(2.5 Stars)"Threads That Bind" is not your typical YA novel. It doesn't have any werewolves or vampires; just some demons who want to release one of their own and the beserkers who are determined to stop them. Oh and did I mention that beserkers are always male except in the case of a newly discovered female named Madison.Madison wears coke bottle glasses, is overweight and socially awkward. Then when she goes to take her driving test at the DMV, the unimaginable occurs, her vision corrects itself and she has an accident. Then, Madison loses all interest in the sugary treats she's crave all of her life and rapidly begins to lose weight. When she returns to school she is a new girl and finally lands a date with Josh, the boy she has had a crush on for years.While on her date with Josh, Madison experiences a violent episode that leaves Josh afraid of her and Madison mystified. As she tries to come to grips with her heightened strength, speed, ability to memorize facts she is attacked by some strange creatures. As she battles with them, two new boys from her school come in to assist. They are shocked by the revelation she is a Bessemer and begin to explain who and what she is. This will not be the only surprise for Madison as more secrets will be revealed. However, that old saying, "What you don't know won't hurt you" may not be the truest words ever spoken.I started this book with great anticipation due to the uniqueness of the plot; however, it didn't take long for my interest to wane and I found myself almost unable to finish the book. What happened? I became bored with all of the explanations and walks down memory lane of the various characters. Additionally, it bothers me when aspects of the plots I question are not addressed. For example, as Madison begins spending time All of her time with the beserkers, the author doesn't really address how or what her best friend, Amy thinks of her friends abandonment. The Ultimate goal of the demons is not really clear as well. I like my antagonists to be really nasty pieces of works and my protagonists to be wicked strong and badass. The characters in this read were lukewarm at best and in the end I went from enjoying this read to being bored senseless.There are some amazing reviews for this book but it just wasn't for me. So, read it for yourself and decide. Obviously I will not be going on with the series. I discovered this book in my BookBub email. The cover made me stop and read the burb and then click to amazon to get more details.You can tell a good book when you hesitate to put it down for things like work and sleep. This is one such book.It is a YA book with a female heroine written by a man. Sounds like a recipe for disaster but in this case it turned out to be the exact opposite. Thankfully the dialog isn't written with mind numbing teenage verbiage but it is still authentic enough to not be out of character.What really made this different from a lot of the stories I have read was the power that the characters posses. It was unique in the super natural power world that I have read which really was the key that kept me turning page after page.The only negative and it really is hardly much of that is that this book is the first in at least a sequel series where one book feeds into the next without a clear ending for each book. I tend to like series where each book is a self contained part of the overall story of the characters.If this is a genre you enjoy then you would be doing yourself a favor by picking this up.
