[Review: Forbidden by Kimberley Griffiths Little]

"Forbidden"
Author: Kimberley Griffiths Little
Series: Forbidden #1
Pages: 397
Genre: YA, Historical Fiction
Date Published: November 4th, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Format Read: eARC provided by publisher (via Edelweiss) for honest review

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Summary:

In the unforgiving Mesopotamian desert where Jayden’s tribe lives, betrothal celebrations abound, and tonight it is Jayden’s turn to be honored. But while this union with Horeb, the son of her tribe’s leader, will bring a life of riches and restore her family’s position within the tribe, it will come at the price of Jayden’s heart.

Then a shadowy boy from the Southern Lands appears. Handsome and mysterious, Kadesh fills Jayden’s heart with a passion she never knew possible. But with Horeb’s increasingly violent threats haunting Jayden’s every move, she knows she must find a way to escape—or die trying.

With a forbidden romance blossoming in her heart and her family’s survival on the line, Jayden must embark on a deadly journey to save the ones she loves—and find a true love for herself.

Set against the brilliant backdrop of the sprawling desert, the story of Jayden and Kadesh will leave readers absolutely breathless as they defy the odds and risk it all to be together.

-Goodreads
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My Thoughts:

An Open Letter To Forbidden,

Seriously, can you give a girl a break? I don't know if I've ever read a book that puts a main character through so much drama from start to finish. (I'm sure there have been some, but I'm not thinking of them right now) It's crazy how much action and sadness and trauma happen in your pages. It was actually hard for me to catch my breath at times and I wish you would have been a little easier on Jayden, but, you weren't. Talk about intense...

-The White Unicorn

Forbidden is a gnarly book. There just isn't any other way to put it. You can tell as you read the pages that Little really did her research and added a lot of historical drama. This is one of those books that goes full speed ahead from about chapter two on. You get settled in the story in the first chapter and then everything goes to sh*t for Jayden and her family.

The Mesopotamian desert that Little shows us is brutal and unforgiving. Jayden and her family don't have an easy go of it. Even though they do everything they can to stay together and stay alive, you're not sure how things are going to work out as a reader. I'm glad that Little sets that feeling from the very beginning of the novel. It gives it plenty of tension right from the get go. 

The story is full of moral twists and turns. Some of them are pretty easy to call, but some of them are shocking and unsettling. There are some scenes that are horrendously intense. They make you question humanity and bring all the rotten people of the world into a spotlight. Things happen to Jayden that make my blood boil just thinking about them. You don't know who will be there for her in the end, because everyone has their own agenda, even Jayden herself.

I like how this was a forbidden love story, but that the love story didn't take over the plot. Kadesh is just what Jayden needs. He's someone who sees her as an equal and not just a chess piece in his goal to conquer the world. Their story is a bright spot in all the terror that Jayden goes through, but it also adds to the drama in a realistic way.

Creepy, creepy Horeb on the other hand is a terrible person. Actually most of Jayden's family turns out to be fairly rotten. Family should always come before tradition, but that's not the case here. But back to Horeb. I don't think I've disliked a character so much in a very long time. He's pure, walking, evil. He does things. Things that are so vile that I wish I could tell you about them, just so I don't have to think about them by myself.

In the end this book isn't for the faint of heart and some really heavy subject matter and intense scenes play out in this inside of it. If that makes you leery, trend gently. I also just discovered that there is going to be a second book, which is good, because I had so many complaints about the end when I thought it was a standalone. Thank God it's not, cause that was one open ended ending.

Rating

 3 Unicorns = I liked it, but it had it's issues!