Jenn's Review: Spell Bound

Summary:  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? ~goodreads.com

Review:  The ending of Demonglass was too much of a cliffhanger to let Spell Bound sit unread for very long.  I know the beginning was supposed to come as a bit of a shock but I had a very strong feeling that's where we were headed due to the foreshadowing at the end of Demonglass  -not that it made the twist any less enjoyable.

Whereas I felt like Rachel Hawkins had a lot more room to play around with the characters in Demonglass, I felt like she was slightly more constrained by the storyline again. We lost some of the marvelous character interactions due to the plot driven finale of the trilogy.  Still,  the characters grew and learned from each other, especially Sophie. She's certainly not the same girl that started at Hex Hall, but a more mature, confident version of herself.  

There were lots of complicated loose ends, and Ms. Hawkins does a brilliant job of tying things up.   Did I want a little bit more from the final showdown?  Perhaps, but I think the reason I craved deeper details is that I knew this was to be my last interaction with these characters. Another part of it, is that I wish things had ended a little differently, but that's just because I was so invested in the characters.  

As a side note, I think I mentioned it when I reviewed Hex Hall last year, but I absolutely adore the covers of these books.  They are not just beautifully eye catching but incredibly clever.  They are fabulous representations of the words within and the progression of Sophie.  These are my favorite YA covers -with Amanda Hocking's new Trylle Trilogy covers coming in a close second.

I look forward to Ms. Hawkins's next foray. She has definitely made the list of must read authors for me. 

Final Take:  4/5