Review: Boundless by Cynthia Hand

The past few years have held more surprises than part-angel Clara Gardner could ever have anticipated. Yet from the dizzying highs of first love, to the agonizing low of losing someone close to her, the one thing she can no longer deny is that she was never meant to live a normal life. 

Since discovering the special role she plays among the other angel-bloods, Clara has been determined to protect Tucker Avery from the evil that follows her . . . even if it means breaking both their hearts. Leaving town seems like the best option, so she’s headed back to California - and so is Christian Prescott, the irresistible boy from the vision that started her on this journey in the first place. 

As Clara makes her way in a world that is frighteningly new, she discovers that the fallen angel who attacked her is watching her every move. And he’s not the only one. . . . With the battle against the Black Wings looming, Clara knows she must finally fulfill her destiny. But it won’t come without sacrifices and betrayal. 

In the riveting finale of the Unearthly series, Clara must decide her fate once and for all.

Genre: YA paranormal/romance

My rating for Boundless (Unearthly, #3):

It's about time I caught up on my blogging, right? I've been meaning to review this book since I read it and only now am I finding the time to really sit down and write this. So here we go!

Boundless was the perfect conclusion to a beautiful trilogy. As simple as that! But I'll elaborate for your sake ;)

The setting: The setting of Wyoming in the first two books of the Unearthly series (Unearthly & Hallowed. Definitely check those two out!) was awesome! It was because of this book that I actually fell in love with the idea of moving to Wyoming some day! (Or at least having an extended vacation there!) The adventure and natural beauty sounds irresistible and I think Cynthia Hand painted the setting beautifully! So it was to no surprise for me that the Stanford setting was just great too! I felt like I was a part of Clara's freshmen year of college experience! Loved that!

I liked how Clara trained with her dad in this book. It was great to see bonding between them since he always pops up and then has to go again. It felt like he was in this book "longer." And all the angel-stuff was awesomeness too :) Of course, it was amazing! Anything to do with angels is bound to be! (I swear, I did not plan that amazing pun!)

I adored the Clara and Mom scene! OMG my adoration for that scene went beyond the heavens! 

One of my status updates on Goodreads while reading this scene (from 1/24/13): "All the secrets (well, I think all of them) Clara's mom kept from her make sense to me now! Awwwwwww! That was such a beautiful seen!!! Awwww! x100"

An infinite number of pieces finally clicked into place with that scene added and I was just like, "Thank you, Cynthia Hand! Thank you for this scene!" I cannot even tell you how many times I was frustrated with Clara's mom's mysterious, sorry-my-lips-are-sealed, you'll-find-out-in-good-time attitude! This scene was worth all of that frustration! It was perfect! 

What else is there to mention? Oh, yeah.

Christian Prescott.

Christian Prescott: I LOVED getting to know Christian more in this! As funny as it sounds, I rooted for Tucker the entire time I read Unearthly and Hallowed. And then during the wait 
between Hallowed and Boundless...I fell in love for Christian. 

I blame it all on Cynthia. She wrote both love interests in this book fabulously. Not even joking, this is the best I've ever seen an author write the love triangle! Typically with love triangles, there's some sweet gentleman (kinda nerdy too) and then there's the witty, charming hotty and it's like a la-duh situation as to which one we're going to root for. That is NOT the case with Tucker and Christian though! Tucker is all cowboy cute, strong, and adventurous while Christian is the "it-boy" of the town who just happens to be a REALLY decent guy too!! They were both so extremely lovable that I fell for them both and my taste ended up swaying a bit over to the Team Christian side a bit. Or a lot. ;)

I know about 95% of the Unearthly fans are Team Tucker all-the-way, but, I mean, COME ON. How can you NOT love a guy who says this to Clara: 

“I love you," he murmurs. "Can you feel that? You. Not some destiny I think I'm called to. You. I'm with you. My strength. My soul. My heart. Feel it.” 

Since I changed to Team Christian, I was hoping, wishing, PRAYING for Clara to GET A CLUE and fall for Christian...

The way the book did end kind of left me heartbroken. I KNOW why Cynthia concluded the series the way she did and it worked out best that way. It was all just kind of bittersweet for me and I didn't feel right for about a week after finishing Boundless. I probably would have rated this book 1 star if I had reviewed it at that point because the ending was so bittersweet. I was just so emotionally attached to Christian and I really wanted him to have a happily ever after, but I still liked Tucker and I knew he was still so in love with Clara...

Besides that little tid-bit I was pleased with the action and the little plot twist with Angela. After reading Unearthly #2.5, Radiant, I expected a little bit more of Phen in this book, and I was surprised when he popped in for a page and was out by the next. 

The love interest and all the original angel-lore kept me reading well into the morning of the night I got it in the mail and it truly was a wonderful conclusion to the trilogy!

“We think of happiness as something we can take. But usually it comes from being content with what we have, and accepting ourselves.”

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