Monday, May 12, 2014

*Gizmos Book Reviews* Bound (The Guardians #1) by M.J. Stevens Presented by Xpresso Book Tours


Welcome to my stop on the Bound (The Guardians) by M.J. Stevens tour.
My stop is a review of the book, as well as the tour wide giveaway of (1) copy of the book!

Book & Author details:

Bound by M.J. Stevens 
(The Guardians #1) 
Publication date: January 21st 2014 
Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Synopsis:

‘No good deed ever goes unpunished, Mellea…’

Mellea Wendorn hasn’t exactly had a normal life. Misfortune seems to follow her, and her family, wherever she goes. However, when Mellea stops to assist a mysterious young man suddenly her prior hardships seem trivial.

His name is Leo. He is a Successor, a child of the Guardians of Selestia.

He is royalty.
He is handsome.
And he wants Mellea completely to himself.

Unable to escape the Guardian’s laws, Mellea must learn the ways of the royals. She is convinced her life can’t get much worse. But when a timeworn Guardian enemy arises from the shadows, Mellea must make a choice that will change her destiny forever.


Purchase: 

REVIEW:

**I received this book for free from Xpresso Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.**

*Genre* Fantasy, Science Fiction
*Rating* 3.0

*My Thoughts*

Bound is the tale of Eighteen year old Mellea Wendorn who lives in a society where Guardians are like the royal family of England, except they are supposedly chosen by spirits, and given elemental powers to rule Selestia with. All her life, Mellea has been told by her father Noran that the Guardians are utterly dangerous, and can't be trusted, and something really bad happened before she was born, but he refuses to speak to Mellea about it, or give her access to the newspapers.

Mellea struggles to find her own way in the world, and works hard to put money away to go to university. After witnessing a boy being attacked, Mellea discovers that he is actually Guardian Successor Leo Montarus. After being chosen by Leo to be his bride, Mellea is stolen away into the Towers where she is expected to live among the Guardians and learn about their ways, while putting all her previous feelings aside in order to survive. 

Mellea is a character that you have to have patience with for the first part of this story, especially since she is NOT the girl who has special powers given to her by spirits. You could say in a way that she's an innocent who has been brainwashed into truly believing that any Guardian is evil and thus not trustworthy which reflects on her desire to run away. As facts come to light, choices are made, and an enemy of long ago returns, Mellea will end up having to make her own choices and whether or not she can fully trust the person she is supposed to be bound to, or whether she should try to escape.

As for Leo, my first interpretations of him were pretty spot on. Arrogant ass. Conceited. Spoiled Brat who gets what he wants, and then attempts to force the issue when he comes across someone with a mind of her own, and a desire to get the hell away from him as fast as she can. He even hides important facts from Mellea in order to keep her as his bride. Cutting through the veneer of his personality takes some emotional moments, and you learn that he's a pretty powerful Guardian and can more than take care of himself and others. The fact is that most of the Guardians are actually interesting people including Arin, Soren, and their "wives" to be Anrella, and Demmi.


I would hope that in the next installment called Divided, that Stevens does a bit more world building than she does with Bound. I haven't a clue where this story takes place. Is it in the future? Is it an alternative reality of our current universe? Also, Stevens leaves readers with a questionable ending that I sincerely hope she doesn't wade into changing a character for the hopes that she will get more readers. 


AUTHOR BIO:

M.J. Stevens is a true storyteller.

For a long time, words were never her best friend. However she has always had a creative spirit and writing became the lead way that she could share her ideas with the world. Today, it is her number one passion in life.

“I wish I could say that I was one of those kids that read insane amounts of books and that’s why I was inspired to write, like a lot of authors. But I actually found the joy on people’s faces [when they talk about stories they love] more inspiring and wanted to create something of my own that will give young readers that same excited expression.” M.J.

Author Links:





3 comments:

  1. The lack of world-building, and questionable ending are a bit of a turn-off, but I'm a firm believer in giving every series a 2nd chance, so hopefully Divided is better.

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, this is all happening under a molehill in my backyard.. LOL.. I feel yah, I once got a book for review like this and I DNFd it. Setting is impt in fantasy books IMO

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for being on the tour, Shelley!

    ReplyDelete