Review: Entangled (Spellbound #1)

Entangled (Spellbound #1)
by Nikki Jefford
YA Paranormal
Published: 2/20/12
Publisher: Self published

Two months after dying, seventeen-year-old witch Graylee Perez wakes up in her twin sister Charlene’s body.
Until Gray finds a way back inside her own body, she’s stuck being Charlene every twenty-four hours. Her sister has left precise instructions on how Gray should dress and behave. Looking like a prep isn’t half as bad as hanging out with Charlene’s snotty friends and gropey boyfriend.
The “normals” of McKinley High might be quick to write her behavior off as post-traumatic stress, but warlock Raj McKenna is the only person who suspects Gray has returned from the dead.
Now Gray has to solve the mystery of her death and resurrection and disentangle herself from Charlene’s body before she disappears for good.

My Rating: 3 Coffee Cups 

Copy provided by the publisher for an honest review via NetGalley

The first book in the Spellbound series caught my attention right away. I loved the premise: a set of twins, Grey and Charlene, stuck in the consequences of a spell gone wrong, trying to unravel what happened to make this spell occur in the first place. It had a little bit of mystery, a little bit of romance, some fun paranormal twists- all in all the makings of a great book. And it was. If you overlooked the evil, soul less, sociopathic monster of a twin- aka Charlene. I've never wanted to go through my Kindle and punch a fictional character in the face quite as much as I did her. I just can't fathom how anyone could accept someone so wretched without at least attempting to either a) cuss them out, b) slap them upside their heads or c) have them locked up somewhere. Grey just accepted everything Charlene did and put her through. I understand trying to be the bigger person and all that nonsense, but seriously the girl blocked her magic for most of their lives because she was jealous. She put Grey thru hell on the days Charlene had use of her body and dictated exactly how Grey was to live her life on the days she didn't (having people stalk her and writing nasty letters via notebooks). And that's not even counting the fact that their own MOTHER saw fit to put a protection spell on a fellow student who stole Charlene's boyfriend, because they were afraid she would act out her homicidal tendencies. Now I get the whole Cain and Abel concept, and I'm sure that's what the author was playing into, but it was taken to the absolute extreme and turned somewhat unfeasible.

That being said, if you try and look past all of the far-fetched things Charlene pulled (with no ramifications mind you) this story was intriguing and kept you captivated and reading well past when you promised yourself you would put it down. Raj- once you got into his POV- was a great love interest/partner in crime. He was presented as a bad boy, but once you got to the heart of him you saw that wasn't the case at all. He had his own set of demons he needed to work through. He had depth and he proved to be the only person in Grey's life who was solely and irrevocably on her side, which she desperately needed. They suffered from a small case of insta-love, but it developed into a strong bond that both characters didn't realize they were in search of. There was a tiny bit of a love triangle but (thankfully) that didn't last long as Nolan never really stood a chance. Together they uncovered everything from what caused Grey's untimely death to what happened to Stacy. They even took on powerful coven members to help defunct warlock Adrian out. The one definite thing we found out was that Charlene may have been a big ole B with an itch, but she was not without her co-conspirators.

I am very interested to read the next installment, although it wasn't a cliffhanger there were A LOT of questions left unanswered and issues that need resolving (Charlene still really, REALLY needs her comeuppance)! There are quite a few different avenues Jefford could go with this and I definitely look forward to seeing what direction it heads in.