From Goodreads, because I'm lazy and it's mostly a pretty good summary (I will point out the ways in which is it not afterwards):

 

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.

 

Rachelle lives in a world where there are evil things lurking in the Forest and they believe that three thousand years ago, an evil entity known as the Devourer, god of the forestborn, swallowed the sun and the moon. A brave pair of siblings, known as Zisa and Tyr managed to recover the sun and the moon, and bind the Devourer in sleep for millennia. But soon, Rachelle's aunt, the village wood-wife (wise women trained to protect people against the evil of the forestborn) announces, the Devourer will awaken, to swallow the sun and moon once more. 

 

With the foolish impulsiveness of youth, Rachelle decides to try to figure out a way to subdue the Devourer once more, should he really return. She starts walking in the woods, attracting one of the dangerous servants of the dark forces. She keeps courting danger, until one day, he persuades her to remove her protective charms, and (naturally) attacks her. Once marked by a forestborn, an individual has only two choices. Kill someone before three days are up, or die. Rachelle fights the compulsion, but ends up killing her aunt. She does discover, from the sinister and seductive forestborn who marked her, that the only way to defeat the Devourer, is with Zisa's legendary bone swords, believed lost forever. 

 

Three years later, Rachelle is living in the capital, and is one of the king's order of penitent bloodbound. She was marked by the Forest and killed to stay alive, but has not fully submitted to the call of the Forest and become fully forestborn yet. Instead, she spends every waking hour hunting down the wicked creatures that threaten innocent civilians. She has a semi-flirtatious relationship with Eric D'Anjou, the Captain of the King's bloodbound, but refuses to give into his attempts at seduction, refusing to become another notch on his belt. 

 

After foiling an assassination attempt at the King's bastard son, Armand, she is ordered to be his bodyguard. As Rachelle has only just gotten word from the shadowy forestborn who changed her that the Devourer will be rising as soon as the next Solstice, she has only a few weeks to try to locate Joyeuse, one of the bone-swords the legendary Zisa used to free the sun and the moon. Stories say it is hidden "below the moon, above the sun". She certainly does not have time to baby-sit one of the King's many illegitimate sons, especially one who has been proclaimed a saint by the populace after he was allegedly marked by a forestborn, refused to kill, but still survived after three days. He did lose both his hands, and now has silver ones he wears instead. The blurb claims he is the man she hates the most, this is wildly exaggerated. She despises him, believes he is a liar and a fraud - as there is just no proven instance of anyone surviving three days after encountering a forestborn, unless they kill someone, like she did. 

 

As the assassination attempt on Armand that Rachelle foiled is not the first, she is told to accompany him to one of the King's sumptuous country estates. Rachelle is persuaded to bring her fully human friend Amelie, who wants to basically be Rachelle's stylist, now that she has to appear at court functions. Armand tells Rachelle a legend from his region of the country, that makes her believe that the sword she is looking for, may in fact be hidden somewhere in the palace they will be staying. As it is impossible for her to be on guard duty and keep on searching, she reluctantly enlists Armand's help. She is still convinced he is lying about how he lost his hands, but the more she observes him, the more unlikely it seems that he wants any kind of glory or fame, and he is clearly deeply uncomfortable being venerated by the general populace.

 

The return of the Devourer draws ever closer. Rachelle and Armand are running out of time and the closer to the solstice they get, the more the sinister Forest seems to be encroaching on the royal residence, even though protective spells are supposed to be all over the grounds. Will Rachelle find the legendary sword and stop the Devourer, before it's too late?

 

What I liked:

- I absolutely adored the dark fairy tale told at the beginning of many of the chapters, relating the story of Zisa and Tyr. There were clearly elements of Hansel and Gretel, but with much darker undertones throughout, and there are clearly other folkloric tales mixed in there too. The horror that the siblings go through and what Zisa is willing to sacrifice to rescue her brother is lovely. Creepy and fantastic as all the best fairy tales are.

- The various folklore elements woven throughout the story. 

- The sinister creeping dread of the Forest, and the almost vampire-like forestborn. The bargain the marked have to make to continue living and the ever-present threat that they submit fully to the call of the Forest, and become fully inhumane.

- I liked Rachelle's complexity, even though I didn't always like her. She made an incredibly stupid mistake in her youth (some TSTL behaviour right there), but strove so hard to atone for it. Working to fight the threats from the Forest and saving innocents, even as she believed herself wholly damned. 

- The sweet and genuine friendship between Rachelle and Amelie.

- I liked Armand as a character. His cut-off hands and his silver replacements (that burn him when the metal gets too hot) was suitably gruesome. I was also impressed when it was finally revealed what actually happened to him - the full extent was both cool and horrible. 

- The concept of the wood-wives, local wise-women who could weave various charms to protect the populace against the creeping evil of the Forest. Zisa was apparently the first of the wood-wives and they pass down the knowledge through the generations.

- I mostly liked the decadent Renaissance French court setting. 

- I liked the monsters Rachelle had to defeat, both in her everyday fight against the encroaching Forest and when looking for Joyeuse.  

- The plot wasn't entirely predictable (for all that some things were pretty obvious to me from early on). There were a lot of cool reveals along the way.

 

Did not like:

- Erec D'Anjou. He gave me the creeps from the moment he showed up. He was an arrogant creep and the way he treated Rachelle was condescending and appalling. The fact that he was presented as charming, handsome and a supposed third in the love triangle of the story was baffling to me. He was pond scum.

- Rachelle's initial aversion to Armand really did seem very extreme and was really never well explained. 

- Nor was her sudden change of heart, where she pretty much out of the blue loves him. Not at all sure at what point her feelings changed from distrust, disdain and slight loathing to true love. 

- Absolutely and utterly hated the whole love triangle. 

- The structure of the story was a bit messy and the book could have been tighter plotted. The ending seemed a bit confused and rushed.

- The Little Red Riding Hood inspiration was tenuous, at best. 

 

This is Rosamund Hodge's second book, and from what I can see from various reviews, a lot of people don't think it's as good as her first book, Cruel Beauty. As there was a lot that I really liked about this book, I'm now even more excited that I have the supposedly better book still to read. As some reviews also say that the plots are a bit reminiscent of each other, I think I'm going to wait a bit, so the books don't suffer too much in comparison.

 

Judging a book by its cover: I've seen some people complaining that the cover of this book is too close to Rosamund Hodge's debut novel, Cruel Beauty, but I honestly don't see why this is problematic. The books are published by the same company, they probably wanted to make it more obvious the books were by the same author. The spiralling stair motif is a cool one (even though it has very little to do with anything in the actual book), whilst the black and white, with the bright green of the trees and the splash of red of Rachelle's cloak are lovely contrasts. The way the trees seem to be moving ever closer to the stairs is a nice call-back to the encroaching Forest in the book.

Initial reaction: I feel about this book the same way I felt about "Cruel Beauty". Wonderful ideas, action, and intriguing characterization, but the execution of it feels a bit flawed. This book dragged for me much longer than I thought it would, sadly, though I liked parts of it.

Full review:

Full confession: I feel bad about not being completely enamored by Rosamund Hodge's fairy tale universes: first with the alternate take of Beauty and the Beast with "Cruel Beauty" and now the smorgasbord tale of Little Red Riding Hood blended with The Girl With No Hands and other stories that was shown in "Crimson Bound". "Crimson Bound" had the kind of story that should've swept me off my feet and fully immersed me, yet there were times it did and others that left me cold.

The story revolves around Rachelle, a young woman who used to be an apprentice under her aunt, training to protect her village from the dark forces of the forest beyond. Yet after a series of events, Rachelle becomes cursed - a murderess cursed to die by the hands of the Devourer. She tries to right her wrongs by becoming a hand of the King, swearing to kill the Devourer in a quest of vengeance. Yet, as Rachelle becomes tasked to protect the King's son Armand, she ends up being swept into another journey that's intricately tied to her own, whether she realizes it or not.

I liked the fact that Rachelle was a dark heroine with a balance of moments where you could root for her and others where she was completely ruthless, but there was something missing to her character that didn't make me fully sink my teeth into her experience. Same with the side characters - I saw how they were constructed and their role in the story, but they didn't make strong impressions on me. There were some nice twists and scenes of action in this tale, but I felt the whole of the novel, despite a bit stronger building of the world and realm than "Cruel Beauty", really didn't make as much of an impression on me as I'd hoped. The plot dragged on for far too long, leaving me having to muscle through the book in points where it meandered just as thickly as the forests the text described in the illusions. I definitely appreciated moments of it, but others I kept wondering when it would hit the ground running to the reveals. The romance never struck me that well (and I could argue that I was more taken by the fantasy realm in this series of books by Hodge than I ever was with the romances, because they lacked depth for me).

It's hard to say, because I like the illusionary world and dark tones of Hodge's works (and ultimately, that's what keeps me wanting to read her books), but I wish there were more root and streamlined focus in the works themselves, to smooth over some of the rough edges of what are otherwise fascinating tales. Good audio reading and intrigue, but still lacking that spark to fully draw me into the tale, unfortunately.

Overall score: 3/5 stars.

Today I thought that I'd share my favorite reads from 2015. I've been posting these on a Goodreads shelf all year long, but some of them are books I'd also marked as favorites in 2014: Made You Up by Francesca Zappia, Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma, The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski, and The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon. Those I read in 2014, though they were officially published in 2015 -- would still recommend reading those! Last year I only made a video as a means of recommending books to people who didn't like YA much, but this year I wanted to make a full list!

 

4.5 Stars

“..You always have to choose between the path of needles and the path of pins. When a dress is torn, you know, you can just pin it up, or you can take the time to sew it together. That's what it means. The quick and easy way or the painful way that works.”

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.

With such a surreal setting and all the mystic talks about the Devourer, Rosamund Hodge has created a beautiful story which is different from the ongoing plots and still is a perfect read.

""I am Rachelle Brinon. I didn't listen to my aunt when she told me to stay on the path and save my own life. Damned if I'll listen to the Forest now.""

Rachelle strays from her path one day and finds herself in quite a predicament; she has three days to kill someone and become a slave to the forest's power or else die.

“I knew you lived,"" her mother said after a moment. ""Any daughter of mine would be ruthless enough.”

After choosing to survive, she works with everything she has to stop the Devourer and chases after myth to find a way to off him for good. She's a complex character but the strength with which she stands for what she believes is quite amazing.

“There were three of them, all with rapiers, and she had only a dagger. It would have been a wretchedly uneven fight, if she were human.

It was still a wretchedly uneven fight; it was just uneven in her favor.”

After looking through all the reviews and reading the book myself, I'm going to indulge in [b:Cruel Beauty|15839984|Cruel Beauty|Rosamund Hodge|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1371652590s/15839984.jpg|21580669] and see for myself what the hype is about!

Ciao!

Crimson Meh

After reading some of its raving reviews, seeing the purdy cover and reading the prologue, I was syperhyped about Crimson Bound. The previous three or four books I've read weren't the best picks, so you can imagine my excitement on finally starting something awesome again. Alas...it turned out to be quite a dissapointment. In fact, I'm not even sure on how to rate it apart from 'somewhere between one and three stars'.
Alright, it's going to have to be more than one star, because let's face it, the prologue was amazing.

It all starts with the depiction of a mythical world wherein woodwives weave charms to protect people from the Great Forest and the Devourer, god of the forestborn. A long, long time ago, over three thousand years to be exact, the Devourer ruled the world in darkness after eating up the sun and the moon. Humans were being hunted down in the Great Forest by the forestborn, superhuman creatures created by and in service of the Devourer. Then, those three thousand years ago, his ruling came to an end after two of the Royal children bound him and put the moon and sun back in their places. Now, the binding is wearing off and the Devourer will soon awaken again and the world shall turn back into darkness. Sounds awesome doesn't it? Bear with me.

Rachelle lives with her Aunt Léonie (the whole setting is French by the way with French names for everything) in a cottage outside of a village. Aunt Léonie is going to train Rachelle to become the village's next woodwife after her. This is the part where it becomes clear this story is loosely based on the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Rachelle has been told to NOT stray from the path or take off her red cloak, because she won't be protected against an encounter with a forestborn anymore. Of course, when she hears a voice say "Good afternoon, little girl.", it doesn't take long for her to stray from the path. And take off her cloak. The forestborn (wolf) doesn't kill her, but marks her. Every human marked by a forestborn becomes bloodbound and has to kill another person within three days or die themselves. Still pretty awesome huh?

So Rachelle ends up killing Aunt Léonie and becomes a full bloodbound. In terror of what she has done and become, she flees to the King's castle (château) and joins his bloodbound guard, led by Erec D'Anjou, who is obviously a bloodbound himself. Every bloodbound is in the grip of the Great Forest and one day will give into it completely, lose its heart and soul and turn into a forestborn, born to hunt, kill and dance. Rachelle doesn't want to become a forestborn and is struggling with it on a daily basis.

We then meet Armand, one of the King's illegitimate sons who apparently encountered a forestborn and survived its mark without killing anyone. He did get his hands chopped off, however, and has two hands made out of silver now to replace them. People worship him like a saint, because he survived the mark and Rachelle gets the order to protect him from any assasins by being his personal bodyguard. And this is where the story goes downhill (for me at least). The dialogues between the two of them are irritatingly bland. The dialogues between any of the characters are mostly irritatingly bland. Or maybe bland isn't the right word. Irritatingly rigid is more like it; I felt like I was watching a High school play most of the time and the characters were just really crappy actors.



Because of this and a general lack of personality when it comes to the characters, I just couldn't invest myself in them. Rachelle's a girl with strong clues of Borderline syndrom, Erec's a grinning bad ass and Armand can't make up his mind, so decides to just do wry things with his mouth. Amélie felt like a filler character with no real purpose except for tying a few knots together in the story line and making us see Rachelle's human side. Judging by the roller coaster of emotions Rachelle was going through all the time, I didn't need any more proof of her being human. The only character that didn't remind me of a bad soap opera was La Fontaine. Too bad her role in the book wasn't bigger.

Now for the next point of criticism; I don't know if it was my uncorrected version, but there was lot of redundancy in there. I can't find a nice example of it now, but I'll be sure to start marking these things in the future, so I can add them in my reviews. For this one, it went something like this: "Rachelle could feel the Forest growing" and then one paragraph later she would say something like "I can feel the Forest growing" to herself. Because you know, things aren't real unless you say them out loud?

Back to the storyline in general. To me it felt rushed and drawn out at the same time. First Rachelle spends whole chapters on trying to find a sword (which becomes dreadfully boring after awhile) but then wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am! There's a new chapter which starts somewhere else all of a sudden and lots of action is cramped up into a few pages, leaving me with a "Huh, what just happened??"- kind of feeling.
The fighting scenes are alright I suppose, but the unexpected amount of gory blood spatter action is...well, pretty damn sweet actually!

Even though it's originally based on 'Little Red Riding Hood', I also recognised two other fairytales in the story: 'Hansel and Gretel'("In the darkest shadows of the wood stands a house"..."Within that bloody house lived Old Mother Hunger."..."So they placed him in the deepest cellar of the house, within a little cage of bone"..."Every time they brought him food, before he could eat, he must first sing a song to them") and 'Snow White'("Bring me the hearts of your father and mother"..."Zisa cut out the hearts of her mother and father and put them in a silver chest"). Maybe it's just me, but I thought the resemblences were uncanny.

My end conclusion for Crimson Bound: all in all I can say that the premise was excellent, but the execution of it really lacked some depth and well, fun (apart from the gory blood spatter action). 2.5 stars it is.