Spellbinder, from L. J. Smith (Night World #3)

Hello once again! To finish off my Night World volume one book, I’m presenting you with the review to Spellbinder, third book in the series of brilliant L. J. Smith!

from my Instgram – and, btw, this is my little Lady ❤

The Story

Thea and Blaise grew up like sisters, but the girls were different as day and night. While Thea was peaceful and an animal healer, Blaise was a first’class trouble maker and boys killer. Almost literally.

After being expelled five times from different schools, Thea is determinated to make Blaise behave and allow both of them to finish their studies. The problem is that Blaise is not cooperating and can’t wait to play with her new human toys, as she seems the non-magical people.

Things get worse when she targets Eric, the only boy that ever made Thea’s heart beat in a different rhythm. In order to protect Eric, Thea must pretend that she is interested in charming him and make him fall in love with her, just like Blaise would do. No harm done, no witch laws broke.

The only problem was that Thea had already fallen for him.

The Analysis

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂

I’m still flabbergasted that it took me so long to grab this series to read. It has been sitting on my TBR shelf for at least four years now, I’m so ashamed. AND IT IS SO DARN GOOD, OMG! I thought I wouldn’t enjoy this book as much as I did the others because I had hatted Blaise from her quick cameo from Secret Vampire, haha! But, as almost all of Smith’s villains, I fell in love with her spirit and wicked ways, oops! Another big 5 stars book ❤

The narrative was third person type once again, but differently from the other two books, the only point of view we get is Thea’s. I like best when we can switch POVs, despite loving Thea with all my heart – something quite unusual for me, but I shall get there, haha! I would have loved to see a bit of the story through Blaise’s or Eric’s eyes, but I guess both would lose a little of their essential mysterious natures, haha! And Thea sees both characters as enigmatics, each on their own way, so I understand the decision of making this only about how Thea saw things. Still, one can dream, right? 😉

Anyway, to the plot we go. This is the most elaborated one in the series so far and I honestly didn’t know how things would end until they got there. I read 2/3 of the book in one night because of my state of anxiety over what could happen next, haha! I still don’t think that it was something out of this world and the first climax was quite obvious, but oh, I swear that the second made it up for everything! I was bouncing in my chair as I read, almost biting all my nails and pulling my hair, lol. It involved me and worked for me ❤

The characters were a blast. I dare say that character’s building is Smith’s speciallity, as she makes us to fall in love even with the most awful types! =O

It happened with Ash in both Secret Vampire and Daughters of Darkness, Kestrel in DoD, Blaise in Spellbinder, Damon Salvatore in The Vampire Diaries… OMG, woman! I already usually love the villains, no need to support my obssessions, haha! LOL

But as it went in Spellbinder, I was spechless when realized that I loved Thea, the sweet and naïve young adult protagonist of the story. I usually get bored with good girls, but she was so real and nice that I just felt like being her friend. Just like Blaise and Dani, Thea’s friend from the school and witch sister. My heart was tore, as I didn’t know if I cheered for Thea or Blaise to get what they wanted. I had never felt like this towards a protagonist and an antagonist: I always pick a side. I was a mess while reading, as the only thing that I knew for certain was that Eric made the cut for my infamous bookish boyfriend list, haha!

And there is Blaise. She was awesome, I wish I could grow up and be just like her, seriously. She’s fearless and wild, beautiful to the point of pain (literally if you are a boy, be prepared) and very mature despite her bad taste for plays and tricks. Besides, she can craft anything like no one in the world. I would have loved to see myself her jewelry ❤ And the most amazing thing in all of this is that her craft is a human ability – the itens that she made could have magic powers thanks to the pieces that she used, but the designs weren’t humanly impossible.

Then I think about my secret talents.

Now that you all know what I can do, let’s talk about Eric. At first, I thought him too sweet, too much. But them, as Thea (cof and us cof) realizes that he feels confortable around her to be himself, a self that he displays to no one else, it makes sense the sweetness and all things that a seventeen year old boy usually is not. The weird thing is that I feel like Thea, Blaise and Eric are more suited to college life than high school life, in a matter of scenarios, haha! I don’t know, I can’t imagine them so young. I guess it’s because of their maturity, which is not at all a bad thing 🙂

A point that I noticed in the Night World series is the lack of romantic interactions between characters despite their love for each other. In this matter, Secret Vampire was the book with more romantic scenes, in the sense of the flesh. And still, we had no sheets action (which is not necessary a bad thing). I guess I’m just amazed how Smith was able to create and maintein a fantastic book series without resourcing to sex to involve her readers. Even on a supernatural romantic focused series. She proves my point that you DON’T NEED SEX to tell a beautiful love story. Hell, you barely need a kiss, as it was the case with Daughters of Darkness. Astonishing! *—–*

Okay, sorry. Let’s go back, haha!

Overall, this is another perfect young adult book with a supernatural romance and witches. If you like at least one of these elements, you just need to read this book. No, I’m lying. YOU HAVE TO READ THIS SERIES BECAUSE IT IS PERFECT!

That’s it, haha! Thanks for reading and bearing with my fangirling, haha! Now I have the most dificult job ever: finding volumes 2 and 3 of Night World novels…

Please, wish me luck! I’m dying to keep reading ❤