Review: Spellbound by Rachel Hawkins

Title: Spellbound
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH
Publication Date: March 13th, 2012
Page Count: 336
Buy The Book: Amazon | Barnes and Noble
Rating: 3.5/5
 
 
Synopsis
 
Just as Sophie Mercer has come to accept her extraordinary magical powers as a demon, the Prodigium Council strips them away. Now Sophie is defenseless, alone, and at the mercy of her sworn enemies—the Brannicks, a family of warrior women who hunt down the Prodigium. Or at least that’s what Sophie thinks, until she makes a surprising discovery. The Brannicks know an epic war is coming, and they believe Sophie is the only one powerful enough to stop the world from ending. But without her magic, Sophie isn’t as confident.

Sophie’s bound for one hell of a ride—can she get her powers back before it’s too late?

Favourite Quotes

“Whoa, I'm your girlfriend now?"
Archer shrugged. "We've tried to kill each other, fought ghouls, and kissed a lot. I'm pretty sure we're married in some cultures.” 

“Um...Mercer? Haven't seen you in nearly a month. I was expecting something like, 'Oh Cross, love of my heart, fire of my loins, how I've longed--” 

“Okay, fine. But just so you know, following me into hell means you’re all definitely the sidekicks.” “Darn, I was hoping to be the rakishly charming love interest,” Archer said, taking my hand.” 

Few Words Quickie

Funny and witty like all the other books in the series.

My Thoughts

I've loved this series a grand amount but I felt SPELLBOUND was my least favourite. As a reader I was still captured by all the different elements of the book that makes the Hex Hall series unique. Strong and well developed characters. Archer and Sophie continue to make their sarcastic, funny and witty comebacks like usual which still has the power to make me smile. After reading DEMONGLASS I was super excited to get my hands on the last book SPELLBOUND especially as we were left with a huge cliffhanger.

After awaiting the release of SPELLBOUND I expected the series to go out with a bang but I felt it was lacking something spectacular, something mind blowing that would give it a WOW factor, I think there could have been some awesome plot twists. But with that said there were some shocking truths revealed that did surprise me and there were some parts of the book that had me on edge and glued to the book. Rachel Hawkins also managed to emotionally wound me at the end of SPELLBOUND through an unexpected event.

I continued to love Sophie's character, even in the worst of times she manages to lighten the mood and create this sense of hope. I also grew to love Elodie's character, some of her actions really made me realise how much more there is to her character from when you first meet her. At the end of the day even though she's the type of character you'd dislike at first, underneath everything she's a strong headed girl that will go to great extents for people she cares about.

Personally, I think a strong theme I noticed throughout the book was sacrifice, it was probably one of the reasons I came to love some of the characters even more than I did before, it's also one of the reasons that made this book special. Even though SPELLBOUND wasn't my favourite of the whole series it was still enjoyable and I'm glad I could follow Sophie on her adventure and see her grow in different ways.

I've heard there might be a spin off from the Hex Hall series so I'm excited to see what it will be about and I'm definitely looking forward to reading anything Rachel Hawkin's writes in the future.

Links
Goodreads: Hex Hall (Book #1)
Goodreads: Demonglass (Book #2)
Goodreads: Spellbound (Book #3)