Review- Boundless by Cynthia Hand

Boundless

Cynthia Hand

Release Date: January 22, 2013

Hardcover: 448 pages

Publisher: HarperTeen

ISBN:  0061996203

Source: ARC from the publisher

Rating: Obsessed!!!!!!!!!!!

Goodreads/Amazon/Barnes & Noble/The Book Depository

From Goodreads.

The past few years have held more surprises than part-angel Clara Gardner could ever have anticipated. Yet from the dizzying highs of first love, to the agonizing low of losing someone close to her, the one thing she can no longer deny is that she was never meant to live a normal life.

Since discovering the special role she plays among the other angel-bloods, Clara has been determined to protect Tucker Avery from the evil that follows her . . . even if it means breaking both their hearts. Leaving town seems like the best option, so she’s headed back to California - and so is Christian Prescott, the irresistible boy from the vision that started her on this journey in the first place.

As Clara makes her way in a world that is frighteningly new, she discovers that the fallen angel who attacked her is watching her every move. And he’s not the only one. . . . With the battle against the Black Wings looming, Clara knows she must finally fulfill her destiny. But it won’t come without sacrifices and betrayal.

In the riveting finale of the Unearthly series, Clara must decide her fate once and for all.

Ok so where to start with this review…. If you read my previous reviews of Unearthly and Hallowed you can see that I did a little flip flopping between Tucker and Christian. Well I can say after reading Boundless 100% that I am Team Both! I know, I know it sounds like a cop out but I cannot choose! I love both of them for different reasons and even though Clara finally makes her choice in this book I definitely can’t.

Second Cynthia Hand is beyond evil! I thought I cried in Hallowed it didn’t compare to the tears I shed in Boundless I was an ugly crying fool in this book! Ok I really can’t say much about the actual book because I’m afraid there would be spoilers and I don’t do spoilery reviews. So what I can say is that the book was amazing! It was a beautiful, heart-wrenching, perfect ending this trilogy and while I’m sad to see it end it couldn’t have finished in a better way! I really look forward to what Cynthia had up her sleeve for her next series because she’s an amazing writer and she has a lifetime fan in me!

Ok since I’m now Team Both I couldn’t just pick one scene so you get two! One with Clara and Tuck and one with Clara and Christian!

First Clara and Christian.

“That’s what we call irony.” I get to my feet, brush dirt off my jeans. “All right. Not that I don’t enjoy chatting with you Christian, but I didn’t come up here to talk.”

He squints up at me. “What?”

I take off my hoodie and toss it down next to him.

Now he looks really confused. I turn my back to him and summon my wings, stretch them over my head, flex. When I glance over at him again, he’s standing, staring with a kind of yearning admiration at my feathers, which gleam white in the sun.

He wants to touch them.

“Clara—“he says breathlessly, and takes a step forward, and reaches out.

Now Tucker and Clara.

“Tucker—“

“Nah, it’s all right,” he says. “I guess I should have expected him to make his move, now that we’re over and done. So how’d it go?”

I stare at him wordlessly.

“Well, it can’t have gone too well, or you wouldn’t have ended up here at the end of the night.”

“That,” I say carefully, ‘is none of your beeswax, Tucker Avery.”

“Well, you’re right about that,” he says. “We’ve got to move on, don’t we? But the way I see it, there’s one bug thing getting in the way of us doing that.”

My breath catches. “Oh yeah? What?”

He looks at me coolly. “You keep showing up.”

 

Jaime's Review of Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

From Goodreads.
For months part-angel Clara Gardner trained to face the raging forest fire from her visions and rescue the alluring and mysterious Christian Prescott from the blaze. But nothing could prepare her for the fateful decisions she would be forced to make that day, or the startling revelation that her purpose—the task she was put on earth to accomplish—is not as straightforward as she thought. Now, torn between her increasingly complicated feelings for Christian and her love for her boyfriend, Tucker, Clara struggles to make sense of what she was supposed to do the day of the fire. And, as she is drawn further into the world of part angels and the growing conflict between White Wings and Black Wings, Clara learns of the terrifying new reality that she must face: Someone close to her will die in a matter of months. With her future uncertain, the only thing Clara knows for sure is that the fire was just the beginning.

Jaime’s review….

Some people say it’s not good to let your personal feelings get in the way when reviewing a book. I am not one of those people and if I’m feeling a certain way when I’m reading it sometimes makes the reading experience more pleasurable. With this book I think I was crying or sad for the last half of it. I had a family member pass a couple months ago so knowing there was going to be a death even if I didn’t know who was going to die, it kind of set up my mood for the book. That being said I really loved the Hallowed it was actually really perfect for my mood I needed a good cry. Now this may not be what most people feel I saw comments in my goodreads feed and they couldn’t understand why I was so sad most people just weren’t in the mood I was in when they read it.

On to the good stuff Clara has some tough times in this one and believe it or not I actually (Team Tucker don’t kill me!) found myself rooting for Christian. He was there all the time where Tucker was I wouldn’t say MIA but, he wasn’t around as much as I would have liked him to have been. They learn so much more about each other it became hard not to see why Clara and Christian belonged together also his deep green eyes probably helped convince me. There didn’t seem to be very much action in this one more story getting us ready for book 3 I suppose but, it didn’t seem to matter I got wrapped up  easily in the story and found myself reading late into the night. We get to meet Clara’s dad in this one and I think besides the Christian scenes he was one of my favorite additions to the book. The bad guy (the Dark Wing) to me became not so bad when you figured out his motives I actually felt bad for the guy. I wanted to kick Clara’s brother Jeffrey’s butt he was such a jerk but I guess he had his reasons as well.

So the quote I chose for this one will probably make the Team Tucker fans mad at me but I really can’t help it. I wouldn’t say I’ve converted to Team Christian I just have a new appreciation of him now.

He pulls me to my feet. “I didn’t know at first, how I felt about it. I didn’t want to be forced, you know? I wanted it to be my choice. But every time I’m around you, it feels right,” he says “I feel stronger. Braver, even. I feel the glory inside me, this power moving through me. I feel like I could do anything, face anything. With you”

Ok stop swooning there’s a lot more of this and not just the Christian moments the one’s with Tuck in there are very swoon worthy and sweet too.

Hallowed comes out January 17^th so go to Amazon, Barnes& Noble, or the Book Depository to pre-order it and make sure you take a look at Cynthia’s website too!

A huge thank you to Harper Teen for the Advanced Readers Copy!