H. A. Wills

Seventeen year old, Callie thought climbing out of her hell of an abusive home life was going to be her biggest struggle, but it's only the beginning. Starting over in a small nowhere town in Oregon with an aunt she didn't know existed until a week ago, she makes five new guy friends that are each something otherworldly. Something supernatural-- and they say she is too. As if high school wasn't hard enough.In this captivating and vivid, paranormal reverse harem, join Callie on her journey of healing from the horrors of her past, while discovering that the world is far weirder than she could've possibly imagined.Warning:This book contains graphic violence, adult language, underage drinking, mild sexual content, and deals in sensitive issues such as abuse, suicide, and PTSD. Reader discretion is advised.

Book One of the Bound Spirit Series

Bound Spirit

Kayla Smith

Guys. Guys. I don't give one-star reviews very often. Usually, I can find something redeeming in a story to give it at least two stars. But....GUYS. I'm getting annoyed just thinking about what I want to write in this review. I recently signed up for Kindle Unlimited because they had a deal where you get 3 months for .99 cents a month. I started watching a few Youtube videos that focus solely on Kindle Unlimited recommendations and found this one. I love paranormal anything. If it has a werewolf, a vampire, or a witch. I'm sold. I'll read it. Unfortunately, werewolves, vampires, witches, nephilim, and ghosts couldn't save this book for me. 

When I started the novel, I expected to love it. I do want to highlight that point. I definitely went into this with an open mind. The book embraced itself if that makes any sense. It knew what it set out to do. Unfortunately, it went downhill rather quickly for me after the first few chapters. As soon as our main character, Callie, set foot at her new school, the girl hate began and so did the 'I'm not like every other girl' trope. Which are two of my least favorite things to read about. As soon as Callie walks up to this new paranormal group of boys (who every girl at the school apparently lusts after), every girl around glares at her. Fine, maybe it happened that one time. I can look past that. But no. Every single time Callie is at school, or at a party, or around any girls at all, they're glaring at her or shooting her dirty looks. There's not one girl at this school who doesn't see her as a threat? I doubt it. 

This is going to come across as petty, and I totally accept that. But wow. Every description of what these characters are wearing in the first 75% of the book contains the word 'Henley' and there are lots of descriptions of what these characters are wearing throughout. I didn't know what a Henley was when I first started reading. Now I do. Maybe they are always wearing Henleys but is there no other way to describe that type of shirt?  Also, Kaleb one of the love interests and also the "brainiac" of the group curses in Latin or just randomly speaks in Latin phrases. It was obnoxious and every time I read it, I could not help but roll my eyes. 

Now that I'm finished with that rant, I'll wrap this up. This is a great idea. The author has a fantastic story here, in my opinion. Unfortunately, the execution completely missed the mark for me. I can't go into the 'not like other girls' trope because I don't want to get into spoilers but if you do pick this up, or if you have read this one, you'll see/know what I mean. This is categorized as reverse-harem romance and I like the idea because I think if done correctly, it can be more of an empowerment story rather than something that falls into a girl-hate trope like this one did. If you have any paranormal romance books that you do recommend, please let me know! I haven't enjoyed the last few that I've picked up and I'm bummed out about it.

Bound Spirit Book One of the Bound Spirit Series

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