5 Star Book Review: Halo Bound (Redneck Apocalypse, #1)

Author| Eden Hudson
Edition| Kindle eBook
Genre| New Adult- Paranormal
Publisher| CreateSpace
Rating| 5 Stars

I was scratching my head trying to figure out how I even found this book when I remembered it was via twitter.  Eden Hudson (@hudsoneden) reached out and let me know the book was and is free on the Kindle store.  I picked it up because of the price tag and started reading a chapter or so a night.  For those of you out there with Kindle's or Kindle apps- go pick this up.  Even if you don't start reading it right away, it's free!  And someday it may be rainy and you may have nothing to read and see this sitting there and fall in love just as I did.

Halo Bound isn't an easy book to describe, but I'll try.  Angels came to earth, creating a reawakening among paranormal creatures.  Two brothers, Tough and Colt, are all that's left of the Whitney line, a family that wasn't on friendly terms with Halo's mayor- a very important fallen angel.  When everything picks up, Tough is nothing more than a slave to a different fallen angel and Colt is on the bad side of the law.  And then there's Desty, who's searching for her sister, hoping she can save her from the same fate Tough has.

The book starts by launching you into a very strange place.  I've seen many reviews where people say it takes about a dozen (short) chapters before they got into it.  Eden Hudson does something magical with her writing- all show, no tell.  I can't remember one scene where it was ever told what was happening, or what had happened previously.  Rather, everything is revealed to the reader as the character's naturally encounter it.  For example, there's a very important characteristic belonging to Tough that is never out right revealed by him.  It takes Desty, commenting on it, before you even realize it was happening.  But your head does a full three sixty when you realize it's been planned all along.  This kind of writing is disconcerting at first, but has a major pay-off throughout the story.  Honestly, I wish more writers wrote like this.

The story itself if pretty unique, too.  It took me down several roads I was not expecting and kept me up late at night flipping pages.  The twists did catch me way off guard, and there were many of them.  If there had been a way to catch my exact reaction to each surprise you'd have seen shock written all over my face.  Rarely do I find an author who so thoroughly bedazzles me!

I've already started reading the prequel novel(la?) and am enjoying it.  What I really want is the sequel, though, and as soon as it comes out I'll be buying it.