Spell Bound (Hex Hall #3) by Rachel Hawkins

UK Cover                                            US Cover

Published March 29th 2012 by Simon & Schuster (UK)
Published March 13th 2012 by Heperion (US)
Young Adult


My Rating: 3 of 5 stars


I hate to admit, but I was disappointed with this. Maybe it was because of all the hype and because I was looking forward to it so much but I didn't think it was nearly as entertaining as the first two.


Sophie was still great and a totally enjoyable character. Her snarky attitude is a lot of fun and I love the banter between herself and Archer.


Cal's character didn't impress me too much in this book although I did like him previously. He was very impassive and unemotional and just seemed to fade into the background even though he played a part in the most important parts of the book. I really didn't like the direction that Rachel took his character in. It felt like he was just so unimportant. He was even ignored when they went into the underworld. We didn't see anything from his past.


I found it unbelievable that Archer would be the only one to be concerned about Sophie going into the underworld alone, especially when no one knew what to expect there. No parent would send their child off like that alone, even if going with her meant they would die. And the fact that Sophie couldn't touch the demonglass, how did they expect her to get it on her own? Where was the logic?


Then there was the mystery of Torin, and why he apparently doesn't want to leave the Brannicks. It appears to have something to do with Izzy. Sophie says that she hopes to find out more about that, but she doesn't, and therefore, neither does the reader. If I missed something here, I would really like someone to fill me in.


The climax of this book (Sophie saving the world) seemed rushed to me. Actually, the whole thing seemed rushed. But everything seemed to fall into place too easily to Sophie's advantage. And the unfortunate casualty seemed a bit unnecessary. But then I guess it was an easy way to deal with the love triangle.


I actually liked Elodie and the possession made it interesting. But I was waiting for her to mess with the love lives from the very beginning. This was just too predictable when she was the scorned ex-girlfriend. I also wasn't surprised to find out that Sophie's mother was a Brannick as I had guessed this from the end of the last book. I was surprised that there was so few of them and the way they lived. That just didn't ring true with me, it was odd.


The ending was bitter sweet which I didn't find satisfying. And I didn't like the way things were left between Archer and The Eye.


I would recommend that people read this book if they have read and enjoyed the first two books but if this was a first in series, I think I would be telling people to steer clear. The book wasn't that long and I think it was rushed. Maybe a longer book with a bit more depth would have been slightly better. I am really sad not to have enjoyed this book as I really wanted to. I loved the first two and this was just a bad ending to a really great series.

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