Soulbound by Heather Brewer

The Synopsis:
Tril is a world where Barrons and Healers are Bound to each other: Barrons fight and Healers cure their Barrons' wounds in the ongoing war with the evil Graplar King. Seventeen-year-old Kaya was born a Healer, but she wants to fight. In Tril, and at Shadow Academy, where she is sent to learn to heal, it is against Protocol for Healers to fight. So Kaya must learn in secret. Enter two young men: One charming, rule-following Barron who becomes Bound to Kaya and whose life she must protect at all costs. And one with a mysterious past who seems bent on making Kaya's life as difficult as possible. Kaya asks both to train her, but only one will, and the consequences will change their lives forever.







My Thoughts:
So let's all be honest here and regard the cover of the book with new found interest.  Appraising thoughts are floating through your head at the moment, yes?  I mean, just look at Kaya on the cover there holding a katana and wearing this chain mail mask thingy while she's got all this leather clothing on.  I didn't have to read the synopsis to know that I would be interested in this book.  And the font of the title!  Love it!

Being that I'm a girl and read way too many YA books with defiant and strong heroines, I've pretty much turned into this ultra-feminist.  I'm all for women's rights and independence and not having to have to have men to help sustain their lives.  Equality and all that jazz.  But it doesn't go as far as that; I think that the underdogs out there deserve the same chance as a person that would have that chance fed to them.  So when Brewer introduces this idea of Barrons and their Healers, I was about ready to tell some of those characters where they can shove that chauvinistic, superior idea.  But, I didn't.  I held it together.

With this is mind, it ultimately made me almost love Kaya instantly.  She's a Healer by law, but she's got this violent, determined undercurrent that made her face her fears head-on and never give up.  So, what's the only thing a girl's gonna do now?  She sneaks behind the backs of practically everyone and trains in secret with this particularly attractive, infuriating, talented . . . brooding . . . Darius.  Okay, so the name's a little off-putting, but yeah.  Darius.

Speaking of, I've gotta pick a bone with this romantic geometric shape that has three sides.  So Kaya comes to the school and she's told that her soulbound has died and Trayton, pretty boy jock-dude with lots of money, is supposed to be Bound to her.  Don't get me wrong--I liked Trayton.  He was cute, if a little too polished for my taste, and really knew how to charm a girl.  It was a little too insta-love for my preference, though.  Enter Darius.  He's all dark and brooding and mysterious, but  he's a total dickwad.  Not my cup of tea, either, which means I didn't connect with either of the boys.  In all, I wasn't really shipping either one of the boys.

Another bone, alas, that I have to pick is that I had no clue where the fak we were!  And I couldn't pinpoint a certain date, either.  Being the history geek that I am, it really bothered me that I couldn't pick out the date.  Basing on the katana usage and ethnicity of the girl on the cover, I assumed the book took place in Asia somewhere.  But when the storyline got all adventurous and the characters traveled, I was lost.  A map in the beginning of the book could have helped.  My sense of direction and time was down the toilet for this one.

However, I will say that I enjoyed the action.  Loved it.  I was sucked into all of the fighting would get really excited.  That's what I think really gave this book bonus brownie points for me.  I think I was having a few flashbacks to The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa.  Possibly. 

Overall, I thought that Soulbound was a good and interesting book.  I definitely did enjoy it a whole bunch and I read through it pretty fast.  I loved all of the action and and these creepy monsters things whose name alludes me at the moment.  I cannot wait for the second book because lemme tell ya, with the ending that was given, no sane person would not be okay with it.  Soulbound was different, but it was great.