Book Review

This book review is about Forbidden by Ellie Maureen. This is written by a fairly new author and appears to be her debut book. This is the first book in a series, and I had very mixed feelings on it. But here is it, my in depth review of the book. *SPOILER WARNING*

Plot Review: This was probably the roughest part of the story. The plot was basically the same as The City of Ember. Because of that, I felt like I knew where a good portion of the book was headed before we got there. Hence, this was my least favorite part of the story.

Plot Rating: ⭐⭐

Character Review: There are a lot of named speaking characters in this book, but I will only be covering the three big ones: Hadyn, Cida, and Kiara. 

As Kiara is the main character, I will begin with her. Her internalized goal (to be free) and internalized misbelief (that the pursuit of freedom is hopeless) and internalized fear (that she will never be free) were very clear and well developed. The only problem with her character was that these fears, goals, and misbeliefs rarely entered her mind at the same time. Hence, she had a lack of internal conflict. That being said, she has all the makings for a great character, and I'm hopeful book two will spice her up a bit. 

Then there is Hadyn (fingers crossed that he is the hopeful future slow-burn love interest). His backstory was very well developed and his POV was absolutely my favorite. A couple of his reactions to situations seemed a little out of character, but that was my only complaint with him. 

Finally, there is Cida. She was not deeply developed, but I think that is something that the future books go more into. I can't really give her a full review yet as I am missing so much of her backstory, but so far she seems promising.

Character Rating: ⭐⭐⭐✨

Ending Review (Largest SPOILER WARNING): This was my favorite part of the story. In the end, Kiara and Hadyn manage to get out of the cave together and the description of pure joy and relief was wonderful. It might have been the most emotional and well done description of the whole book. I often struggled to feel the desperation of the book, but this gave me such a clear sense of relief.

It was extremely well done and gave me a lot of hope for book two.

Ending Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐

Content Warnings: Verbal abuse

Overall Story Rating: ⭐⭐⭐✨ (3.2 stars)

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