by Talia Vance(Bandia, #1)
Release Date: September 8, 2012
Publisher: Flux; 384 pages
An Irish heritage, Celtic myth, and deadly beauty
In eighth grade, Brianna did something so dreadful she was suspended and homeschooled. No one could explain what happened that night . . . except Brianna's Irish grandmother, who gave her a silver charm bracelet and told her to wear it until she turned seventeen. Ever since she slipped it on, Brianna has felt like she's invisible. People stare right past her as if she doesn't exist. And that includes Blake Williams, the one boy she can't resist.
But everything changes in one frozen, silver moment when Blake sees her--and recognizes what she's been hiding. Brianna is descended from Danu, the legendary Bandia of Celtic myth. Yet before she can fully understand who or what she is, Brianna accidentally binds her soul to Blake--whose tribe has spent the last thousand years hunting Danu's descendants to protect humanity.
Thank you to Flux and netgalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was starting to get worried I wouldn't love any Flux books. Sure, I enjoyed the City's Son but it didn't grab me and reel me in like books I love do. However, leave it to the last Flux book I have to read to get the job done! I absolutely loved this book. My eye sight was becoming blurry around 3 AM but I kept going because I couldn't stop. Then the book ended and I was sad, because I wanted more. I needed more.
I'll be honest, I was never a huge fan of mythology in school. Sure, I enjoyed the lessons we had but I was never overly excited about it, you know? So, that being said I may not be the most familiar with it but I surely do enjoy books that tie mythology in to it.
Brianna is like a lot of girls when she wears her bracelet. All the girls that aren't part of the popular crowd, how sometimes they feel like they aren't truly being seen, especially by the opposite sex. So she's very relatable. Have her take off that bracelet and she'll take your breath away. That's what being half goddess to Danu will do for you. When she attracts the attention of her longtime crush (and I do mean longtime, she's been keeping a notebook of all the times they've "seen" each other) it boggles her mind because she's so ordinary. She has no idea what she is or what kind of power she has. Before Blake can explain to her what she is or what he is, their souls bind together during an intense make out session.
Things take a rather horrible turn there. Blake is a bit of an ass, if I'm being frank. I understand his reasoning for the way he acts but it's not like it hurts any less. To the reader or especially to Brianna. She also has to worry about Jonah, the groups resident bad boy who can't be trusted and Austin, her best friend Haley's boyfriend who seems to have the hots for Brianna. Things get really twisted between all her relationships and her world just spins out of control. All she wants is to be normal but can she ever know what normal truly is?
GAH! Loved the relationship between Blake & Brianna except when he wasn't being very kind to her. I wanted to punch him in the face a few times. I loved all the relationships, good or bad, revolving around Brianna. Seriously. I can't really go in to detail on most of them without giving things away so I won't but they all had their purpose and most of them worked, some of them not so much.
Minus the fact that their is plenty of romance for us mushy hearted people, there's also plenty of action and even more drama! Brianna coming in to her powers is a sight to see (or imagine seeing, in this case) but also seeing the powers of her enemy is jaw dropping.
I highly recommend this book. It's something different-ish, it's not your normal YA story though there is a bit of a love triangle but isn't that to be expected in about 98% of YA books any way? I don't see that trend going away any time soon! If you like mythology inspired stories, you'll love this one!
