Thank you Austin Macauley Publishers for this book in exchange for an honest review
Synopsis:
Freedom means nothing if you’re the only one free.
Stefan has only ever wanted a peaceful, normal life without harming anyone…but that’s not the life he was given.
Growing up with two brilliant sisters, Kesia has always wondered why she was born…she needed to find meaning in her life.
When these two lost souls meet, a new hope arises for both of them. A chance to right the wrongs and give meaning to their lives
Review:
Straight of the bat – this took a while for me to get into. It really did. It may be because I am coming down with reading slump symptoms or it could be the book itself. Let’s just leave it to both of them.
Reading slump aside, it took me a while to really grasp where the story as going. The opening chapter was intense and draws you into the story straight away but then I felt as though it dragged after that. The book took its time to find the pace of the story because we were in the cross hairs of our two main characters meeting and getting to know one another. Which is great but I felt as though it went on a little too long. This was a slight downside for me.
Out of our two main characters Stefan is a male siren who coax’s young women to kill themselves for their souls and eventually decides that he done with being the villain. I was glad to see that Stefan didn’t make any growth in the story, he was wise, strong and thoughtful and it stayed that way consistently through to book. I gauged that he was older than any human was at the start and there for would be the reason others would grow around him. You don’t need the oldest tree in the forest to grow more, you want that elder tree to guide others. And that’s what I felt Stefan did.
I also raise my hand in confession that I wasn’t a big fan of Kesia at the start, to be honest I didn’t really begin to liking her until half way through the book. Honestly I found her wayyyy too mature for her own age and I didn’t really see a reason why she had to be that mature. Kesia was meant to be only 7 years old at the start of the book and she was holding a conversation better than a lot of adults I work with. I found this really grating. It was explained to me that Kesia at 7 was mature for her age but as the book progressed I realised that her speech pattern and actions didn’t really grow.
I would have loved to see Kesia actually interact as a 7 year old would and have her speech short and sweet and her mind thinking about toys more than the stranger that she was hiding. However when her age began to match her persona, I was found of Kesia, she was caring and determined and I generally like that in my female characters.
Besides the slow pace at the beginning and Kesia’s age the rest of the book was brilliant.
Targett has a fun and creative writing style and I found that her simplistic style was perfect, it allowed us as the readers to imagine the world and characters ourselves. Unbound is one of those books that takes you by surprise.
Rating 4/5
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
ISBN: 9781788238946