Soulbound (The Return of the Elves Book 1)

I have been looking for something good in science fiction--then I found this book--which is fantasy, but really good fantasy. Bethany Adams is an excellent storyteller. She is able to keep the reader interested and moves the story along extremely well. Fun read!

I have been so engrossed in this book! I literally could not stop reading. Every now and then I would find myself laughing at the snarky comments made by the characters. I loved the elves and their formal/informal interactions. The main females are strong willed and can defend themselves. No damsels in distress here!

I always find super old characters (centuries old) romance with our version of adults to be weird. Like dude you're a few centuries old. She's a few decades old. But the author did address this point and I was somewhat mollified.

The world building has me intrigued. I really want to know who is behind everything. I'm too curious for my own good. That's why I'll be reading the next one.

I have been so engrossed in this book! I literally could not stop reading. Every now and then I would find myself laughing at the snarky comments made by the characters. I loved the elves and their formal/informal interactions. The main females are strong willed and can defend themselves. No damsels in distress here!

I always find super old characters (centuries old) romance with our version of adults to be weird. Like dude you're a few centuries old. She's a few decades old. But the author did address this point and I was somewhat mollified.

The world building has me intrigued. I really want to know who is behind everything. I'm too curious for my own good. That's why I'll be reading the next one.

Loved how the story played out and the character are so intriguing. Couldn't get the story out of my mind for days after reading it. Full of adventure, emotion with a touch of humor. Would love to read more of this family. I felt like there is s much more.

The premise of the story was interesting but when it came to fleshing out the details of the story the author fell short. So much time was spent on stupid things like going into great detail about the correct etiquette and way to say ones "title". There was little to no showing in the development of the relationships between the characters. Also there was absolutely zero romance between the hero & heroine. Overall very disappointing and not worth $0.99 let alone the $2.99 I paid for it.

I happen to love portal fantasy books, this one however was a little flat at times. The plot points seemed not intense enough, even the climax was light. It was predictable, but still a decent read. Find the characters likeable, but their names/title annoying. Would be interested enough to read a second.

I loved the characters. I loved the worlds she created. I loved the magic. I loved the book. I purchased the remainder in her series and each was an adventure of it's own but connected to the other stories that weave a fantastic series! I don't do reviews - ever. But this book and series are worth a shout out.

This book was very engaging. If you looking for a romance heavy book probably not for you though. It was packed with action and plot and the romance was more of a side note. I loved it because of that.

Starts as a sweeping fantasy with lots of novel elements, but ends up as a quite small jealousy of success and position plot. The heroes also fall into trouble much too stupidly. But otherwise an entertaining read with decent resolution.

I enjoyed this book much more than I anticipated i would. There was a LOT going on and I feel like a lot was left unanswered...but it was still a really enjoyable story. I'm interested in reading the other books, but I wish they continued the story of Arlyn and Kai, as opposed to focusing on other characters.

this author is skilled storyteller who has the ability to transport the reader to another realm and paint vivid settings, characters, actions, interactions, dialogues, and situations with her elegantly simple prose.

I'd given up Elven worlds because they all seemed re-hashed and trite. This one held promise and I found the premise refreshing, so I gave it a shot.

On the upside, the author did a nice job with world building, including a lyrical language and some beautiful names that sang around in my head for awhile. There were some beautifully rich descriptions of the scenery, architecture and clothing I enjoyed a great deal.

I wish, however, the same care had been applied to the plot and the characters. So much of this seemed random and disjointed. Our main character is full of angst and confusion one minute, wry humor the next, then anger, a little distrust and suddenly, total loyalty and love. She was headed back to Earth, uncomfortable with it all one chapter and the next couldn't imagine leaving her new life. I wanted to see her relationships develop, with her father, her grandmother, her insta-love soul bonded... but we aren't given that. We're just told it's developed, not why or how.

In fact, much of the book was just "given" and I grew frustrated with it. I kept asking "how" and "why." Our antagonist is a madman. We don't know how he got that way, or why he thought what he thought. He's just mad.(Worse, he wasn't even a mystery. We knew who he was early in, so no suspense.) We don't know why our madman's son waited so long to step in. We don't know why our hero and heroine decided to go ahead with the bond, other than sexual attraction. We don't know how the bond works either. We're just told it's done. We don't know why our King never went back, or even checked up on his soul-bonded either after he was forced to leave her. We don't know why our healer has hidden his feelings. We don't explore much of the reason our latest character has denied his sight or why his daughter is so strong and seemingly wise. We don't have a clue what's up with our love interest's heritage. And what's up with the tree gods? The lines? Like our main character, I wanted to put the etiquette books away and go get a history.

I was excited to learn all of these things and SO much more. I kept waiting for it all to unfold. It never did. It's just all over the place. We don't know anything more in the end of this book than we did in the beginning, in fact, and I'm frustrated with it.

Then our author committed the cardinal sin in my book. It just ended. We have to buy another to get answers about ANY of the huge number of story lines left dangling. Nope. Won't do it for that reason alone. I will NOT buy one book for the price of two, let alone five. Ever. This is a horrible trend and I won't reward it for any reason.

Admittedly, I was on the fence and wanted this to be worth it. Just to be sure, I read the tag lines of the next four books. Not even a mention of our main characters from this one. We will apparently revisit some of the side folks, but there's no promise that anything from this one is going to get resolved, ever. But we'll get a whole range of new characters from even more worlds? UGH! No. Not doing it. I'm done with this series and I'm sorry I got invested in these characters and this world.

This author has potential, and could write spin-offs to infinity for the world(s) she has built. But she needs to settle into a few characters at a time and FINISH their stories before moving on to the rest of them.