Book Review: Blood Bound (Volume 1) by K. Carter

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Amazon.com Blood Bound (Bound Series) by K. Carter (Volume 1)

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Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by the author, K. Carter, for an honest review.

Genre: YA/Fiction

Plot: At the start of his junior year, Rian Michaels is forced to move back to his hometown in the wake of his close cousin’s death. While trying to piece his family back together, he also tries to comfort his cousin’s deeply grieving girlfriend, Emily. Instead of putting her grief at ease, he begins to feel something between them. In the mist of unforgivable lies, dark secrets and betrayals, Rian has to decide. What is truly thicker than blood?

Opinion: I just…wow, I don’t even know.

This book has a lot of reviews where readers are literally ranting and raving about how amazing and heart wrenching this book is, and here I am just sitting in my chair thinking…did we read the same book? *looks around the room for clarification*

Yeah?

Well, okay then.

Growing up in his hometown, Rian’s world revolved around his cousin Ian and their best friend Emily. But after moving away for his father’s work, it has been years since Rian has seen or spoke to his friends. So when the recent death of Ian is confirmed, Rian Michaels travels with his family back to the town where he grew up. Now Rian finds himself trying to make amends to Emily for leaving and not being there for Ian, while also learning some deep secrets in the process.

For some reason, I keep launching myself into books that turn out to be less than pleasing. I really didn’t like this story guys. Maybe I am being too harsh, but I was just expecting more out of this. The plot was promising, the secrets and lies gave it some nice twists, and it ended on a fairly positive note. The problem is this: the writing. It’s not that there are grammatical errors and badly formed sentences, because there really isn’t. It’s just feels like the author needs to mature in their writing.

I took a creative writing class my junior year of high school, wrote a short fiction story, and it turned out okay. The relation I am trying to make is this: I wrote, described, and structured my story EXACTLY like this book. That was YEARS ago though. Granted my writing will never be perfect, but I like to think it has improved quite a bit. What I am trying to say is, I just don’t think this is a complete story. Allow me to explain:

1. The main female character gets out of bed, stumbles over to the mirror, and begins to describe what she looks like. This is beyond cliché for how to introduce the physical attributes for your characters, and it drives me insane.
2. The main male character has an obscene amount of crude thoughts and is constantly cussing. I think a common mistake being made when writing for a teenage male character is going overboard on the fact that he is a male teenager. Yes they think a little crude and cuss a lot, but are they really saying f**k every two minutes? I mean this guy literally says “All I could do is lay on my back and stare at the ceiling fan and zone out like a two cent hooker”. – – What teenage boy says that?
3. The characters go through turmoil and various emotions throughout the book, but there is no SUBSTANCE. I didn’t feel a connection to these characters, and I wasn’t really feeling their pain. Emily is going through a tremendously hard time in her life, but I didn’t feel like I was actually experiencing it with her. When Rian’s life begins to implode, it feels like he’s upset for about 3 pages and then gets over it by the 4^th. Their teenagers. Dramatized situations is a thing.

This just wasn’t a good one for me, and I really don’t have much else to say about it. I am really bummed out because I thought this was going to be a great story, I mean LOOK AT THAT COVER! Though this wasn’t a winner for me, it seems like everyone else who has read it really enjoyed it. If you end up reading it, I hope it turns out better for you than it did for me.