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    Crimson Bound
    Crimson Bound
    Crimson Bound
    Audiobook11 hours

    Crimson Bound

    Written by Rosamund Hodge

    Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    An exhilarating tale of darkness, love, and redemption inspired by the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood and the extravagant court of Versailles, from the author of Cruel Beauty. A doomed warrior and the king's most notorious bastard must join forces to defeat a dark evil in this gorgeously intricate fantasy—perfect for fans of An Ember in the Ashes and A Court of Thorns and Roses.

    When Rachelle was fifteen she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless—straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.

    Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in a vain effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her hunt for the legendary sword that might save their world. Together, they navigate the opulent world of the courtly elite, where beauty and power reign and no one can be trusted. And as the two become unexpected allies, they discover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic . . . and a love that may be their undoing. Within a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 5, 2015
    ISBN9780062346377
    Crimson Bound
    Author

    Rosamund Hodge

    Rosamund Hodge grew up as a homeschooler in Los Angeles, where she spent her time reading everything she could lay her hands on, but especially fantasy and mythology. She got a BA in English from the University of Dallas and an MSt in Medieval English from Oxford, and she now lives in Seattle with a mountain of books and the most beautiful dog in the world. Visit her online at rosamundhodge.net.

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    Reviews for Crimson Bound

    4/5

    250 ratings21 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a collection of amazing dark retellings with beautifully written and interesting stories. The book is filled with surprises and great characters, and the romance is well-developed. The author's writing is incredible and keeps readers engaged. Overall, this title is highly recommended for those who enjoy dark retellings and romance.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Incredible writing from this author. She really knows how to write an interesting story. This is the second book of hers that I’ve read and I hope to read many more

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This. Was. Amazing.

      I’ve listened to Cruel Beauty by the same narrator and absolutely loved it. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read the Little Red Riding Hood retelling but I’m very glad I did.

      I cannot express how beautifully written Rosamund Hodge’s books are. I adore dark retellings and dark romance and this exactly what I needed to get out of a reading slump.

      If you’re unsure whether or not you should listen to this-you absolutely should.
    • 5/5
      CRIMSON BOUND was an excellent story that is part fantasy, part fairy tale. Rachelle is being raised to be a woodwife. She is apprenticed to her aunt to learn to make the charms that keep the village safe from magical creatures. The most famous of which is the Devourer whose goal is to take over the world and bring on eternal night. Rachelle is sort of reckless, though, and wants a more adventurous career. So, she courts danger by straying from the path and talking with a forestborn. He finally convinces her to take off her protections. At which point, he turns her into a bloodborn whose only choice is to die after three days or kill. Rachelle chooses to kill.She runs from her village to the city where she becomes one of the King's bloodborn. She soothes her conscience by killing the woodspawn who hunt humans while searching for a long-lost sword that she plans to use to kill the Devourer. It was Erec who trained her to fight and who is her boss. He is bloodborn and eager to be forestborn so that he can live and rule forever. When Rachelle is ordered to guard Armand, she is very conflicted. He is one of the king's bastards who is regarded as a saint by the populace because he, supposedly, had an encounter with a forestborn and lived. He did lose his hands in the encounter. This creates a real crisis of conscience for Rachelle because she believed that her only choices were to kill or die but Armand seems to have found a third path.The more she spends time with Armand the more she comes to admire him. She even falls in love with him. Meanwhile Erec is also courting her which leaves her torn between two men who are both trying to convince her to be like them. The story is filled with plots and betrayals, twists and turns.I enjoyed the writing and loved the characters.
    • 5/5
      Her books are really good. Young adult fantasy fiction.
    • 5/5
      I loved this dark Little Red Riding Hood retelling. Rachelle and Armand are great characters. Their romance is not instant nor is it easy. I loved it. I will definitely be reading more by this author.
    • 5/5
      holy moly guacamole! this was one adventure that i could not put down! the characters were well developed, the plot was freaking awesome and the world building was beautiful! such a great book :) i recommend this to everyone. rosamund hodge has created a wonderful world for everyone to enter and cause you to feel all kinds of emotions. she takes you on an unforgettable journey of what it means to be human, to love, and to forgive yourself for things you have done wrong, and choices that may not have been the best for anyone but yourself. a ridiculously good read :)
    • 5/5
      Rachelle was supposed to be the good girl. Aunt Léonie had always told her to keep her charms close and run away from the enemy. Until one day she lets a forestborn too close to her for comfort. Because she stayed and talked to the big bad forestborn he turned her into a blood bound.This was inspired by Little Red Riding Hood. Very loosely inspired and also back to biblical allusions with Hodge. This story was a lot more engaging (I feel) than Cruel Beauty. Rachelle is the heroine I wanted Nyx to be. Granted Rachelle is trained by her would be lover Erec the head commander of the King’s blood bound army if it weren’t for the fact he was an infuriating a-hole womanizer, albeit a sexy one but still cocky and arrogant. Because she got lessons from the best of the best she became the second best and was hand picked by the king to act as body guard to his bastard son the beloved saint Armand. But she doesn’t have much time to baby sit because she needs to find one of two swords to defeat the Devourer the bringer of ultimate darkness before the next solstice. Plus the fact that she hates Armand and all that he stands for it was going to be a long month.This book had more at stake. The world was going to fall to the darkness if the Devourer wasn’t stopped. I wasn’t ever really sure who or what this villain was but his minions the blood bounds that eventually turned into forestborn were already an indicator that he was baaaaad. Blood bounds need to kill to stay alive and forestborn kill for the thrill. The only way to truly kill one was to sever their head from their body. Only these would survive if the darkness succeeded. Rachelle gave up the life of a woodwife to discover what she needed to kill the Devourer only to be disappointed with the forestborn told her the same thing she had heard countless times in the old folklore of her people find one of the two swords forged from bones Joyeuse or Durendal and kill him with that but only one of those was a possible find.There is a love triangle so much more satisfying than the one in Cruel Beauty and a slow build up between Rachelle and Armand that paid off in the end. There’s a beautiful friendship between Rachelle and a normal girl Amelie. More action, more gore, more build up of suspense and thrill. This was nearly perfect. Rachelle was a lot more self loathing and never gave herself a small pat on the shoulder but I guess it made her sort of endearing to me.
    • 4/5
      I love a good fairytale retelling so this Red Riding Hood meets fae mischief was super fun. It could be several chapters shorter but plot held up nicely with plenty of surprises in the third act.
    • 5/5
      This took me a while to get into, the first part of the book felt disjointed and didn't pull me in. However, the last part of the book made it worthwhile and all the pieces pulled together.
    • 5/5
      Yes, I read this all at once, with very few stops, and no, I'm not ashamed.

      Feed the Forest inside you with blood, and it would feed you in return.
      I loved EVERYTHING about this book. Literally everything. The love interests, the conflicts, the main character, the character arcs, the setting, the writing, the pacing, the world, the magic—

      E V E R Y T H I N G

      My favorite character was Rachelle herself, Erec being a close second. They felt so real and intense and everything about them was so well done. I didn't love Armand as much as I was definitely supposed to, but I still really liked him as a character and really appreciated his role in the plot. I hadn't expected Amélie to be as important as she was, as best friend characters usually don't have very big roles, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that she was a real person, not just a pretty painting for Rachelle to compare herself to. It was all very well done.

      Rosamund Hodge has an interesting and awesome way of writing her retellings. She isn't satisfied with just one story to retell. No, she has to add as many as possible, and it's like solving a puzzle to find all the little ones. It makes you feel like you know something more, that you've glimpsed into the world a little deeper than everyone else, when you notice them. It's such an amazing experience. I want to write like that.

      "The same wolfish greed beats in your heart: to have what you will, and kill for it."
      I didn't think I would love this more than Cruel Beauty, but oh well here we are today, with this book shining down straight from heaven to bless my wicked, undeserving heart.
    • 2/5
      very disappointing compared to Cruel Beauty
    • 4/5
      I regularly enjoy going into a book blind, with no notion of what the book is about or if it is based on something. In this case, I knew the story was based on a fairytale, but I had not read enough about it to know which one, nor did I look closely at the cover before diving in. That being said, it was pretty obvious to me that this was a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. I didn't know about the second tale until I was finished reading (although I have never heard of the Girl with No Hands, so that wouldn't have meant much to me).

      I really enjoyed reading Cruel Beauty, so I had somewhat higher expectations going into this one. The writing style was still excellent, and characters were well developed and had complexity, which is something I really like about a great book.

      I highly recommend this for fans of Cruel Beauty, Nancy Werlin's Impossible, and Heather Dixon's Entwined.
    • 5/5
      I loved this fairy tale retelling!!!
    • 4/5
      Unexpected and twisty, unique. Can you be forgiven for what you've done? Rachelle doesn't seem to think so, but she will spend the rest of her life trying to keep the evils from the myths from returning. Who can be trusted in a world where it seems everyone lies? The motives behind motives are amazingly well planned and really enjoyable (and sometimes leave one's head spinning a little). Nicely done! Now I want to read Cruel Beauty.
    • 3/5
      Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

      Quick & Dirty: Very unique story with an interesting premises, but it really dragged at parts and the romance is a huge disappointment.

      Opening Sentence: “In all your life, your only choice,” Aunt Léonie said to her once, “is the path of needles or the path of pins.”

      The Review:

      When Rachelle was 15 years old she made a grave mistake that had ever lasting consequences. She chose to trust a forestborn and it changed her life forever. He marked her and being marked by a forestborn is certain death unless you choose to take the life of another. Rachelle chose to live but with that choice someone had to die and she would live with that guilt for the rest of her life.

      Now three years later Rachelle is a bloodhound for the King. She spends her time trying to protect the people from the great forest and all the creatures that come from it. Maybe if she can help enough people she can make up for the life she took. But the King gives her a new assignment. She is to guard his son, Armand, a man that claims he survived being marked by the forestborn without having to kill anyone. There’s no way he is telling the truth and Rachelle despises him. But there is a darkness coming that will destroy the world and everyone in it. The darkness is known as the Devourer and the only way to stop him is by finding the last sword that stopped him once before. If Rachelle had any hope of finding the sword she will need Armand’s help. As they work together they uncover many secrets and start to fall in love. Can they save the world or will they die trying?

      Rachelle is a great heroine that I really adored. She is strong, intelligent, caring, and witty. She has a lot of guilt from her past, but she uses that to drive her to do good for others, which I found really admirable. I thought she had a great voice and being inside her head was interesting. She was someone I could connect with easily and overall I really enjoyed her as a character.

      There is a love triangle in the story and I wasn’t a fan of it at all. First there is Armand, the illegitimate son of the king. He is an interesting character but I struggled with the swoon fracture with him. There wasn’t really anything about him that stick out to me as someone I would fall for. I felt like the relationship between him and Rachelle came out of nowhere. There was hardly any buildup and to be honest I felt like they lacked chemistry. Sadly, I wasn’t a huge fan of Armand.

      Erec is the other member of the triangle and I actually liked him better. He is overly confident, super good looking, totally charming, but he also has a dark side to him. I found him to be rather mysterious, and I really liked that. There were times when he seemed like a villain, but there were other times especially when he interacted with Rachelle that brought out a different side to him. He could be really sweet when he wanted to be and there’s so much potential behind that facade he would display. I thought he had great chemistry with Rachelle and I thought their relationship seemed more genuine.

      Crimson Bound started off amazing and I was instantly drawn into the captivating world but at about the half way point it started to drag for me. I felt like it took FOREVER for stuff to happen and in a way it felt slightly repetitive to me. To be perfectly honest, I was hesitant to read this one because I wasn’t the biggest fan of Cruel Beauty which was Hodge’s first novel. I actually liked this one a lot more than Cruel Beauty, but I felt like it could have been so much better. I thought the romance was written terribly. There was very little development and even though it wasn’t love at first sight it still felt like instalove. Even with all of its problems, I was still remarkably interested in seeing how the book ended but it did take me two weeks to read this which is a really long time for me. I was kind of in a reading slump when I started this so that obviously didn’t help and sadly this ended up putting me in an even worse slump. I know this review is mostly negative, so let me state a few positive things that I enjoyed. The world building was phenomenal and the way Hodge integrated the Little Red Riding Hood tale was fascinating. It dragged in the middle but the beginning and ending were fast paced and full of action. Overall, this was a middle of the road read for me. To be honest it might have been partly my mood that affected how much I liked this, so I’m still going to recommend this to those that enjoy young adult high fantasy books.

      Notable Scene:

      But she wasn’t like any of the heroines in those stories. And though she searched the city until she had found every door and gate and fountain and mosaic that had the sun or moon upon it, though she had spent hours scrutinizing all of them for the least trace of power, she had never found anything. And nobody that she talked to had ever heard Aunt Léonie’s version of the story.

      Eventually, she had accepted that she would never defeat the Devourer. She would never redeem herself. So she had sworn that the next time she saw her forestborn, at least she would avenge Aunt Léonie.

      But when she had finally seen him again this night, she hadn’t been able to do anything. She was still just that helpless, frightened little girl.

      No. She had turned to fight in the end. If he hadn’t disappeared, she would have fought him.

      When the Devourer returned, her forestborn would certainly come find her again. And when all the world was covered in the Great Forest, there would be no disappearing into it. Rachelle would have her chance to fight then, and she would kill him. No matter the price.

      She fell asleep still promising.

      FTC Advisory: Balzer & Bray/Harper Collins provided me with a copy of Crimson Bound. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
    • 4/5
      Actual Rating 3.5 stars

      Hodge does dark retellings very well. She takes a classic fairy tale and puts a spin on it in a way that makes the story feel original while still holding on to the bones of the old tale. Crimson Bound was no exception to this and I am excited to see what Hodge's comes up with next.
    • 4/5
      Wow, the world of Crimson Bound is freaking epic and just the right amount of spooky. Crimson Bound does a great job of keeping the beautiful writing and other strengths of Cruel Beauty while having its own tone and a whole different set of flawed characters and awesome twists! I will admit that I'm pretty sure it gave me bad dreams though >.>. Prepare for your head to get messed up!
    • 2/5
      This book was...mildly interesting. I'm a sucker for fairy-tale retellings, and I do appreciate how the author weaved together Little Red Riding Hood and The Girl With No Hands. Wasn't expecting that.

      But overall, it was just an okay read for me.

      Still, can we just all take the time to appreciate that Rosamund Hodge has written the best kissing scene ever?

      "He flung an arm around her shoulders, and kissed her.
      It was nothing like Erec's kisses. It was just Armand's lips clumsily mashed against hers. But she felt it through her whole body...."



      Thank you. I was getting so bored with the...his lips fit so perfectly against hers...yada yada. Obviously I will never be able to write romance.
    • 3/5
      I really liked Cruel Beauty and was excited to see that the author had written another book. Unfortunately, I don't think this book was as good as her first one. It's not that I didn't like this book; for a while, I certainly did. I liked the world that Hodge created, for the most part (more on that below), and I loved the whole idea of the Destroyer and the forestborn.

      Rachelle, to be honest, never meshed with me. I didn't particularly bond with her at any point, and she was so mired in her guilt that she was downright unlikable for large portions of the book. I get that she didn't listen to her aunt and, in the end, killed her. But Erec had tortured her aunt so badly that death was a kindness and INEVITABLE. So I got sick of hearing about how Rachelle killed her aunt, because it was not exactly what had happened, at least not in cold blood. I liked Nyx better in Cruel Beauty, who was so fueled by her rage and was passionate. I never got a passionate feeling from Rachelle about anything; much of this book feels like it was written with a dreamlike style, which was fine, but it felt a little flat as a consequence.

      I disliked the "love triangle" from the start. It was obvious that Erec wasn't exactly a good character to get involved with romantically and, therefore, would never be a real consideration for a permanent match. That didn't add much drama or romantic tension. I actually liked him MORE once I discovered that he was the forestborn who had marked Rachelle, although Rachelle had no idea because there was magic involved where she couldn't remember his face. But wait. The book says throughout that the forestborn lose their hearts, that they can't love. But Erec, as far as he is capable, LOVES Rachelle, saving her life multiple times. He wants her to be his lady. He protects her from others of their kind, others who would not treat her so well. He marks her friend in a misguided effort to make sure that she will survive when the Destroyer returns, as she won't be human anymore. That sounds a lot like love, or at least devotion - something the forestborn aren't supposed to possess. So which is it? As for Armand, he seemed nice enough (though bland), but Rachelle went from "I can't like him, I don't like him, I can't be too close to him" to "I think I love him" really, really quickly. I almost got whiplash watching her change her mind about him in the span of a couple of chapters.

      I also disliked the heavy themes of Christianity that were throughout the book, which only get more obvious as the book progresses. Rachelle harps on and on about her "sin" and being "damned to hell" because of her bloodborn status. There was a Bishop, and his followers worshiped the Dayspring (another name for Jesus in the bible). The darkness that is slowly creeping upon the land is the "punishment of god," which requires repentance - sounds a lot like those crazy street preachers today. And Rachelle, who like I said was tormented about her status, only found a modicum of peace once she confessed her sins to the Bishop, whom she had hated to this point. Oh and her penance? To say a rosary. I would have liked to see something new in a book that is, for the most part, high fantasy, rather than a retread of the same old religions.

      Also, I figured out where the other sword was a long time ago. Like, chapters and chapters before Rachelle did.

      Altogether, the book wasn't a bad way to spend a few hours, and like I said, I did like the book. I just didn't love it, and I was hoping that I would.
    • 4/5
      Reviewed by: Rabid Reads.

      I stumbled upon this novel while visiting Kim’s blog (Book Swoon), and I have 0 willpower vis-à-vis wolves, so the LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD retelling aspect intrigued me, and honestly, who could say no to that cover!? Rosamund Hodge dazzled me with her creativity, writing, and whimsy, although I did find the story rather busy because as a stand-alone a lot needed to be packed into one volume. I could have done without the love triangle, and the Devourer’s defeat at the hands of a knitting needle set a new record for the lamest killing tool in all of Fantasy.

      The author’s world-building and lore were the highlights of CRIMSON BOUND. I enjoyed untangling the unknowns of Rachelle’s universe, and what it meant to be a woodwife, bloodbound and forestborn. There were flashbacks of how Zisa & Tyr held the Great Forest at bay the first time as well as several different versions of their legendary triumph which is where the riddle of Joyeuse & Durendal—the two swords capable of slaying the Big Bad Wolf—originated. It was quite exquisite how all of the fragments came together, and many of the characters had poker faces that would fool their own mothers.

      The Rachelle / Erec / Armand romance was completely unnecessary, and gave me the impression that it was included simply because a book can’t truly be considered Young Adult without a triangle which is so not true by the way. The heroine seemingly realized that she loved two guys overnight, and both were kooky choices. I liked d’Anjou & Vareilles as individuals, but as suitors neither really lit my fire. One was evil while as the other was a saint which made the options too radical for my tastes; I’m a boy next door kind of girl, however perhaps fans of the good/bad trope will be ok with it.

      The threads coalesced nicely as the story came to a close, and there were plenty of surprises that made me say “Ooh!” The barriers that Rachelle had to surmount were varied, and came from within as well as without. After the protagonist’s two part stand-off with the lindenworm; I was salivating in anticipation of the bloodshed that would surely ensue when she faced the Devourer. I’ll admit that it was clever, although after a novel-long search for a sword, I would have preferred an epic battle that ended with decapitation or evisceration as opposed to the tidy reality of Hodge’s conclusion. It was too easy.

      CRIMSON BOUND had big teeth, but its bite was a kinda weak; recommended with reservations. ~3.5 stars
    • 4/5
      I haven't read CRUEL BEAUTY yet, but I did a little research after I received this book, and it didn't seem like I needed to have read CRUEL BEAUTY in order to understand CRIMSON BOUND, so I went ahead and dove in. I had high hopes going into this book: I love Little Red Riding Hood retellings, I love creepy woods and monsters, and that cover is a killer, just gorgeous.

      CRIMSON BOUND was a wonderful introduction to Hodge's writing. I loved a lot about this book, but my favorite things are Rachelle's characterization and the descriptions of the woods. Rachelle is angry and strong, violent, and fighting an inner darkness that she believes will destroy her and anyone she cares about someday. There's evil in her world, and it is coming for them, and even though those around her mock, she believes, and that belief is strong enough I believe too. In short, she's amazing, and I love her.

      Hodge has an interesting writing style here. There's a lot of fairytale feel to it, which makes sense, but I had a hard time connecting with the world. I loved the world building, the lurking woods and the monsters within, what Rachelle was to be and what instead she became, but there's a dreamy quality to the tone that made me feel at a distance to the writing quite often. I struggled a little getting into the story, and any time I put the book down, I struggled a little when I picked it up again. However, the descriptions of the woods and of Rachelle's fighting were solid, and wonderful.

      I wish there were more female characters being awesome, and more of a specific female friendship in particular. I wish it was bloodier, darker; I love horror, though, and have a high tolerance for this type of violence non-sexual violence), and pretty much always want bloodier, darker, scarier. There were times the story felt stretched out, slowed down, in ways that didn't always work for me, generally when the romance plots took the lead. I wanted so much more from the shadow forest and its citizens, the creepiness as it lurked just out of sight, and the horrors that could unfold.

      Overall, though, I enjoyed CRIMSON BOUND. Rachelle is a joy, fierce and dangerous and driven, and her world complicated, political, entertaining. I highly recommend CRIMSON BOUND, and can't wait to go back and read CRUEL BEAUTY. I look forward to more work from Hodge, because this was an excellent read.