Thursday 6 November 2014

Severed Bonds by Kyra Dunst

Ho-hum… a mere mortal being convinced that she is now part of a secret world full of vampires, werewolves and fairies.

About the author

Kyra Dunst is a wife, mother, author and dreamer. She typically lives in her own world most of the time, but can often be found wandering around in Indiana with her husband, a daughter, a dog, a cat and some fish. When not writing, she is often thinking about writing, or trying her hand at various crafty things that she may or may not be good at doing. She is pretty sure her neighbor is a vampire, and that her eleventh grade math teacher was a werewolf, but the jury is still out on the Fae.

About Severed Bonds

Alrighty, where do I start? So the world is not new, it’s so thoroughly regurgitated that others in the lounge with me were asking what I kept sighing about. I couldn’t help it. Oh, the predictability! Female human, werewolves, vampires, fairies… and she happens to become a highly desirable pivotal character, wielding great power and saving the world though many more experienced power-players were present.

On the positive side, the book was well-written. The wording flowed, was descriptive and well-edited. Grammar, spelling, tense… nothing jumped out at me from the page to make my inner grammar-Nazi cringe. And even though the paranormal genre is desperately over exposed at the moment, I do feel that Dunst has something to add. Her world ticks all the boxes which fans of the paranormal will require, but on top of these, she has added some clever twists of her own. The usual love triangle was dealt with from a new angle, which was refreshing. The protagonist begins by resisting the love interest’s advances, although boy wins girl over partway through the book. I was interested to see how Dunst would be able to add further angst and indecision after the relationship was apparently sealed, but she did manage to continue the love theme well right to the end.

The age of the heroine did not work for me. She is supposed to be an adult, fresh from a broken marriage, but she whinges and throws tantrums in fine style - to match the teenage heroines which frequent books of this kind. I found her intensely dislikeable. I think that Dunst was probably going for the effect of a young, vulnerable yet strong (and hugely attractive) woman thrust into a world which she had previously not known existed, and struggling to come to grips with it, but instead she came off as immature, whining, weak, ungrateful and distinctly unattractive.

Why do the alpha men want to protect Alexandra? It’s beyond me. Hasn’t Ian got anything better to do? Why should Kade be attracted to her? Just instinct? I can’t see any other reason for it.

In summary, if you like paranormal fiction (and I know that many, many do) this is for you. If you love anything about werewolves, this is for you. There are some new and interesting additions to the usual formula here, and you may well not see the twists coming. Not that I’m implying that Severed Bonds has been written to a formula; perhaps it would have been stronger if it had. I do believe that many will enjoy this book, and will be recommending it to fans of this genre.

Severed Bonds is the first in Kyra Dunst’s Annwn Unveiled Series, the second of which The Stygian Kiss is also available now.

Where you can find Kyra Dunst online:




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