Review: Spell Bound by Kelley Armstrong

Title: Spell Bound

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Series: Otherworld (#12)

Publisher: Dutton

Publication Date: July 26, 2011

Summary (as quoted from Amazon): It's been ten years since Bitten, the first novel in Kelley Armstrong's New York Times bestselling Otherworld series. In that time hundreds of thousands of fans have ravenously devoured the adventures of Armstrong's witches, demons, and werewolves. Now, in Spell Bound, she brings them all together for her most sweeping tale yet.

Savannah Levine is in terrible danger, and for once she's powerless to help herself. At the heartbreaking conclusion of Waking the Witch, Savannah swore that she would give up her powers if it would prevent further pain for a young orphan. Little did she know that someone would take her up on that promise.
And now, witch-hunting assassins, necromancers, half-demons, and rogue witches all seem to be after her. The threat is not just for Savannah; every member of the Otherworld might be at risk. While most of her fellow supernaturals are circling the wagons at a gathering of the council in Miami, Savannah is caught on the road, isolated from those who can protect her and unable to use her vast spell-casting talent, the thing she counts on most. In a story that will change the shape of the Otherworld forever, Armstrong gathers Elena, Clay, Paige, Lucas, Jamie, Hope, and other beloved characters, who soon learn that the greatest threat to supernaturals just may come from within.

Review:

I had listened to the previous book, Waking the Witch, without realizing that that book was part of a much longer series of books.  I’ve since looked into this series of her books and realized you don’t really need to read all of them in order, but it might help with some things.  I figured since I knew the ending of and most of the characters from Waking the Witch that I would move forward in the series from there.

The story starts with a young witch who seems to have just lost all her powers in order to save a young girl from losing her only living family.  That’s the way the previous book ended but that is where the story picks up.  She realizes she is being targeted by what she thinks to be a witch hunter or possibly another supernatural.  Many supernatural characters come to light as they all try to get together to figure out what is going on in their world.

I really liked Waking the Witch, but this one left me uninspired.  Part of it might be because I don’t know all the characters from the previous books and therefore don’t care about them very much.  I also tend to like fantasy books that also involve reality.  Waking the Witch dealt with a lot of non-supernaturals (aka humans) but this book only dealt with those in the “Otherworld” and it got a little too out there for me.  I also felt like plot lines went in circles and not much was resolved or even happened.  I guess this will be resolved in her next book, but none of the plot lines were compelling enough to make me want to read any more about these characters.  I’m sad this book left me disappointed because I do think Armstrong is a good author but she just didn’t hit the mark with this one.

I think I could only recommend this book to hardcore Kelley Armstrong fans that have read many of her ‘Otherworld’ books and feel very connected to many of the characters.  The only other way I would recommend this is if the next book in the series turns out to be great and the information in this book is necessary to things that happen in that book.  But I won’t be able to make my judgment on that, yet (I guess I just set myself up to read it)!

-Annie

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