Bound

Sixteen year old Arelia LaRue lives in New Orleans where the music is loud, voodoo queens inhabit every street corner, and the ghosts are alive and well. Despite her surroundings, all she wants is to help her Grand-mere Bea pay the rent and save up for college.

When her best friend Sabrina convinces her to take a well-paying summer job at the infamous Darkwood plantation, owned by the wealthy LaPlante family, Arelia agrees.

However, at Darkwood strange things start to happen, and gorgeous Lucus LaPlante insists that he needs her help. Soon, the powers that Arelia has been denying all her life, come out to play and she discovers mysteries about herself that she could have never imagined. - Goodreads Blurb

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Kira Saito introduces readers to an entirely different world with her novel, Bound, the first book in the Arelia LaRue series. The story revolves around New Orleans and Voodoo folklore, which is a topic that I haven't seen very much. Though, I may have just been looking in the wrong places. 

The novel itself was well laid out. It introduces Arelia who will one day be a great Voodoo Queen. It then tempts her into learning more about the spirit world that surrounds her. Arelia, obviously intrigued (though frightened) accepts her Aunt's help in studying her ability. But just beneath the surface, someone wants to stop Arelia from using her powers.

Sounds great? Sadly, that's where it ceases to be so... interesting. The characters, all of them, lack the depth required when it comes to this folklore genre. It's folklore. Therefore, readers need a strong connection to the characters in order to accept the story as believable. 

Saito fails to connect the reader with Arelia. She isn't a character that draws the audience into her world and she appears to be quite unwilling to help herself. Saito makes her out to be a Voodoo Queen, but pinpoints Arelia's weaknesses. I wanted so much more from this novel. It has the potential to be an amazing book and it could have been if I would have felt any connection to Arelia, but she just falls flat. She has the role of a dynamic character but refuses to be anything but static. 

Arelia's best friend, Sabrina, isn't a nice person. At all. Yet, Arelia still accepts her like a sister, back-stabbing and betrayal included. She's a stereotypical rich girl who doesn't care about anything but herself and what brand her lip-gloss is. It's sad to see a character that could change the outcome of the story cut out of a pattern. And the hero of the story, Lucus? He doesn't seem to do much of anything. Though, he does portray the Southern Gentleman quite well. But he does lack the charm. 

However, I must admit that I did read the entire novel in less than one day. It was a quick easy read that didn't require much in the realm of focus. I would recommend it for a light read if you'd like to know a little bit about Voodoo history. Saito does a nice job revealing the details of Voodoo without it becoming too much to comprehend. That part of the novel: I very much liked. 

Bound
on Amazon

rating: 2/5 cups

Teaser Tuesday (14)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Bound, An Arelia LaRue Novel (Kindle Loc. 393-94)
          - Kira Saito

When your long-lost aunt reveals that the voodoo spirit of love has blessed you with powers and it's confirmed that you are some kind of voodoo queen, all you really feel like doing it taking a hot bath.




Should Be Reading @ Wordpress

Thirteen Reasons Why

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.

Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers. - Goodreads Blurb

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Thirteen Reasons you should read Thirteen Reasons Why

1. Jay Asher creates a character so compelling and real it's almost as if the reader is listening to the tapes themselves. The tapes allow an inside look into the mind of Hannah Baker -- a high school student who committed suicide two weeks prior to the beginning of the novel. 

2. The dual narration gives the reader both sides of the story. Hannah tells it as the truth, while Clay shows the lies that were born of it. 

3. Clay Jensen (one of the narrators) is on the tapes and readers get to witness how the tapes affect the people that are on them. 

4. As the novel continues the readers can see how everything that happened to Hannah changed her. It shows how she lost friends, hope, the ability to trust, and love. 

5. The book is raw. Blunt. And refuses to ask forgiveness for it. 

6. Through Hannah's story, readers can see how her thirteen reasons will react to each other when they receive the tapes and find out the roles they all played in Hannah's suicide.

7. High School was tough, for everyone. Readers can relate to the situations that Hannah had to go through. Whether they lived them or witnessed them. 

8. The web of reasons that Asher creates is unbelievable. How the reasons connect with each other, continuously loop around, and knot together is a work of art. Without one, the other twelve would never have been. 

9. Asher's writing style is fresh, honest, yet merciful. 

10. From the first page, readers will know this book is about to change their lives. 

11. "I guess that's the point of it all. No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes, we have no clue. Yet we push it just the same." (Kindle Location 1886-87)  Jay Asher shows us. 

12. Hannah asked for help. Throughout everything that she went through, though she admits that she had already decided to commit suicide - she still went and tried to ask for help. Asher shows his audience that, even though it may not be known, there is always someone willing to help. 

13. Thirteen Reasons Why doesn't limit itself to the focus of depression. It shows love, trust, desire, hope, happiness. It brings tears and causes out loud laughter. It is a novel that everyone should read at least once, because it will to stay with you. 

Thirteen Reasons Why 

on Amazon

rating: 5/5 cups

Tears of the Broken

"Lies are the shadows of betrayal...the vampire will be the light.


When you love someone, there's nothing you wouldn't forgive. But what about murder?


Ara-Rose will learn that life is fashioned from one tragedy after the next, and that sometimes, the truth people hide from you is nothing you could have imagined.


But Ara has secrets of her own, and she's willing to take them to her grave--a place David Knight will fight to keep her from." - Amazon Blurb

*May Contain Spoilers*

A.M. Hudson's novel, Tears of the Broken, isn't the everyday, expected book about vampires and teenage love. It's deeper. The entire book is more an emotional character study than a novel with a perfect plot arc. 

Ara has just lost her mother and little brother, in a car accident that should have killed her. The blame she places on her shoulders takes her to the darkest part of depression. Tears of the Broken follows Ara's journey of accepting life and facing death. 

Readers can connect with Ara through her pain and her desire to have a normal teenage life. She has suffered through a great loss - one that has taken away her love for life. Yet, she goes on living while everyone around her waits for her to break down. 

Although Ara admits that she's selfish, a little spoiled, and moody, Hudson creates a character that is emotionally aged beyond her seventeen years. And then introduces her to David, a boy that is actually aged beyond his appearance. This meeting creates a point in Ara's life that allows her to move forward. 

But with moving forward comes more pressing issues. Such as, how to be in love with a person who lives by taking human life -- a vampire. 

As Hudson presents the emotional turmoil of Ara's life, she creates a life line with David. He's determined to help Ara move on. But when something happens that neither one of the main characters ever expected -- their relationship is threatened. The possible outcomes being eternity or nothing at all. 

How far will Ara go to keep the life that David has brought her back to? 

Tears of the Broken

on Amazon

rating: 3/5 cups