Reviews for Bound by Honor

The average rating for Bound by Honor based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-12-09 00:00:00 David Cloutier this book is awesome i gave my life to christ before i even finished the story. two of my friends did too. its amazing.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-06-27 00:00:00 Lori Nugent I think it's safe to say that I am not the intended audience for this book. The best thing about this book is that my edition was written in blue ink!!! I love when authors/publishers take the extra money to do this. My favorite is Cherie Priest's BONESHAKER, published in brown ink. Christy is a farm girl from Wisconsin who goes to spend the summer with her aunt and uncle in California. They are rich and spoil her rotten. They buy her new wardrobes, get her hair styled, buy her tons of make-up, swimsuits, etc. At the beginning, Christy is moaning about how unattractive she is. She thinks she's unattractive because she is "too thin" and has blue-green eyes. OH, THE HORROR! *rolls eyes Even after her extensive make-over from her shallow, materialistic and looks-oriented aunt, she still spends the whole book calling herself ugly, stupid, and clumsy. Self-hate much? I understand she's 14, but it's painful to read. Boys. Christy meets a cute boy on the beach! His name is Todd. He's Christian. Not like Christy is Christian, but a "real Christian" who was "born-again." Even though Christy was born and raised in the church and was baptized as a baby and her parents are strict Christians and she is a "good-girl" that's NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Todd informs her that she's still a sinner and needs to "ask Jesus into her heart" otherwise she is not really Christian, she's not really "saved" - no, she's going to HELL. And that's the love interest. I thought he was a lousy love interest. For one thing, I felt like he only really pays attention to Christy when she's asking him about his faith and what it means to be a Christian. He also listens to her and encourages her when she makes noise about being saved herself. Otherwise, he's a big flake. He shows up late for dates, sometimes tells her he'll be at a party and doesn't show, blah blah blah. Not worth all the angst and prettifying that Christy goes through for him, in my opinion. Also, there's this girl named Tracy who hangs around him all the time and he is constantly driving her to work and etc. etc. Christy is jealous and acts like a brat around Tracy. Tracy seems like a great person, but I understand Christy - it's her first date, first boyfriend/sort-of boyfriend etc. and she's insecure. Unfortunately, she NEVER ASKS WHAT'S GOING ON. I mean, she should straight-up ask Tracy, or Todd (whichever one she's more comfortable with) what's going on. I mean, are you guys together? Just friends? Used to date? I fully expected Gunn to reveal Tracy was Todd's cousin, or something. NOTHING. They never explain why Tracy and Todd are together all the time. Instead, we're supposed to be judging Christy for being too insecure, or not trusting Todd enough, or something. GEEZ. It's her first boyfriend (sort-of boyfriend?)! Give her a break. Todd and Tracy give her a joint gift of A BIBLE for her birthday. o.O I don't even know what to make of that. Then, there's this other girl named Alissa. She's seventeen and dates a 20-year-old! She's on birth control! (We are supposed to be shocked and appalled to learn she's sexually active, but I give her major props for being safe. Hopefully she uses condoms, too!) She tells Christy that there is no God. You have to enjoy life here on Earth while you've got it, because there is no afterlife. We are supposed to feel extreme pity for this woman because her dad's dead and her mom's an alcoholic. Which is why she's "so messed-up." Whatever. Being on the pill and dating slightly older guys is not "messed-up" in my opinion. There's a scene late in the book where Christy witnesses a fight between Alissa and her boyfriend in which it sounds like Alissa's bf wants sex and is having a... difficult time with Alissa saying "no." But I want to stress that Alissa DID say no and the guy leaves in a huff. I don't know what Gunn is trying to say with that. Alissa can be redeemed because she refused to give in to this guy's demands for sex? Or is she saying "loose" women like Alissa end up in dangerous situations where guys might pressure them to have sex and they might give in/get raped? This last one is the kind of bullshit victim-blaming that I HATE. GRRRRRR. Hopefully it's the former and not the latter. There's one hilarious scene that made me laugh out loud. Christy gets invited to a beach party and she keeps asking people for Coke (because, of course, she doesn't drink beer), and everyone she asks thinks she's looking for COCAINE. This was hilarious to me and I laughed out loud when picturing this little innocent Christian girl asking random guys if they have coke. :) Oh, yeah, the anti-drug message in this book. A character in the book who will remain anonymous smokes pot and dies. That's right, he DIES. From smoking pot. How, you ask? Well, he decides to surf stoned and this results in him drowning, or bashing his head on some rocks or something. Gunn's anti-drug message was a little...forceful in my opinion. The most hilarious part (to me) was when Todd uses his funeral as a platform to try and turn everyone to Jesus. Seriously. His eulogy is basically slamming his dead friend for not accepting Jesus into his heart and then begging everyone, while crying, to please accept Jesus into their hearts before it's too late. (He doesn't scream, "YOU'RE ALL GOING TO HELL!" but he might as well have.) o.O Very uncomfortable for everyone involved. In short, I have read Gunn's Gardenias for Breakfast and liked that it was a little more subtle with the Christianity. This one is very forceful and brutal with it's "BE A CHRISTIAN OR BURN IN HELL" message, and I didn't appreciate it. Especially since the book was blatantly saying, "Even though you think you're Christian, you're not really. You're not really Christian until you're MY KIND OF CHRISTIAN. Even Christians who aren't born-again are going to hell." This is very depressing and isolating and self-defeating. I can't understand why Christians insist on dividing each other so much. When I was young, I was shocked to learn about all the animosity between Catholics and Protestants. You'd think people would have some sense of reality, but I guess not. Christy, the main character, was also unlikeable. Whiny, self-hating, manipulative, insecure, bratlike (throwing temper tantrums a few times), and judging other females and hating on them just because they are "prettier than her". Fail. P.S. The Dieting. Christy's image obsessed aunt is always a.) lecturing Christy about how much fat is in food, b.) urging her to eat salad, c.) urging her to eat less, d.) shaming her for ordering chocolate cake in a restaurant. If Christy lived with this woman full-time she would end up either a.) morbidly obese or b.) anorexic. She's already hiding food from her aunt, sneaking food when she thinks her aunt can't see her, and eating even when she's not hungry to spite her aunt. Horrible, horrible child-care on the aunt's part. Way to screw up Christy's eating habits and self-image, Aunt Marti.