****This was received for an honest review by the author.****
The Binding (The Velesi Trilogy, Book 1) by L. Filloon
Genre: Paranormal New Adult
Edition Reviewed: eBook
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
Goodreads: The Binding
Two nights after her eighteenth birthday, Lily is attacked while out jogging, but is saved by Tharin Lunar, a Sidhe prince. When she discovers that her attacker is her own brother, Lucas, who disappeared four years ago, Lily refuses to believe that her brother would truly hurt her and becomes determined to find Lucas and bring him home. Lily finds that Lucas’ disappearance is somehow tied to Tharin; so when he informs her that she is his betrothed and must return with him to Velesi, fulfill a treaty between their families and unite the two strongest clans through their marriage, Lily agrees. However, she’s not going to Velesi for a wedding, but to bring home her only family, Lucas.
On their journey to the borders of Velesi, the realm of the Thirteen Clans, they’re pursued by a Sidhe assassin group call the Ange, meet with an ogre crime lord that ends badly, deal with a sleazy troll motel manager, and when they discover that there’s a bounty on their heads, they must keep one step ahead of every assassin, bounty hunter and low-life criminal in Velesi.
Protecting Lily has become the biggest challenge of Tharin’s life. Lucky for him he has help in the form of his twin brother, Tolan, Lily’s best friend Julia and his three bodyguard cousins.
Review:
When I read a self published/indie title I always hold it up to the same standards of "professionally" published work. Some readers state it is not fair. However, in my mind I think it's perfectly fair. I've read a number of great self published books that have been five star reads for me. It doesn't matter where the book is coming from. With that said I really wanted to give The Binding a higher rating. Truly. The problem was I kept hinging my review on the fact that this was a self published work, but then it hit me if this was from a big publisher I would not hesitate to give it the rating I did.
The idea behind the world of The Binding is a ton of fun. The idea of elves, the way they're connected to the earth and our modern world was soooooo addictive. The characters were easy to enjoy, they're the same kind of characters you could find in any number of paranormal story. The difference is The Binding is a New Adult so there's a sweet innocence to the romance. Even if some of the male love interests are really, really old. The side story romance is fun. Though some of the "filler" muscle of the other elves are really hard to tell apart.
What I couldn't shake about this story was that every time I stopped reading I kept thinking "this feels like a rough draft." It wasn't anything like bad spelling, or punctuation. The writing here is so much better--and mature--than the writing found in The House of Night series. The rough draft feel permeating the book was from the feeling that the author didn't know when there needed to be a paragraph break. The writing repeats a lot of ideas and thoughts that had been explained a mere sentence ago. Also another big thing was that the characters were "the same kind of characters you could find in any number of paranormal story." I didn't feel the connection emotionally with the characters or the story.
Clearly Filloon has a great idea here, but she needs more work on her writing. There needs to be an organization to the writing. With Filloon's talent I'm sure she'll find a balance and with more practice the emotions will eventually mix into her writing. For now I can't really recommend this book to anyone. A number of my Goodreads friends really enjoyed this book, but what can I say . . . I'm a picky reader.
Sexual Content: Lot's of kissing and making out. Pretty clean, definitely a YA type read.
1/5- I couldn't finish it or wish I hadn't
| Previous book(s) in series: | ||
| Reviewed on BW: | Amazon: | Goodreads: |
| The Binding (1) The Drifting (2) | The Binding (1) The Drifting (2) | |
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