Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins

Release Date: Out Now!

Publisher: Hyperion Books

Pages: 327pgs

The Story

Hailed as "impossible to put down", the Hex Hall series has both critics and teens cheering. With a winning combination of romance, action, magic and humor, this third volume will leave readers enchanted.

Just as Sophie Mercer has come to accept her extraordianry magical powers as a demon, the Prodigium Council strips them away. Now Sophie is defenseless, alone, and at the mercy of her sworn enemies - the Brannicks, a family of warrior women who hunt down the Prodigium. Or at least that's what Sophie thinks, until she makes a surprising discovery. The Brannicks know an epic war is coming, and they believe Sophie is the only one powerful enough to stop the world from ending. But without her magic, Sophie isn't as confident.

Sophie's bound for one hell of a ride - can she get her powers back before it's too late?

The Review

Here is yet another favourite book series of mine that has now come to an official end, though, like so many of us out there, I wished it wasn't that way. From the very beginning of when this series started, I've deeply fell in love with Rachel Hawkins's Hex Hall world and considering the cliffhanger we were left on in her sequel, Demonglass, I was dying to get my hands on a copy of this third and final installment. But once a beautiful hardcover copy arrived on my doorstep - looking like an absolute gem compared to the other two book covers - and after I closed the final chapter of this book, I can guarantee to all of you readers that you'll be left with plenty waves of emotion and will be quite sad to say farewell to our favourite characters here, with Sophie and Archer included.

The third installment SPELL BOUND picks up right after Demonglass had left off, with Sophie - whom has recently been stripped of her magical powers by the Council - traveling to find her mother, whom for whatever reason, is staying with the Brannicks, a group famously known for being women prodigium hunters. But once she arrives at the Brannicks compound and has a little run in with some werewolves and is assisted by the most unlikely of resources, Sophie will soon learn the shocking truths behind her family name and with it comes dangerous quests that will put her strengths - her powers and her no powers - to the test and possibly put an end to a massive war once and for all.

Sophie Mercer is most definitely one of my favourite heroines in YA literature. She's sassy. She's strong. She's funny. She's sarcastic. She's quirky. She's - well, basically she has a bit of every quality we love in our female heroines and if not more than that. From Hex Hall to Demonglass and now on to SPELL BOUND, Sophie's character has gone through so many physical and emotional changes in the shortest amount of time and I love to witness those types of development for my main characters especially because the author is not only being believable but she's also being completely honest with her readers, and for Sophie reminding me so much of myself, it also makes her character easy to identify with as well. For the most part, her wit reminds me so much of me which in Sophie's case, she'll always be known for possessing.

As seen in all of her novels so far, Rachel Hawkins's has written strong relationships throughout this series and has maintained those relationships on a significant level, with very little weakness within them. The reason why Sophie has been greatly loved by her readers is because of her relationships between her loves, her friends, and most importantly her family who have made her for what she is today. Archer . . . Cal . . . Jenna . . . her parents . . . even her ghostly sometimes-dead-friend Elodie that is currently haunting her . . . all of them one way or another have played some part in Sophie's continual strength and I guess that's why I love this series so much, and the supporting cast of course. With Archer, no matter how suspicious he may seem, was always loved by me because he's been Sophie's rock from day one. With Jenna, the cool little vampire sidekick, she'll always been the best friend you wished you had in high school. And as for Cal, the forever friend in your life, will always be admired greatly by me as well. As you can see by the supporting cast I've mentioned above, they all are fantastic and have grown so much just like Sophie's character has done through the trilogy series.

With a final book being highly addictive as this one - containing a fast-paced plot, some thrilling and pulse-racing action sequences and some brilliant one-liners that all characters delivered well - the only real disappointing factor for me with this fangal-swoon-worthy book was how the book concluded. After every single thing leaving me satisfied, the only thing that had disappointed me was that damn ending of Hawkins's. While many fans enjoyed the ending but part of me felt like something was missing and because a certain "something" had happened to one of my favourite characters . . . well let's just say I wanted more answers regarding that character and what happened with them. But not to worry my dear readers because feel rest assured that you'll have all of the events wrapped up nicely, even though it's really hard to say goodbye to everything you ever loved over the years with this series.

Overall, Rachel Hawkins has done it again with another seamless love story and not only that, but she has written a book full of courage, love and self-sacrifice, and it's no wonder why Hawkins has become one of my favourite YA authors and I'm sure this won't be the last you will see of her . . . because I see a bright future ahead for this talented author and I just want another novel of hers like . . . RIGHT NOW!

The Rating

4/5 stars