#stormy smith

Just a few books from my TBR.

I figured once a month I would randomly choose books to feature that are on my To Be Read List and see what you all think of them or if they’re on your TBR, too! Since my TBR list is gigantic, I figured I’d choose one book from 5 different categories: A book I own on Audible A book I own on Kindle A book on my bookshelf at home A book from my TBR ASAP List on Goodreads A book from my general TBR…

When the past and the present collide...

Today I’m excited to share the book release of a fellow Iowan!  Read on to get the scoop on Bound by Prophecy, available now on Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, and Goodreads! About Bound by Prophecy Amelia Bradbury is finally free from Queen Julia and Cresthaven, but she isn’t safe yet. The Keeper power runs rampant inside her and it will take an ultimate act of selflessness to contain the darkness…

Hello fellow bookies! This review is *Spoiler free*.

Bound by Duty is a YA fantasy book filled with magic and romance. It's about a girl named Amelia who is a Mage (basically a fancy word for a witch) who is betrothed to a prince who she has never met before. This becomes a problem for Amelia because the prince's mother, being the queen , is a very evil and powerful women and only wants Amelia to marry her son because of her strong and unusual powers. Amelia must try to come up with a plan to get out of this betrothal, in order to be with the man she truly loves, all while saving her best friend, and learning about secrets from her past.

Ok… Not gonna lie, I made this book sound pretty exciting up there^. A little more exciting than it actually was. I had high hopes for this book. I love a good witch book, and this book even had some prince and queen elements in it as well which, I also LOVE to read about. However, this book just didn't do it for me, and here are the reasons why:

1. THE ROMANCE. As you all probably know, I am quite picky when it comes to romance in books. I absolutely LOVE when the romance escalades over time, and the characters really get to know each other before any steamy stuff happens. Any kind of "Romeo and Juliet" situation where the characters meet and fall in love like the next day, then by the end of the week are already hitting it off with the romance type stuff is just a strict no no for me. The romance in this book was too fast paced and cheesy. If I had a dollar for every time I rolled my eyes… I'd have a lot of dollars.

2. The characterization. Once again, it was not very strong. I didn't really latch on to any characters. The only character that actually had some difference and personality was Amelia's best friend, Bethany. However, I just found her kind of annoying. Amelia is the classic strong female heroine who doesn't think she is a girly girl and is so uneducated on the topic of love. She's discovering all of these secrets from her past and what they all mean. And of course, she has some special abilities that make her so much different than everyone else. I'm not hating on these types of characters, but Amelia just seemed so bland to me and not interesting at all. I also found it weird how the characters in this book were supposed to be in their twenties… The way they spoke and acted (especially in the romance area) made it seem like they were all 15 going fresh into high school.

So… yeah. Those are the only 2 main problems I had with this book. But they were a big part of the book so it disappointed me quite a bit. I had high hopes, and I had heard plenty of good things about it… But I just don't see myself continuing with this series in the future.

I rate this book a 2.5-3/5 stars. It had an interesting idea but in my opinion could've been executed a bit better in some aspects!

What have you been reading? Currently I'm re reading Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone and I'm LOVING it! Should I write a review even though I'm pretty sure nearly everyone has read it?