Book Review: Bound by C.K. Bryant

Book Review: Bound Book One in the Crystor Series by C.K. Bryant

                                                                                                                 Traci Kenworth

 

Smashswords Edition 2012                YA Suspense                                      212 pages

Hook: Kira glanced up at the silver eyehook screwed into the gym ceiling.

Kira Edwards is a nice, normal girl whose life is about to fall apart. Not only does she have a nightmare vision in gym class that causes her to lose her grip on the rope she needs to climb, but her mother’s about to throw a sucker punch and abandon her for her new boyfriend. Her best friend, Kira, blackmails her into going up to Black Creek for a series of pictures she wants to take. While there, the two are attacked by a couple of men. Fighting for their lives, Kira is shocked to discover Lydia is from another world: Xantara, she’s a princess, and her brother, Octavian is her guardian.

When Lydia is injured and dying, Octavian shows up and explains the only way to save her is through the Crystor, a magical link between her and another. Before she thinks about it, Kira has bound the Crystor to herself to save Lydia. What she doesn’t realize are there are consequences: the last person to wear the Crystor, another friend back on Xantara of Lydia’s and the fiancé of Octavian, died. Kira learns about their world and the fact that Lydia has two spirits, one the girl Kira knows, the other, a strong, animal-like Altaria. Octavian, as Prince of Xantara, transforms into a beast but doesn’t have the second spirit. As far as he knows, Lydia is the only one for generations.

Lydia’s and Octavian’s sister, Shandira, is bent on killing Lydia for reasons unknown. They escaped to Earth to hide from her. The men that attacked Lydia and Kira were Shandira’s. After Kira returns home and is confronted by more men, Octavian and Lydia rescue her and take her to their cave in the mountains. The more Kira learns about the Crystor, the more she realizes how strong the bond is between her, Lydia and Altaria. She also begins to fall for Octavian, who has been in love with her for a while. To her horror, she realizes she left a picture behind at her home, one of Octavian in the mountains, that could lead Shandira straight to him. She tries to go back and retrieve it, but the men are there, and they’re headed to the mountains.

Bound is a thrill ride in terms of story. Each climb to a newfound piece of the puzzle plummets you back to the earth with the desire to learn more. The characters have you rooting for them. My only problem came with the ending. Instead of my happy one, I received a cliff-hanger. I wish there’d been a little more but it’s definitely worth the read if you like suspense, other worlds, and all-around fun. Looking forward to the next book in the series…

Here are the links:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/93536

http://www.amazon.com/BOUND-The-Crystor-ebook/dp/B005U3TPBW/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320977324&sr=1-1

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bound-ck-bryant/1107149773?ean=2940013591417&itm=1&usri=bound%252bby%252bck%252bbryant

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2396634-christine-bryant

christine@ckbryant.com

www.ckbryant.com

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Fairytales

Image via Wikipedia

Fairytales

Traci Kenworth

 

Casper struggled to get the chest open. In it lay the only chance to get back to her world, her time. Oh, why had she made the dumb wish? And played into the faerie’s hand? She’d only wanted to visit a fairytale for a little while, not be stuck in one, her life on the line. She could hear the guards pounding on the stone floors of the palace, searching for her.

If the Queen found her—

Well Alice in Wonderland would have a better chance.

She could hear the royal bellow of the woman who was more a dragon in a human’s body. They were getting closer. And all the magic in the world wouldn’t save her if they caught her. Not that she herself possessed any magic—just the will not to die. She’d take back her wicked stepfather, her two step-brothers, if only to escape this fantasy.

The little mouse she’d made friends with when she let it free of its cage, scurried up the trunk and unlocked the key with its tail. She stroked its small body with her finger in appreciation and peered inside the wooden box. All the secrets of the kingdom were said to be in here. Surely there was one—

Her fingers closed around the hourglass just as the Queen turned down the hallway she crouched in.

Now, how to work this thing?

She shook it, turned it upside down, no use.

And then she saw it.

The key.

With its lilac-colored stones and inlaid gold.

It was a wish key, a key to unlock the doors.

She grasped it and rushed for the one in the wall beside her.

The Queen brought her staff down and the floor cracked before her.

She jumped.

One more step, two—

“Casper. Where the devil are you?” Her stepfather called from inside the bedroom she fought to get back to.

She screamed his name, pounded on the door, but he left the room to look for her elsewhere.

The Queen closed in.

She settled the key to the lock and turned it, praying all the while.

A hand wrapped around her throat, pulled her backward as the door back to freedom creaked open.

She fought to shake loose but the Queen held her firm.

A yellow gaze stared into her own.

“Too long you have escaped my clutches, rag girl. No more.” She spun to the guards. “Tonight we feast.”

But she had forgotten the Prince.

He burst out of the shadows and pierced the Queen’s side with his sword.

While she lay dying, her guards switched loyalty to him.

The Prince clutched Casper’s hand. “There’s something you should know before you leave.”

This is where it happened. He would announce his love for her.

She waited.

“By degree of the faeries of the land, and myself as King, you are hereby pronounced Queen of the lands. To share the throne, to sustain the people, and to walk as a dragon among us, until the next rag girl shall arrive.”

I jerked free of him and ran for the door just as it barred entry to me.

The Prince laughed. “To step into a fairytale is to become part of the story forevermore. Until your death. Do not worry, another girl shall make a wish to come here. Until then, your body now shares the soul of a dragon, as well as the hunger for human flesh.” He pivoted to the guards. “Bring her the first meal.”

The mouse was brought forward, held by its pink tail. As it lowered before her, it changed into one of her step-brothers.

“See there, Casper, we’ll make it a family affair.”

 

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