Bound by Erica O'Rourke | Book Review

(A side note:  the cover makes NO SENSE to the book AT ALL.  Don't even look at it.)

Bound was good... if you've read Torn and Tangled and are needing to know how it ends.  Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.  It didn't really have a strong finish.

From here on this review contains spoilers for Torn and Tangled but not for Bound.  You've been warned.

Bound picks up a few months after Tangled ended, which is good because otherwise I'd start to worry about Mo failing school.  All the magic stuff and mob stuff is pretty distracting from ordinary school life.  Mo is still involved in lots of stuff from before, plus a few extra stuff.  Because who needs time for sleep?  She is still the Vessel, but she's also discovered that the magic is alive and real and needs caring for and talking to.  She's still involved with Constance, so now Niobe, the Arc mentor-cum-fake guidance counselor has decided that they need lots of physical training together, and tutoring in the language of magic.

Also, you remember the guys?  Colin, for whom she's given up her dream of escaping her uncle and going to NYU?  He's still around.  And so is Luc, the hot Arc.  When Bound opens, she's firmly with Colin.  She's even trying to get in his pants!  I kind of admire a girl who goes after what she wants, but I don't get excited about teens doing it.  So I'm torn on that one.  This still isn't a definite, though:  which boy will she end up with?  (You'll find out by the end of the trilogy; don't worry!  But you have to read the book yourself.)

Finally, the family and friends.  Lena turns out to be a better friend than you already think she is.  I mean, she's already incredibly kind and patient and lovely and then she actually finds a way to take it to the next level in Bound.  It's unreal.  And family... Remember at the end of Tangled?  Mo's dad?  Yup... that's a can of worms that got me all kinds of twisted up inside.  You have to read the book.  It won't happen until you're practically done with the whole trilogy and then you'll lift your hands to the sky and scream "NOOOOO!!!!  WHYY?????"  Just like that.

Oh, and the magic stuff.  Lots of magic stuff happening.  But there's So. Much. Drama. in Chicago that the magic stuff almost gets lost.  I know, hard to believe.

So that's my issue with the book:  there's so very much going on in so many different directions... it's hard to wrap it all up.  The book kind of starts a little slow and then at the end all of a sudden BAM it wraps up.  I'd have loved maybe two or three fewer plot lines and a lot more character development.  And there's a thing that happens between Mo and Luc right after a magic thing (you'll know when you get there) that will make you go "whoa.  That was fast."