Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens

1 review

emily_mh's review against another edition

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lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

 I’m upset having to write a less-than-positive review for this book, as I loved Lukens’ previous two releases, but this fell so flat for me! I really pushed myself to finish - at first I thought that was because I was moving (and thus was stressed out), but I came to realise that it’s because the whole book felt half-baked. 

Firstly, what is mentioned as the inciting incident in the synopsis actually happens around 56% of the way through the book. Up until then it is a monotonous series of events where the MCs, Rook and Sun, go on outings with their mentors and interact a few times. Even after the inciting incident happens, all that occurs is the MCs go to one house, then another, and then there is the final scene (which had a too convenient resolution). Then the book is over. I was just never excited or intrigued. 

As this was a romance-focussed book I wasn’t looking for detailed, quality world-building but I did expect to be interested by the places involved and have a grasp on the rules of the alternate reality. Unfortunately I found the settings here to be super mundane; like, a dingy building here, apartment block there, central city over there, etc. There’s not really any description of how magic makes these places fantastically different. I also never understood how the non-magic vs. magic thing worked. Do non-magics know about magics? To what extent can they interact with magic - this seemed to vary? How does the Consortium fit into non-magical governance? Etc. I will say that the leylines element was cool, though! It was a really great explanation of the foundation of magic and tied into the story effortlessly. 

In terms of MCs, I thought Rook was a pretty good one. His story honestly felt like an allegory for disability, because the way he was capable of magic but not in the “approved way” and so was excluded was really reminiscent of the disabled, particularly the neurodivergent, experience. In this way the Spell Binder was like his mobility aid,
which is why I wished he had regained it at the end of the book
. I found Sun to be less developed as a character, maybe as a result of their lesser page time in comparison to Rook. There’s kind of two threads with them, one being confronting the fact that the Consortium is bad, the other being them finding their sense of belonging. However, I found the former to be rushed and I was unconvinced of their development in relation to the latter. 

The romance between these MCs was just fine. Nothing to write home about, but nothing wrong with it either. Rook and Sun were well-suited to one another and had black cat/golden retriever energy, which will always go down well with me. I think the tension in their relationship could have been done a little better, as well as some dialogue they shared. But it was cute! 

Finally, the writing style came across as juvenile. There were a couple of textual motifs (e.g. “You” “Me”) that I didn’t like. But even though I found quite a few negatives in this book, I did decide to give it three stars on the basis of the positives I mentioned, as well as the fact that it was light-hearted and entertaining enough. 

Rep: Achillean MC, Achillean nonbinary neurodivergent Korean MC, NB SC 
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