Blog Tour | Hinder #review #giveaway

This week is full of reviews, today it’s Hinder by Kristin Ping, there is also an amazing giveaway for this tour but before we get to that here is what the book is about.

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Ethan Sutcliff seems like a normal seventeen-year-old—at least that’s what he’s trying to portray. In a secret society run by the Supernaturals, Ethan is what witches call a Bender. Benders are Witches’ Guardians, who are able to control a witches’ ability, bend it, or move it away from harming humans. In Ethan’s case, he is able to bend the Earth element. But at the age of fifteen, he lost all connection to it, and the reasons behind it could only mean one of two things: His Wielder is either dead, or hiding out somewhere.

Alex Burgendorf has been living in her aunt’s locket for the past sixteen years with her mother—a Fire Wielder, and her father—a Water Wielder. For sixteen years, her parents vowed to protect her, and they have, as she is the last Earth wielding witch. However, time is running out. Alex must find her Bender, or the fate of the Supernaturals might be at stake.

 

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Hinder will be published on 15th May 2018.

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This is a very tough review to write, I’ve been sat pondering over it for a while and I’m still not sure I have the right words for it but I’ll give it shot.

I was really drawn to this book because I love a supernatural element and because the cover is pretty, I know it shouldn’t be a swaying factor but it always is. It started in a very interesting way, a good amount of action to get me into the story and enough information there to keep me curious about the questions that arose.

Unfortunately, there was a bit of a downhill turn for me after this, I know this is YA but there are some very cliched scenarios and characters straight from the off and Ethan I found kind of detestable in this first run in, but I persisted because just when I thought it might get too much for me to put up with there would be a fantasy element introduced that would pique my interest yet again.

There is a slight case of info dump in this book but I sometimes think that can be difficult to avoid when you are trying to introduce something new, however, I think there were some things that could have been left out. There was a lot of information to take in about the benders, wielders and necrocretors and their secret society as a whole, some of the things that kept coming up about the jinn and the sentinels whilst they may be important for the overall arc of the series (as I am assuming this is going to be one) felt really superfluous here and at points confused me.

There were a few things I had a problem with, I can see why it’s used in the story but kind of wish that there had been an alternative situation to give the same effect. Wielders and Benders are always beautiful or good looking but for her safety, Alex is given a disguise which is anything but. Honestly hearing how shallow she was about the whole thing, considering how she had made remarks about others being shallow and fake, was really off-putting. I can understand being made to look different but I don’t know why looks had to play such a big part in this, it just gave me a very negative feeling.

Again this was all saved for me by the plot concerning the wielders and benders, I really liked the concept of it (although I do wish that the naming was different but that’s a totally personal thing). I liked that they have different elements and that they work as a pair and the difficulties that they face. The insane attraction that they have to fight and how this has made relationships tense for the people involved in the story and how it becomes difficult for Alex and Ethan.

The supernatural premise for the book is really the drawing point, once the story moved away from the high school drama and onto Alex and Ethan trying to figure out their power and how to keep Alex safe I definitely became more invested. I also found that I warmed more to the characters as well, I mean there was still maybe a little more development that could have been given to minor characters but it was an improvement on my first impression.

The writing was fairly simple, I wouldn’t usually make any comment on mistakes from ARC’s because I know they usually have a few remaining quirks here and there, but there were a good number of things with grammar and word placement that need to be sorted for a better reading experience. However looking past that it was mostly smooth and considering that I was being introduced to new supernaturals I found it easily understood.

I think this book has a lot of potential, the idea behind it is brilliant, personally I think maybe if it was steered away from some of the cliches then it would have been better but if you are able to look past that then it is a book that you will enjoy. I would certainly like to see where the story continues to.

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If you feel like you need more books in your life then you’ll want to enter this giveaway to win…

a $75 Amazon gift card

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Kristin resides in South Africa with her husband, two beautiful girls and two bulldogs that tries to eat her house.
She has been writing for the past eight years and her first debut novel, Hinder: A Bender’s novel will be published 2018 by Fire Quill Publishing.

When she isn’t writing, she is spending her time with her family, or trying to teach her two bulldogs to not eat her house. You can find more about Kristin at www.authorkristinping.com.

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