Monday, January 18, 2016

Book Review: Forbidden by Kimberley Griffiths Little

I didn't have much expectations going into Forbidden and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked it!

Forbidden is a novel that takes place in 1759 BC and follows desert nomads. Jayden, our main character, has a relatively happy life with her pregnant mother, her dad, and her loving sister. However, she is to be married to the prince of the tribe, Horeb, whom she hates. Things spiral out of control when her family loses her tribe after a tragic experience. While following the tracks of their tribe in order for them to reunite, Jayden and her family come across a mysterious stranger, Kadesh.

There was never a slow moment in Forbidden. The book starts off with a tragedy and kept on going with it. Jayden's life in the book faces so many hardships. Jayden and Kadesh's love story isn't exactly insta-love, but it is very close to it. Immediately, Jayden feels this connection to Kadesh and gets jealous every single time he looks at her sister. Though that annoyed me, I actually really liked their relationship.

The pace of the novel was really weird. Several months would pass in the span of a couple chapters, while sometimes the chapters would only span days. Jayden's narration made it easy to understand and the story move quickly, so it didn't confuse me as much as I expected it so. However, I do wish it was more evenly paced out. Jayden was pretty mature for her age and I really appreciated it. She has to deal with a lot and she never complains constantly about her struggles.

While reading Forbidden, I didn't know what I was getting into. Only two of my friends on goodreads have read this book, and they both enjoyed it, so I was hoping that I would as well! Thankfully, I did. I have owned Forbidden for over a year and had it signed for that long as well. I picked this book up because of my TBR challenge, and I am so happy that I did. I don't read historical fiction that much, or at all, so Forbidden was a change of pace for me.


One of the most refreshing things about this novel was that it's main focus was not on the romance, but on Jayden's journey as a whole. There are several plot lines, her relationship with Kadesh is only one of them. Near the last quarter of the book, the relationship between Jayden and Kadesh do have more of a focus. I'm eagerly anticipating how their story continues with the next book! The end of this book does leave off on a cliffhanger, but not one where it doesn't have a sense of an ending. I am happy to hear that the next book in this trilogy, Banished, is coming out very soon.

Overall, I had some issues with the book. Jayden's character annoyed me at times, though she did show real growth. The novel wasn't evenly paced and did get a bit confusing at times, but her narration made up for it.  Though Forbidden wasn't groundbreaking and didn't change me in any way. Forbidden was pure fun to read. I would recommend this book as I enjoyed it a lot! I will definitely be continuing on with the series come February when it is released.

With that, I give this book

3.75 out of 5 Stars!





What are some historical fiction novels you have recently read?

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you soon with another post!

Happy Reading!

Genni @ Ready, Set, Read!

4 comments:

  1. This book has been on my TBR for so long! I'm glad to hear that the MC is actually mature and isn't an immature heroine who is constantly whining about how unfair everything is. I'll have to make sure I read this sometime this year! I have to say, I love historical fiction! I especially love the Grave Mercy series :) Lovely review!

    Laura @BlueEyeBooks

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    1. I hope you like it when you get around to it! :D She's definitley not immature, except for when it comes to Kadesh. I think its mainly because she has never had a relationship that was not platonic and something more but there were a couple times she was bothered by Kadesh looking at someone the "wrong way." Besides that, she was a lot more mature than a lot of other YA heroines. She definitely was not a "Why me?!" character. I've heard amazing things about the Grave Mercy series. It's been on my radar for a while.

      Thanks so much Laura! :)

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  2. Hopefully Banished will be better paced. I'm glad you enjoyed this one overall, despite Jayden's jealousy issues!

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    1. Fingers crossed for that! I'm really excited to read the second book, even though that means I'll have to wait forever for the concluding novel! Thanks so much for stopping by! :D

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