Monday, March 11, 2013

Review: Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins

Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins 
Hailed as “impossible to put down,” the Hex Hall series has both critics and teens cheering. With a winning combination of romance, action, magic and humor, this third volume will leave readers enchanted.
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?

Review: 

I have completely fallen in love with this series. After picking up the first book on a whim, I have quickly worked my way through the entire trilogy. With lovable characters, a unique plot, and non-stop action, the Hex Hall series is one I will definitely always recommend. Spell Bound was a wonderful ending to the trilogy.

Spell Bound picks up (in a way) right after Demonglass ended. Since that book ended on such a cliffhanger, I started Spell Bound with so many questions. Luckily, we get a lot of things answered right off the bat, but there are still quite a few things that are not answered. Spell Bound does move at a rapid clip, though, and a ton happens. While Hex Hall and Demonglass might have been a little less serious, things are intense and much, much darker in Spell Bound. There were times when I just could not stop reading and this book brought out a lot of emotions from me.

Sophie is definitely one of my all-time favorite YA characters. She is sarcastic, funny, smart, brave, and just so real. Everything she goes through, she faces it realistically. Her relationships with various characters develop and strengthen over the course of the book and I have to say that this series also has some of my favorite secondary characters. From the Brannicks to Jenna to Archer to Cal... all of these characters were better developed and affected Sophie's story in so many ways.

Archer Cross... words cannot describe how much I adore that boy. His dedication to Sophie, his own snark and humor, everything about him is perfect for Sophie and whenever his character was out of the scene I was missing him.

There were a ton of plot twists that shocked me throughout the course of the story. Especially once I got about halfway through Spell Bound, Hawkins was pulling out all of the stops and I just had to read straight through to the end-- even when several intense and terrible things happened! There were a few especially startling twists that I cannot spoil, but just be prepared to be an emotional wreck by the end of Spell Bound!

All in all, this was an enjoyable and intense ending to what has become one of my favorite series. While there were a few things I didn't love about Spell Bound, as a whole, this was a highly enjoyable and satisfying end to the Hex Hall trilogy. If you have not read this series yet, I suggest you start with the first book ASAP and try and have copies of the rest of the series on hand, because you will just have to know what will happen next. I am especially excited for Hawkins next series, a spin-off of this series coming out in May featuring Izzy.

Overall: 4.25 out of 5 stars

March 13, 2012/Hyperion Books/327 Pages/Young Adult/Book Three

Source: Library
Other books in this series: Hex Hall (Book 1) and Demonglass (Book 2)
-- plus, a  new spin-off series is coming out in May of this year. The first book is called School Spirits!

3 comments:

  1. I wish I could have read all three books back to back but at least I've read them all now and I'm very excited about the spinoff. I find Hawkins' writing absolutely charming and am thrilled to spend more time in this world.

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  2. I have to agree, the ending was intense! Ah, even thinking about it brings up a bunch of feelings ;) Fabulous review

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