Crimson Bound Review

CRUEL BEAUTY
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Release Date: May 5th 2015

Book Length: 448 pages
Publisher: Balzer + Bray 
Source: Physical copy, Goodreads 
Review: 4/5 *Full Review Below.

Blurb:
When Rachelle was fifteen, she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless— straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.

Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in an effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her find the legendary sword that might save their world. As the two become unexpected allies, they uncover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic, and a love that may be their undoing. In a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?

Inspired by the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, Crimson Bound is an exhilarating tale of darkness, love, and redemption.

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

HODGE HAS DONE IT AGAIN!

This authors ability to transform a classic retelling into this dark, twisty and unrecognizable story knows no bounds. This book was amazing, it had so much going on but it was much easier to follow and keep up with compared to Cruel Beauty, honestly that book made my head hurt at times!

Rachelle our fifteen year-old heroine is training to be a wood wife, her job is to create charms to protect her village from dark magic. The Devourer has been bound for too long and is now on the verge of waking up and finding a new vessel so that he and his fellow Forestborn can live in a world of Endless Night.

When Rachelle meets a Forestborn in the woods she thinks she can outwit him into telling her how to destroy the Devourer, instead she is marked and has a choice: Kill someone within 3 day and be an immortal Forestborn or she’ll die. Now three years later she serves the King as his Bloodbound to protect the people from the creatures of the forest who are breaking through the veil into their world.

Reader’s of Cruel Beauty will be familiar with Hodge’s love of mythology and her writing is at it's best in Crimson Bound. It was easy to follow and so easy to become addicted to this new world so that the pages just fly by. Her complex characters are my main love for her writing, no one is ever good or evil they all have this dark side that will continue to surprise you no matter how much you think you have figured them out.

While Rachelle searches for clues on how to defeat the Devourer she must also be a bodyguard to the King’s illegitimate son Armand. Rachelle immediately hates him because he was marked by a Forestborn and refused to kill someone within 3 days and yet he still lives?! The Romance between the two started off really great, hate slowing turning into love but the romance took a back seat. I didn’t mind this however when it finally got back onto the romance it felt rushed and I was sure I’d missed an essential chapter somewhere, I could have done with a little more romance. The slight love triangle in this story didn't bother me at all, as I've said the story wasn't focused on the romance so you don't mind as much.

This gorgeous story will have you guessing until the very end and I came up with so many predictions and they didn’t even come close, the twists in this book will blow you away! I preferred this book to Cruel Beauty and will definitely be reading it again, a fabulous dark retelling that's completely captivating.