an eh book.
Not much of a fan of Elan, Jae could have been better if she had a better male companion, Tal was my favorite.
Plot was well thought, execution made it boring, Magical slavery and survival in a fantasy desert world,
Jae is a slave, one of the Closest, magically cursed to obey the ruling class of their desert country, The country is in trouble with a series of droughts causing them to abandon their outlying settlements and the deaths of the Closest of those settlements.
As descendants of traitors he Closest aren't worth evacuating, In a remote outpost with a long history Jae discovers magic magic that might save her outpost and even free her people, but somehow she needs to keep it from her enslavers.
I enjoyed this fairly straightforward book, Jae and her brother Tal are great characters and the new arrival Lord Elan's struggle with his privilege and how to deal with a Closest with power is really interesting.
I will continue the series, I highly recommend this book,
. The way magic works in this world is described in ways I have never encountered before, and that is a RARE gift in fantasy novels,
. The prose is tight, and clean, and easy to read,
. The characters all have entirely comprehensible motivations and reasons, and noone ever carries the idiot stick just because the plot says so,
. This is the best and more nuanced description of allyship I can remember encountering in fiction,
There are characters who begin with more power and privilege than other characters, And, along the way, more information comes forth about that power, And some characters move into being allies, and others do not,
And the WAY that shift is portrayed is subtle, and thoughtful, and understanding, At no point does the ally become the savior, At no point is the pain of the allies given more weight or more importance that the pain of the oppressed, But the allies are human, and their lives and experiences have meaning, and they are given chances to grow and change,
When they do change, they do so imperfectly, They screw up. They mean well, do their best, and screw up, But they go on. They continue to try to be better, They don't give up.
This is all, you understand, NOT the main point of the plot, The plot is about Jae and her experiences, But so often we get stories in which power is there only to be destroyed or suborned, and here we get a fully human look at all sides of the power imbalance while never privileging the strong.
It's a real triumph of writing,
If you have ever felt like you wanted to help someone, but you didn't want to screw up and you didn't want to get yelled at for trying, read this book.
Be a better ally. Learn how to fail gracefully,
I highly recommend Bound by Blood and Sand,
“You said it was a sacrifice, Coming from me, it's a gift, ”
I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would, I picked this one up mainly for the cover I love the bright colors and interesting title, The beginning of the story was a little jarring I had to learn the lingo and understand about the Curse and water shortage the drought, Also learning about Tal and Jae and how their lives were so very different from royalty and those not Cursed,
I did enjoy it the twists and turns, I will definitely read bookjust to know what happens to the characters! I was shocked how much I enjoyed this book, There were a few things that I found particularly irritating everyone tends to "snap" at one another but overall it was enjoyable and I hated putting it down.
The world is one that many have seen before mages control elements, slaves, an evil king, a handsome prince but Allen puts her own unique twist to her world slaves are totally obedient and cannot lie and shockingly, it works and doesn't sound recycled.
Where language was the weakest part of the book, Allen's characters and character development were the strongest, At first, I didn't really like Jae, But Jae isn't a marysue by any means, she's not gracious or kind, In a nutshell, she is not a Disney princess, She's rough, frustrating and wrathful, And as much as I found her choices irritating I appreciated the originality, Maybe I'm giving Allen too much credit, because maybe everyone else will automatically like Jae, but I think it was fantastically gallsy to make a character so unlikeable but relatable.
Tal ended up being my favorite character, He was a great balance to Jae,
Most importantly was character growth, I think the YA genre really misses the target on this essential theme but Allen doesn't, Not only do the main characters Elan and Jae grow tremendously but so do some of the secondary characters I'm thinking Shirrad here, I really hope Allen continues this in the following novels,
Also, no instalove! For those who hate the instalove that happens in most YA novels you'll be happy to know this novel absolutely doesn't have that.
One of my biggest critiques SPOILER ALERT has to be how quickly Elan sided with Jae, It would have been nice to see more of a struggle on his part because he essentially turned his back on everything he knew,
Other than that I highly recommend this book and I cannot wait for the next book! I hate the heat, So so much. So I would absolutely hate living in a true desert, Especially a desert where there is so little water to be had,
But that is exactly the kind of world that Bound by Blood and Sand takes place in,
The world is a desert, The places where people inhabit are few and far between and vary in size, And thanks to the drought that the world is finding itself in the smaller places might end up being deserted,
However, not everyone gets to go, There happens to be a group of people that are cursed, They have to do what the Avowed tell them to do and they cannot lie, And when I say that they have to do do what they are told, they HAVE to do it, No matter what it is, So with that being said, . . TRIGGER WARNING.
Our main female character, Jae, is one of the cursed, But through some interesting happenings, . . she actually becomes special and separate from others like her, And she plans to use this advantage to save the rest of the cursed,
And then there is our main male character Lord Elan, He is the son of the guy on top, Not many outrank him and what he says goes,
Needless to say, the two meet and do not like each other, But things happen and they have to deal with each other,
The story is told from a rotating first person view, It switches between Jae and Elan, So you get to see both sides, And you get to see them each come to their own special realizations and growth, It is really quite well done,
Personally, I didn't like Jae much during a lot of this book, but she is the way she is for a reason, You will learn about it and come to understand her though, So if you find yourself like me, give it time, Don't give up on her,
In regards to the world, I really liked it, It did take a little bit to get the world built up, but it was done quite beautifully, I had absolutely no problem imagining the world and the characters, If it was a place I could actually visit, aside from the heat, I would want to go!
You may have also heard from reading other reviews that there is no romance in this book, and that is true.
However, there are building blocks for a romance! So hopefully in the next book we will see it actually start, The lack of romance makes a lot of sense for the story contained within Bound by Blood and Sand and I am glad that Becky Allen did not force one into the story.
It wouldn't have felt right with were characters are in their own personal growth at the moment, Jae is just too tough and hard!
I cannot wait to continue on in this world and read more about Jae and Elan, There are quite a few hints about possible story lines that I cannot wait to see where the story goes!
This review is based on an eARC provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
All thoughts and opinions are my own,
Find more of my reviews here:
sitelink blogspot. com/ This book
Ah, this book. It has slavery as a background, But it's magical slavery, meaning there's no chance at all for rebellion, The plot itself was a bit too convoluted at times, with lots and lots of names to keep track of, I'm still not sure on who the bad guys are/were, to be honest, It still held my interest, however, I liked Jae as a character, though she could be annoying and whiny at times, Bonus: no instalove! YAY!
Jae is a slave in a dying desert world,
Once verdant with water from a magical Well, the land is drying up, and no one remembers the magic needed to keep the water flowing.
If a new source isnt found soon, the people will perish, Jae doesnt mind, in a way, By law, she is bound by a curse to obey every order given her, no matter how vile, At least in death, shell be free,
Elans family rules the fading realm, He comes to the estate where Jae works, searching for the hidden magic needed to replenish the Well, but its Jae who finds it, and she who must wield it.
Desperate to save his realm, Elan begs her to use it to locate the Well,
But why would a slaveabused, beaten, and treated as less than humanwant to save the system that shackles her Jae would rather see the world burn.
Though revenge clouds her vision, she agrees to help if the realms slaves are freed, Then Elans father arrives. The rulers cruelty knows no limits, He is determined that the class system will not changeand that Jae will remain a slave forever, .
Collect Bound By Blood And Sand Written By Becky Allen Disseminated As Script
Becky Allen