Series: Stand Alone
Genre: Fantasy, Re-telling, Romance
Release Date: May 5, 2015
Summary: 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.
Review: Actually a 3 1/2 star rating.
I've read Hodge's first and previous novel, Cruel Beauty, and totally fell in love with it. Needless to say, I was expecting no less from this one. Let me just say that Crimson Bound is one of those books that I didn't truly appreciate until I was reading the last page. Hodge has an absolutely incredible way with words. The world-building alone was fascinating! I will admit that I was not very familiar with the story of Little Red Riding Hood, which, I feel, is partially why I didn't quite like this book as much as I had hoped.
I really enjoyed the uniqueness of this novel. Hodge has weaved in a beautiful and creative world around the original Little Red Riding Hood tale. I enjoyed Rachelle for the most part. There were times when I was a slightly annoyed with her but ended up liking her character and will power overall. I will admit, I actually wanted something to happen between and her "wolf" of sorts. I was hoping for more of a Darkling and Alina romance (from the Shadow and Bone/Grisha Trilogy), so I was a little disappointed that he wasn't as big a part of the story as I had originally hoped for.
Armand . . . Armand . . . Armand . . . I just never really knew what to think of him. I liked him. Then I didn't. Then I did. Then I didn't. So on and so forth. I was really just curious as to what had actually happened to his hands rather than anything else. It was rough having to wait so long to find out the actual truth. By the end of the novel I was just kind of . . . meh . . . when it came to Armand. Not as great of a love interest as I had wanted which is one of the reasons I didn't give this a higher rating.
I definitely think that I'm going to read this one again so that I may fully appreciate and understand what happened. An intriguing, beautifully written piece of work! One to read if you enjoy fairy tale retelling's with heavy fantasy.
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