What's a girl to do when meeting The One means she's cursed to die a horrible death?
Life hasn't been easy on sixteen-year-old Emma Connor, so a new start in New York may be just the change she needs. But the posh Upper East Side prep school she has to attend? Not so much. Friendly faces are few and far between, except for one that she's irresistibly drawn to—Brendan Salinger, the guy with the rock-star good looks and the richest kid in school, who might just be her very own white knight.
But even when Brendan inexplicably turns cold, Emma can't stop staring. Ever since she laid eyes on him, strange things have been happening. Streetlamps go out wherever she walks, and Emma's been having the oddest dreams: visions of herself in past lives—visions that warn her to stay away from Brendan. Or else.
This book found me under the worst circumstances possible. Having just finished Laini Taylor's Strange the Dreamer, I was desperate for something as magical as that. This was not the book I needed.
There is hardly any magic at all. Even the first MENTION of magic comes at nearly a quarter of the way through, and the PERFORMANCE of magic doesn't even come until a while after that. No, this story deals mainly in fate and curses and true love reincarnation. Which, granted, I would have known better had I read the synopsis before diving in. Still, for a story called "Spellbound", I was expecting a few more spells.
The other thing I found very distracting was the paragraph structure. Perhaps this was only in the Kindle Edition, but paragraphs didn't seem to start or stop where they should have. Many times different characters spoke within the same paragraph, and actions pertaining to a character near their speech was given a whole new paragraph. Again, not the best time for me to be reading it, having come right off of Laini Taylor.
I didn't like the romance. Something didn't hit me right about it. It was cute at first, sure, but as it wore on I got bored. I feel like I should have connected more with... Evie? Ellen? Emma! I could not for the life of me even remember her NAME while reading this book. Never mind a couple weeks later. There was nothing memorable about her, she was just some insecure, love-struck teenage girl who happened to have some magic around.
The good news is, though there is a sequel written, I have no need to read it because of cliff-hangers. This book wraps up rather nicely.
Maybe if I weren't coming off of this particular other book I might have liked Spellbound more, but as it is it was a slog to finish this book. I probably face-palmed a couple times towards the end. This is probably great for someone in the mood for a fluff piece, but anyone looking for something more substantial or memorable, I'd pass this one up.
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
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