Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌓🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

When Rachelle was fifteen she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless— straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.

Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in an effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her find the legendary sword that might save their world. As the two become unexpected allies, they uncover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic, and a love that may be their undoing. In a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?

Inspired by the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, Crimson Bound is an exhilarating tale of darkness, love, and redemption.

While I connected the story more in Cruel Beauty because of my love of all things dark as well as Beauty and the Beast, I felt that Crimson Bound was also a solid take on an old fairy-tale. It was reminiscent of Cruel Beauty because of the dark nature though it does not take place in the same universe. I believe that this may just be a part of the author's writing style as I am reading more material from her. I enjoy the way that she commands a reader's attention!

I enjoyed this story as a whole as it was well thought out and put together in such a fluid and cohesive way. It was much darker than Cruel Beauty because there is more bloodshed. There are numerous battles and loss of limb for one character. I enjoyed the characters but I would have liked to have seen more vulnerability to them. It was slightly hard to connect with them. I felt that the ending to this book was solid and wrapped things up nicely. I felt like the author took more risks with this book because it wasn't as reminiscent of the original that I know. I've heard people talking about how her book are based off of the french versions of fairy-tales but I haven't read those so I may be biased in that way.