Forbidden by Katrina Snow

Title: Forbidden (A Zafarian Novel #1)

Author: Katrina Snow
Publisher: KL Andersen

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Publication: November 7, 2015

My Rating: 3/5

Source: Publisher on NetGalley

Lady Katherine Durant has perfected the art of hiding her Gifts—a valuable skill in a land where any hint of sorcery could lead to the burning stake. But, hiding her Gifts isn’t the same as not using them, and that troublesome difference has led to capture each time she’s run from her uncle.

Now, using a newly-discovered spell, she binds her powers and flees again—this time for her life. Unfortunately, her plan to hide as a maid in a distant kingdom goes awry when she unwittingly gets entered into a festival competition for the hand of a prince—a man with a wicked kiss and a sense of adventure that rivals her own.

All she’s ever hoped for is a quiet existence as a servant, never imagining she could find laughter and belonging and love. And now the mischievous prince has her dreaming of all those things.

With a bounty on her head, sorcerers closing in, and a prince threatening to steal her heart, could it finally be time to stop running? Time to trust? Time to love?

**I received a free copy from the publisher via NetGally in exchange for an honest review**

Let me just start by saying that Bregovi was incredibly difficult for my mind to think it right, it's like I was trying to pronounce it in my head, and the only thing I managed to say every time was Begrovi. So, for the sake of my sanity, I'll just call the guy Begrovi throughout this whole thing.

Now, if I had to say how I felt about Forbidden, I'm not pretty sure what I would say, and I realized it was because, to me, this felt like two books in one. Let's just say that about the first 70% was book one and the other 30% was book two. And, in the first book, I could not stand Begrovi.

But what kept me interested and wanting to read more was Kate. She is amazing, her past is really sad and I felt so bad for her. She's had to put up with so much, and pretty much being a slave, which is what she really was all those years. And now that she's run away (once again), she struggles to stay hidden and get as little attention as possible, which proves to be a lot of work.

Begrovi was very selfish and didn't think about her feelings. He just wanted his new shiny toy, and he had to have it no matter what, even if he wouldn't get to keep it in the end.

I thought it was so wrong to see him insist and encouraging Kate, so she would fall in love with him before he had to choose his actual bride... For real? You think Kate's just a toy to entertain yourself with for now? How nice of you to not think about her feelings and wanting to leave her heartbroken. How kind.

He is a rake, it's very obvious he loves seducing women, and there was actually a point in the story where he was all "my affection for Kate be damned" and really wanted another woman, even though she was mean and annoying (and also after he said he liked Kate!). Wow, what a shallow guy. And he loves to play the victim as well, he always does everything right (according to him), and can't understand why Kate would be mad at him whenever he did something wrong.

I wanted to punch him in the face.

On the other hand, Begrovi's sister's love interest was adorable! Rachel had been writing to a man, Sebastian, for a while, and he actually showed the same interest as her, but the king surprised her and had the same tournament organized for both his children, at the same time, which meant that Rachel had many guys fighting for her hand, and the one who won the biggest amount of games, would become her husband. Sebastian was so cute, he was so nervous about losing her that he kept messing up all the time, and he was so sweet to her, and respected her and said such nice things... Begrovi's complete opposite, as you can easily tell.

But you see, I did mention that I couldn't stand Begrovi in what I call the first book, but I did like him a lot in book two! I don't know what happened, but suddenly he was so sweet and not selfish at all. It's like he had and epiphany or something, because I can't understand how that happened.

And not only that! But this second book included so much action and fantasy, it was amazing! Kate's powers were very interesting and I kept wanting to know more. And we also meet other people who have different powers as well, and they're very cool! It was a real shame that we only get to see most of this at the very end. Seriously, if the whole thing had been like that, I would've loved this.


Any similar books you recommend?

Thank you for reading! ♥