved in the earlier two books wasn't very humorous at all. (The more I'm writing the more I'm contemplating my choice of three stars...) Reading other reviews, some people raved about how great the humor was, but I didn't see it at all. I thought the jokes were far and few, and when we did get one, it wasn't funny. It wasn't even corny-funny, which I will laugh at anyways. The whole humor section just passed by me. (I think there may have been one about a nun that I did like thought.)

Another thing I got form this was there were a few plot problems. The final battle. A little to easy? Yeah, I think so. I feel like a huge section of it was just lost, where Ms. Hawkins could have done a lot to make the book  more interesting. And, (Spoiler) whatever happened to the demon glass? They went and got it and then what? They in no case ever mention what they did with it, if they did anything with it at all. 

So, overall, I am sad. I think the author kind of ruined her really good series with a really crappy ending. I could have thought up something better than that! (Well, I know I could....but...I don't feel like it right now...) I just think that Ms. Hawkins should have spent a little more time on the story and really thought it through. Instead, I think she's more worried about this new possible spin-off novel she's going to work on. Save the spin-offs until you have a good ending honey! Please.