Drama & Angel Action ~ Boundless (Unearthly #3) Review

Boundless (Unearthly #3)
By Cynthia Hand

Rating: 3


'"How did your date-" she starts to ask, then gets a look at my face. "Oh. It didn't go well."

"No, it didn't go well," I say, kicking off my shoes and lying on my back on the bed.

She shrugs. "Men."
"Men."
"If we can send one man to the moon, why can't we send them all there?" she says.'




In which I discover that cliches do exist, as do exceptions to every rule...and girls always pick the guy they can't be with.

Because the females of the fictional world seem to be lacking in logic. 

But they make up for a lack of logic with enough scruples, near-death experiences, daddy-mummy issues, conflicted pasts and plain old everyday drama to fill a land fill. 

So you see that our lovely angelic girl-wonder has come back from a trip abroad. And you're now thinking that this sounds great, right? 

Wrong. 

Because as you continue into this book, you will be constantly wishing that Cynthia Hand had spent 438 pages describing Clara's Italian Holiday, than describing Clara's American Love-wreck.

So, as expected, Christian appears all:

And damn, that boy could make hippy clothes look good. He's so sweet, kind, thoughtful and downright adorable, and Clara as per usual is...

Moping.

Why? 

Because:
- First World Problems Tucker
- Emotional imbalance Tucker
- Lack of ice cream Tucker
- Titanic re-run Tucker
- PMS Tucker

Nevermind that Christian basically puts everything on hold to be with her, make her happy, protect her and be the man at her side. 

Clara likes guys who feel sick at the sight of her (literally, btw - her glory stuff makes Tucker queasy). She loves men who could possibly get killed if they hang out with her, and that aren't going to live for as long as she will...and like horses. 

Now, I'm a bit of a horse girl myself (and Tucker is basically a hot, strapping ranch-raised lad right off The Saddle Club) but even I can take a hint when everything is shouting at me that you and this boy aren't meant to be together, gurl!

If Clara was sane me, she would have realised that Tucker's 'edgy-bad-ass-I-hate-you-leave-me-alone' act is just that...an act. He's trying to play hard to get! 

And it doesn't help your 'women's lib' goals when you teleport over to the guy's house. By 'accident'. Really, Clara? You're going to go with the whole 'I just tripped over your barn whilst coasting through cyberspace' angle? 

And like Tucker could stay grumpy at her for that long. The guy's a teddy bear. He's totally putting on an act and Clara - she fell for it hook, line and sinker.


Actually, back to Clara for a sec, and her constantly mentioned 'women's liberation' attitude...

Uh, where is it exactly?!

Christian mentions that he's paying for dinner and a movie, and for that she should let him even though he knows she wants to be an 'independent woman'. 

Nope. No feminism here.

Clara is mulling over her relationships (note the plural, because she is so, so clingy) and then berates herself for not being more 'women's lib' on the issue.

Nope. No feminism here.

Clara's daddy teaches her to swordfight. So she can defend herself!

Hmm. Maybe a little here. But Clara's skills are limited to skewering BBQ meat.

Clara doesn't need no man. *finger snaps*

She can talk on the phone!
Eat ice-cream all alone!
Watch movies on her own-

Wait a second...she wants to call Christian over for company...hang on, Tucker's at the door! Wait, wait! She's stuffed up everything and needs both of them to help her!

So much for that.

Clara. Is. Annoying.

Which is the biggest shame.

I mean, I loved Clara in the other two books. But from book two to book three, for me, it felt like she needed to seriously sort out her priorities. 

Yeah, her life's hard. But she needs to stop abusing what she has. 

For e.g., her brother comes to see her after chucking a disappearing act. Yep. Go ahead Clara. Yell and scream at him. That'll work! 

No wonder he left! Clara tries so hard to be in charge that she alienates other people. 

She makes decision on behalf of Christian. Important decisions. Life or death kind of decisions. She has an on-off relationship with Tucker that she controls whether it's on or off.

And her treatment of Christian can be summed up as so: manipulation.

Why? Because it just is.


Because the poor guy risks everything.

• The dude goes out of his way.
• He protects her.
• Loves her.
• Saves her.
• Worries over her.
• Is by her side 24/7.
• Never ever leaves her when she needs him.
• Aids her.
• Would follow her to hell.

And yet...and yet...she never ever says: "Look, Christian, I really love Tucker and I think it's going to be hard for forget him. If possible, can we please still be friends. I don't want you getting the wrong idea, or feel like I'm leading you on or anything. You're important to me and I couldn't make it through half these obstacles without you. But I love Tucker. Even though we're over."

Instead, she allows him to take her on dates, to near-kiss her, to feel as if he has a chance...! 

When she's secretly teleporting into Tucker's barn ('by accident'), pining over Tucker, crying over Tucker, dreaming about Tucker...I could go on. 

But I won't. 

Because I am now quivering with indignation over Clara's treatment of Christian! 


I need another book. 

You know...when Tucker's dead out of the picture and Clara is maturer than she is now and Christian is able to have his knight-in-shining-armour moment. 

I'm not going to tell you who she chooses (of if she finally chooses), but what I will say is that this book could have been brilliant if Clara had developed more as a character. 

The signs of development were there, the plot developed (really well too, actually) and the other characters developed (NB: Christian, Angela, Jeffrey). 

But Clara still needed a bit more...something. I can't put it into words. 

That something was there - when she used her glory sword on a very, very bad fallen angel who shall remain nameless so this isn't too spoiler-ish - but it needed to have appear more often, in my opinion.

So if you like sappy love triangles, angel action and 'accidents' Boundless is bound to have you awash in cheesy literary glory from start to finish.