A review by condygurl
Branded by Abi Ketner, Missy Kalicicki

4.0

What an intense ride! The story starts out with a young girl getting ready to kill herself. We find out later why. But progresses rapidly for a fight for survival. Branded is a dystopian novel, and if I was to tell the truth, I'd hate to have to live in that world. Where you are guilty and can never be proven innocent. Not a good world to live in at all.

Character creation was fairly well done! I must be honest here and say that the main character was just a little bit of a weakling for me. A lot of time is spent telling you how strong she is going to be, but it isn't shown very much. Unless you count her strength at love. She has a very strong moral compass and does stand by her own thoughts and choices.

The concept behind the story where a person is placed in "the Hole" and "Branded" due to committing one of the seven deadly sins sucked me in. But the story is far larger than just that. Lies, Deception, Hidden Agenda's, and Friendship all are of equal value in this book. And I felt that the story had a ton of potential and paths it could take.

This book is a very quick read! It will keep you flipping pages, and it is a very rapid paced book. The story itself progresses along fairly quickly. But I must say that even with that, I felt that the ending should have been a bit more. I still give the book 4 stars, and I do recommend the book to anyone who likes this genre of books. If the ending wasn't so rushed I honestly would have given it 5 stars. But the absolute speed at which what happens, happens is just far too distracting. And it felt a tad bit disjointed for me.

As I said all in all I give this book 4 stars and I will read the next book simply to find out what happens next with Cole and Lexi. I do offer one little piece of advice to the Author, don't rush the endings as much because it makes it feel off, and don't say someone is something that they aren't. Show me how strong Lexi is, don't just tell me she is strong.

Details/Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for free for my honest review. This free book held no determination on my final review.