This is the story of a teenage boy and girl, with abilities, hidden with a group of like abilitied people from the outside world.
The premise of the story is that they need each other but if they get together it will kill one of them - with a side story reminding us it's about who you are not what you look like.
For me the story was a little tired, big events happen but it didn't really feel like anything did.. the time span of the book is likely over about three to six months but for me it felt like it was a day or two.
If you like the paranormal you might enjoy this but be aware it doesn't feel original or different

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really struggled on my rating for this.

Hinder, according to the author, is part of an overarching series that focuses on the witch branch: the Wielders and their Benders. Alex Burgendorf is an Earth Wielder, a rare and powerful witch wanted by those that use their powers for their own gain. She has spent the last sixteen years in her aunt's locket, hiding from the dark powers that want her. Ethan Sutcliff is an Earth Bender, a rare and powerful Guardian that is able to control, bend, or move his Wielder's magic away from harming humans. And now the time has come for Alex and Ethan to meet...for Wielder and Bender to train, prepare, and become strong before the threat reaches their door.

This sounded totally up my alley. It had so much potential and yet fell hopelessly flat.

I think the largest issues I had with the book is that it felt like a YA that the author didn't want listed as a YA and the Wielder/Bender relationship didn't feel completely thought out. Here are some of my major thoughts.

A Wielder and Bender being romantically involved is forbidden. You find out the result of the what (finally) towards the end of the book but you never find out the metaphysical reason of the why. And why it only happens to pairs when love is involved. Sure, it's hinted that it's a "curse" but this feels like a cop-out and provides an easy way to throw in sex to bring this book into the New Adult category rather than the YA category it should be in.

Earth Wielders, on top of being the most rare and powerful class have another ace up their sleeve:

"She said whoever my Bender was would never be able to resist me. That I had to be the strong one. Because earth Wielders were blessed–cursed?–with unnatural beauty."

Yup. They're insanely beautiful. Why? I have no earthly idea. So what does her mom do? Completely wrecks her life because she requires Alex to wear an unattractive glamour (with white hair...because that's definitely going to blend in) instead of her usual sun-kissed, lean, Amazon beauty to help hide her in plain sight. She's bullied at school, dubbed the Ugly Duckling, and she hates her glamour with a vengeance.

The amount of self-hate and insecurity about looks was completely unnecessary. It added way too much teen angst to this book (hello, YA) that could have been avoided by simply making her average. Not insanely beautiful but not insanely ugly...you know, like most of us readers. Or, you know, not making the MC insanely beautiful in the first place.

The whole book is supposed to explore the relationship between the Wielder and the Bender. How they work together to wield and bend the magic that they connect with. But there is one major question that never gets answered. Ethan can't do squat without Alex. From what I can see, Alex can do fine without Ethan. So what is the Bender there for? Do they act as a focus? Do they magnify what's there? The training sessions and battles were all over the place and I really couldn't get a good bead on this.

Less teen angst, less focus on sex, more focus on the mechanics, and a thorough edit. Hopefully by release this will be cleaned up but at this point I cannot recommend it.

2.5 stars
I have started and stopped reading this book for almost a month and still haven't finished. Usually, it takes me a day or two to finish a book. I don't often read YA but I get that sometimes the writing and content may not appeal to me, but I try to give it a chance. I need things to happen or I need to care about the characters and at this point, I don't care about the characters and I'm bored. I'm not giving up I'm at 62% and when I complete it I'll revise my review and hopefully will have had an aha moment.

I was given an ARC for my honest review.

"Hinder" followed Ethan, Alex, and their parents through their adolescent journey of being Wielders/Benders. In this book, Wielders are "witches" who have control over a specific element, but they need a Bender to help control and use their powers. In their case, Ethan and Alex have control over earth, which is the most rare and dangerous of elements, as they are hunted by Necrocretors who will try to kill them. Until they come into their full powers at 25, they are vulnerable. There is also an internal danger, as Wielders/Benders are attracted to each other, but being romantically involved is forbidden and dangerous (we learn very early that it is dangerous, but it takes most of the book to learn the why). We get pretty much all of this information in the first chapter, which felt like an information dump that sets up the rest of the book in a rather predictable way.

As for Ethan and Alex, our main characters, I found them hard to like. They are both shallow and immature. Ethan thinks of women in terms of animals (when he first sees Alex, he calls her "Fox" because she's... foxy), and his view on women doesn't get any better. Alex's life is ruined when her mother has her wear an unattractive glamour. She is bullied at school, but her hatred of the alternative appearance will not help anyone who has ever felt insecure about their own looks. She's also immediately dubbed a nerd, because glasses. I found them to be hard to like and rolled my eyes a few times at some of the lines. It felt a little like the YA tropes we see, and for me personally, it took away from the overall interesting plotline of Wielding and Bending, which could have been so awesome if it weren't constantly weighed down by so much teen drama.

I think the ideas in this book were great and this new idea of magic and this alternate world was fascinating. However, I got lost with the characters (even the parents, whose point-of-view we sometimes followed, did not seem much better), and so for me, it was overall "just OK" which is the reason for my rating. If it weren't for the sexual content which has given it the 'new adult' suggested audience and the cursing, I would actually suggest this might have made a decent middle grade book with some extra notes about bullying/resolution of bullying (but this would be a different tone overall).

Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

While the book had an interesting plot, there were quite a few problems. The biggest ones were the underdeveloped characters and character relationships. I ended up connecting to the cat more than the main characters. My other problem was the changes in point of view, while I have read books that accomplished it successfully by maintaining interest and flow, this is not one of them. It wasn't too bad, but I wouldn't read it again.

I found the introduction of the world quite slow with too much info dump, but once I got into the story it moved along. It does have a bit of a dystopian feel but over all, I enjoyed the Supernatural powers and characters and especially the family elements.

This book was really exciting and fast paced. I really enjoyed the different elements of wielding and bending. I was holding my breath in anticipation of Alex big reveal and being able to show her true self. It was a bit awkward reading about high schoolers having sex but it wasn't too explicit to make the story unenjoyable. Especially since it was pretty realistic depicting teenage hormones. All in all it was a good read.

3.5 stars - Creative spin on elemental magic in a YA Fantasy book.

Many supernatural beings exist in the fantasy world created by author Kristin Ping; vampires, shifters, sentinels, and so on. This story focuses on witches, or magic Wielders, and their Benders. In a refreshing twist on the classic understanding of witches and witchcraft, Ping designed a ying-and-yang type relationship whereby Wielders have power over an element (earth, wind, fire, water, metal, etc), but not enough control to use it safely. Benders cannot generate their element from nothing (as Wielders can) but once their Wielder calls on their element, Benders control the flow and result of the magic.

Pair this new system of magic with your average high school drama, and you’ve got ‘Hinder.’ All around well-liked handsome jock, Ethan the Bender, has felt incomplete without his element, as his Wielder has been in hiding their whole lives. Shy and timid Alex the Wielder has been hunted since birth for her ability to wield Earth, and gets picked on relentlessly upon joining Ethan’s public-school due to her magically altered appearance.

Earth Wielder and Earth Bender meet, attempt to fight their attraction to one another, train together, discover secrets from their parents’ youth, and try to make it to the end of the book alive. With some colorful language and sexual innuendo thrown in for fun.

I voluntarily read a Review Copy of this book. All opinions stated are solely my own and no one else’s.

Recommended for YA fantasy readers. 'Hinder' will be available in May 2018.

I was expecting a lot of magic from this book. I mean elemental magic! YES. Two people having to work side by side to make it work. Yes. Their journey to finding each other and making it work. Heck yeah.
Alex annoyed me only for 40% of this book. After living in a locket for sixteen years, with only her family as company, you’d think she would be a little more socially awkward. Not in this case. Yes, she went through some embarrassing stuff but that’s not what bothered me. Since she was so drop dead gorgeous, her family made her go under a glamour to keep the bad guys away. Her new face was very unattractive in many people’s eyes and adopted a sick nick name. And while she tried to stick up for herself, she agreed with people. She was, despite her many attempts to not be, vain.
One of my highlights of this novel was definitely the magic. In this book, magic is controlled in pairs! You have the source or “wielder”, who can conjure the magic and the doer or “bender” who can control and do all the wicked tricks! So I really liked that part! I also liked the story behind the villains and that there was mention of other types of magical beings!!! The magic just really made this book for me.
I did not like Ethan, I thought he was very selfish and irritating. Especially his tendency to label girls as animals.
There was also a very over-powering romantic plot. I would have been alright with this had there been less emphasis on the drop dead gorgeous looks. While I like to think that teenagers go for more than just looks, I know that I’m talking about a very small demographic of teenagers.
Overall, I liked it. However, I think it could have used a little more umph.

In a world where witches have power to control an element to their will in teams of a Wielder and a Bender, those who manipulate Earth are rare. Having been hunted by evil forces for much of their lives, the pair of teenagers who can control Earth are finally brought together in Hinder by Kristin Ping.

Ethan is an Earth Bender, but his power has been dormant for three years, indicating that his Wielder is either dead or deep in hiding. Training with fellow witches, Ethan hones his fighting skills and attends high school alongside unsuspecting humans. Alex is an Earth Wielder who has been on the run with her parents, hiding inside her aunt's locket for the past sixteen years. Thinking that the time is right for her to find her Bender, they reappear in the real world, sparking a string of fatal attacks on girls who share a similar appearance to Alex. Navigating the real world behind an appearance glamour that masks her natural beauty and allure, Alex starts training with Ethan so both of them can develop their powers while trying to resist the romantic pull between them. As nefarious witches hunt them both down, they're faced with dangers, both bodily and of the heart. 

Despite being quickly paced with sequences of intense action and drama, this story could use more time to develop both the supernatural world and characters beyond broad strokes. A majority of the book was split between Alex and Ethan's perspective, providing plenty of insight into their hormonal teenage minds; however, there were two sections from one of each of their parents, which was a bit strange and broke up the overall narrative flow. While set in America, there were word choices in the dialogue and text that felt unnatural as they would be more traditionally associated with British English, such as "daft" and "mad" for stupid or crazy, and were, therefore, out of place in the chosen setting. A fair amount of tense shifting was present throughout the narrative, which will hopefully be addressed (along with other grammatical and typographical issues) before the book is released in 2018. 

Overall, I'd give it a 3 out of 5 stars.

I absolutely loved this book I recieved from netgalley for an honest review! It was the perfect mix of action, supernatural, violence, and romance that I absoultely love and Kristin Ping was very refreshing to read from. She makes her characters feel alive and truly there instead of just on the pages and it was beautiful.

I can't wait to see more!

The book had a good premise but I found the story a little juvenile . I couldn't connect with the character and didn't finish the book.

I received a free copy from Netgalley for an honest review.

I requested this book for many reasons, the main reason being that it looked right up my alley. It had all kinds of supernatural aspects such as vampires, shapeshifters, but mainly witches. I love a good book about a witch.
Except, I didn’t love this book at all. I barely even liked it. I don’t want to be too harsh, but I wanted to quit 3% into the book. I didn’t bond with the storyline nor the characters. I was more concerned for Fibbs (a cat thing) than anyone else. I was insanely overwhelmed with the amount of information dump the book provided.
Breaking this down, boy and girl harness rare magic, girl is an Earth wielder and the boy is her bender. They are not supposed to be together romantically under any circumstances. To protect them, the girl’s mother glamour’s the insanely beautiful girl to be ugly. The boy who I wanted to punch several times, decides to call her Ducky, as in ugly duckling. Yeah. He also calls her a fox at one point when he sees her real face. Anytime the boy came into the book, I just eye rolled. He spent so much time proclaiming his guilt over labeling her ugly and a duck but then proceeded to do so. Still they fall in love, he saves her life by having to lay next to each other naked. It was just weird and felt very rushed.
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this book, I didn’t find it very good. It was lacking a lot for it to be a great novel. I highly doubt I would continue this series. I really wanted to like it, but I just couldn’t.

My review of [bookcover:Hinder|35145741]
I rarely jump into the YA world but sometimes I like to read other genres so I don’t just stay cuddled up in my smutmance world. Hinder is a refreshing story about Ethan Sutcliff and Alex Burgendorf. This story is about witches, magic, bending, wielding and demonic races galore. It’s a fantasy and possibly even a dystopia. Alex and Ethan are the rarest people on earth who can wield Earth magic. Alex knows her life is in danger until she reaches the age of 25 and most people with her power are murdered before he gets to that point. This story has a lot of inner stories about magic and tradition. Alex and Ethan are on a path to learn and wield their magic together forming an intense bond. The problem with their bond… they also just happen to be eachothers perfect mate and even the fear of death isn’t keeping them apart.

I could have loved this book. But I didn’t. to me it was a 3 star read because Alex and Ethan are the two main characters and I didn’t even bond with their characters. I loved the Aunt immensely and even the cat more than I really linked with the main characters.

I learned YA isn’t all just I kissed a boy and I liked it there are serious issues being presented in the YA genre and its not a genre I will easily write off any more.
I liked a few lines in the book and ill leave them here for you

<b> She didn’t want me to save her. She saw this as a death sentence. Why? Because it was me? </b>

<a href="http://uploads.im/3OcAw.png"><img src="http://sj.uploads.im/t/3OcAw.png" border="0" /></a>
And

<b> Don't look at me like I am someone who has a white liver, girls in locker rooms talk </b>
<a href="http://uploads.im/nfu4V.png"><img src="http://sk.uploads.im/t/nfu4V.png" border="0" /></a>
I had to google what a white liver is...
its a NYMPHOMANIAC!!! OMG .

A unique book the world building is really good it took a little while to really get into it but I was rewarded for getting past the slow start.

The rating falls between a 3.5 - 4 for me because of a few things that felt overlooked in terms of the plot or reasoning behind some of the characters' actions, but aside from that, I absolutely adored this book. It's been a while since I've felt so excited over a story! Immediately I took to the writing style, the way it flowed with its fast-paced action and detailed feels of the current POV. I loved that it drew me in so fast and how I kept swooning or screaming when something happened. Yes, I actually squealed. More than once.

The story is perfect for the older spectrum of YA readers, as there are swear words and (hilarious) moments of sexual innuendos and appreciation from nearly all the characters, both the young ones and the adults. I personally had no problem with it and rather enjoyed the sauciness of it all, and it showed a different side to the very secretive community. The idea of wielders and benders is brilliant, and the further along I read, the more invested I became in this world. The hero and heroine's friends and family really added to my experience. I loved how complex they were, and it seriously makes a difference when you're used to only caring about the couple-to-be. Alex was an interesting person to follow and I loved her humble journey. Ethan was also someone I enjoyed, and surprisingly so, because he was such a classic good guy jock. There was just something about the way the author wrote them and their story that really made me giddy. And terrified. And hopeful.

Aside from the few things I questioned while reading this, I overall recommend it if you love paranormal/fantasy YA reads. It's definitely one of my favorites thus far.

Ethan Sutcliffe is a witches guardian who can "bend" earth. At 15 he lost his element. Now 17, he needs to find his earth "wielder", a witch, who must be hiding or dead for them not to have found each other by now. Only then will he be able to manipulate the element he lives for.
Alex Burgendorf is an earth "wielder" who has been living with her family in her aunt's locket all her life. Now at 16 it's time for her to leave her protection and find her other half.
A magical story with twists and turns. Battles will be fought. Can the two come together before evil takes them and turns them against the world?