A review by dingadine
Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

adventurous dark tense

3.0

Dark, intense fantasy novel with religious undertones (very) loosely based on Little Red Riding Hood… overall enjoyed the concepts (forestborn, Great Forest, woodwives, etc.) but the relationship building (or lack thereof) is where this book got stuck at 3 stars for me. None of Rachelle’s relationships (except maybe Erec and Aunt Léonie) felt believable to me. Her friendship with Amélie felt out of nowhere and lacking depth even though it was supposedly this girl she felt so strongly about. Her love for Armand was very sudden for me as well, it went from “okay she’s starting to have feelings for him/be into him” to all of a sudden professing this deep & undying love. The hot & cold with Erec got kind of old as well. Just overall the connections felt rushed and the descriptions of how she was supposedly feeling about these people seemed over-dramatized. Also, while obviously I’m happy she got a semblance of a happily ever after… getting to just come back to life seems like it’s cheating a little. 😂 I did like that the author was self-aware in that with Rachelle’s dialog with Aunt Léonie about it not being fair that she can just be alive again.

Overall, interesting story and I’m not mad I read it, but stays at just good/ok for me!