Broken bonds (The Bonds that Tie Book 1) by J Bree
Blurb
After the death of my mother and her Bonded, I was relieved to find my own Bonds.
I was sure everything would be okay if I had them.
It wasn’t.
The fate of our people is in my hands and I know we’re better off if I’m alone.
After five years on the run, I’m caught and dragged back to face the men I ran away from.
I thought I was doing the right thing.
Now, I’m not so sure.
North, Nox, Gryphon, Atlas, and Gabe may never forgive me but one thing is for sure.
I won’t ever forgive myself.
My Review
I've heard good things about this author and I was really excited to start with this new release. However, I think I made a mistake because this wasn't a good showcase of talent. Maybe her other books are better?
I found the writing to be juvenile when it came to the main character. I would have to classify this as YA instead of what I believed would be New Adult. The female lead, Oleander, is 19 but behaves and speaks like a 14 year old. She used the word freaking 179 times. The book is only 218 pages. Oleander also kept using the phrase "I want to die" when she was being dramatic, just like a 14 year old. At 60%, I had to put the book down. I couldn't take it anymore. The overuse of the word and phrase and the fact that the book was going nowhere became a huge challenge. Somehow I managed to push on.
The book is the blurb on repeat for the first 90% of the book. Oleander ran away because she is hiding how powerful she is and believes she will ultimately hurt her bonded. Well, she ends up emotionally hurting them by leaving and now they mistreat over and over. Instead of Oli being up front about why she left, she remains mute on the topic and also treats them horribly. The author created side stories with some friends Oli met but it wasn't enough. Just boring filler. No character or world development. That's when I realized the author had no other material for this book. The problems for Oli and the guys could have been easily solved with simple communication between everyone. I guess the author is choosing to drag it out instead. It’s just incredibly disappointing there was nothing else in the book that was exciting.
Like I said, maybe I started with the wrong book with this author. At this point, I can't recommend until I read the next book. I'm challenging the author to change my opinion of this book and blow me away with the second so I can recommend this series.