...and high school senior Ember McWilliams knows firsthand. 

After a fatal car accident, her gifted little sister brought her back. Now anything Ember touches dies. And that, well, really blows.

Ember operates on a no-touch policy with all living things--including boys. When Hayden Cromwell shows up, quoting Oscar Wilde and claiming her curse is a gift, she thinks he's a crazed cutie. But when he tells her he can help control it, she's more than interested. There's just one catch: Ember has to trust Hayden's adopted father, a man she's sure has sinister reasons for collecting children whose abilities even weird her out. However, she's willing to do anything to hold her sister's hand again. And hell, she'd also like to be able to kiss Hayden. Who wouldn't?

But when Ember learns the accident that turned her into a freak may not've been an accident at all, she's not sure who to trust. Someone wanted her dead, and the closer she gets to the truth, the closer she is to losing not only her heart, but her life.

For real this time.

      I want to preface this by saying that Jennifer L. Armentrout is probably one of my favorite authors. Her characters, writing, and romance have always drawn me and and really stuck with me. That being said, I did not like this book. Like, at all.


      This book really disappointed me, though I guess I shouldn't have been surprised considering this is probably one of her least talked about books. I've actually not come across another booksphere person who has talked about this book. It's a shame because the premise for this book is something that Jennifer could have really drove home, but for me, it just fell flat.


      Nothing about this book was redeemable, which is really strange cause there is at least one thing that should have been done write, but wasn't. The writing and plot fell really flat for me. Nothing really happened until the last 15% of the book, and everything before was just unnecessary drama and padding. Jennifer tried to cram all the action, drama, climax, and resolution in a short amount of time, and it just didn't work. If this book wasn't written by her, I probably would have just straight up DNFed it.


      Now let's get to the most disappointing part of the book: the romance. If there is one thing Jennifer L. Armentrout can do write, it's romance, but this was not one of those cases. This relationship was so unhealthy, creepy, and in my opinion, quite toxic. Hayden, the main love interest, has been STALKING Ember, the main character, for damn near two years before they even fucking meet each other ! Then, when they get together, he's possessive, creepy, and just everything come off of him screams ISSUES. He does some pretty shady shit and Ember just glosses over it and forgives him, like the whole stalking thing.


      Overall, I'm sad that I didn't enjoy the book, but I don't regret reading it. It just goes to show that everything your favorite authors put out aren't going to necessarily be good.


      Have you read "Cursed"? If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it down below in the comments. If not, have you read Jennifer L. Armentrout's other books? What are your thoughts on her works?

Series: Bound by Duty

Book: "Bound by Duty", "Bound by Spells", and "Bound by "Prophecy"

Author: Stormy Smith

My Rating (Overall): ★★★ 1/2 (3.8 technically)

Book 1 Synopsis: Amelia grew up in a world of half-truths. She knows she's an Elder, but has no idea what that means. Her father reminds her daily that she must maintain control, but he refuses to explain why. Even worse, she's betrothed to the prince of the Immortals and doesn't even know his name. 

Finally breaking free to live a few normal years at a community college, the last thing Amelia expects is to find her best friend in a cheeky southern girl, or fall for a self-assured human who sees her for who she is, not what she will become. 

As she learns more about herself, Amelia realizes the line between love and duty is a thin one. As her power continues to increase exponentially and her questions are slowly answered, Amelia must make the ultimate choice. The question is, will her head win the battle, or her heart? 

      "Bound by Spells" has been on my TBR shelf since before I started this blog, so at least four years if not more. I don't know why I put off reading the book for long because I owned it. Well I finally read it and...


     I really enjoyed the first book. The concept of Mages, AniMages, and all the other fantasy elements that were incorporated weren't like any I had encountered in another series. Of course there was the whole "chosen one" and "mating/bound" tropes which I could have done without, but they weren't as annoying as they had been in other books I had read. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the characters that I read about. They all had complex personalities and motives and no single character was like the other. Even the main bad character, Queen Julia, was an interesting character to read about because her motives weren't entirely evil, she just went about shit in a really bad way.


     The premise that fertility and magic were linked together was one I don't think exists in any other series, or at least none that I know about. This is explored the most in book two and I think the author did a good job of connecting the two because the idea that one was related to the other wasn't completely ridiculous as one might think.


     My least favorite book in the series was surprisingly the third book. The first half of the book felt like filler and not at all important. Then when things finally picked back up, I felt like they went off in a direction that didn't entirely made sense. Suddenly Greek mythology was introduced and used to try to connect things that honestly didn't need to be connected or that seemed out of place in the world that was already built. I felt like the author was really reaching with the world building in the final book and honestly a little burnt out because the feel of the book just felt off to me.


      Overall, I initially enjoyed the series until the end. The main romance between Ame and Aiden was cute until the whole mate thing came full swing and he was saying shit like "you are mine" and blah blah blah other male-dominated shit I could have gone without. The ending was tied up far to quickly and in a way that was so anti-climatic. I was expecting this big showdown between Ame and the Queen and it lasted for a hot second without a fight. If the author went back and redid the final book, I feel like the series would have ended on a stronger note and would have been more successful.