Free is not always better. However, in this case it was true! The Binding: The Velesi Trilogy Book 1 by L. Filloon was free the other day on Amazon. It had been on my Amazon Wishlist for a while so I thought, why not? Downloaded it and as usually with a good book, finished it in a day! It was an excellent story. To me, part of a good story is a combination of likable characters, good storyline, and the imagination of the author. The author used all three!
I will admit that at first I was doubtful. The opening scene is the main character claiming that she overslept and that is why she is running super late in the park. Now I may have that wrong, but that is the way that I understood and read it. I did not understand how her oversleeping on her birthday led to her running super late in the park. Plus, she is running late at night, that never ends well. Of course she gets attacked and saved by our hero, Tharin. Now in order to make reading worth it for me, the boy has to be a fantastic. If the guy sucks, then I will stop reading. Tharin, does not disappoint. He is great, plus he is an elf! What girl didn’t have a crush on the elves in LOTR, aka Orlando Bloom as Legolas? Now the author mentions elves in this context, saying they are not the same, but still? A hot elf is a hot elf. Can’t change that.
One thing that did surprise me was the timeline. The beginning of the book has them trying to get to a doorway to take them to Velesi, the world the author created. I thought that it would take a couple chapters or something to get there. Instead, by the end of the first book, the characters have just arrived. It takes the whole book to get there, but it was a great journey. I really enjoyed all of the little adventures that the characters take to get there. The secondary characters were also fun. There are three in particular that I thought I would not get to know as well as I did. It was very exciting. Those three are friends of Tharin, named Alorn, Phoris, and Mellis. Mellis was definitely my favorite, but other people may choose one of the other guys, but they are all great. The author really used them pretty evenly.
Now another thing that can sometimes bother me is love triangles. I can sometimes hate the two boys going after one girl. This didn’t have that. There was definitely times when I thought it was going to happen, but it didn’t. The author makes it clear towards the middle, that there is no possibility for a love triangle.
Now Amazon gives it a 4.4 out of 5 with 233 reviews. Nowadays, I have been looking at how many reviews a book has along with its rating before I buy. The fact that this book had so many reviews and such a high rating goes in its favor. I feel that it deserves this rating. While it was not flawless, it was definitely worth reading and I really enjoyed it. I bought the next two books, since it is a trilogy, and are reading them now! Also a point in its favor is that all of the books are out so there is no waiting! That is always the best, when you find a good new series and all the books are out!
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