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?

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Happy Reading!

Genni @ Ready, Set, Read!