A review by booksabrewin
Pack Bound by Kate King, Jessa Wilder

3.0

Bliss's graduation from The Institute was fast approaching. Soon she would be promised to her forever mate and she would be able to rub it in her childhood friends' faces that she had come out on top even after their betrayal. But it seems that the auctioning off of Omegas was a more corrupt business than anyone had ever thought. So when she is promised to an Alpha that seems to want to break her in half, her true mates have no choice but to step in and steal her right out from under the man. But being back in their company is both confusing and enthralling as Bliss tries to figure out whether her love for the men of today can overshadow the betrayal she feels for the boys they once were. And what happens when her promised mate finds them and tries to steal her back? Will they fight for her this time or abandon her all over again?

At the beginning of the book the authors stated that Bliss was not a strong woman yet but that she was meant to grown into one. I didn't really see a lot of strength from her in this book. She whined and whimpered and huffed indignantly but I didn't see her command the room or show a little backbone until the very last few pages. Granted a lot of the time she was struggling to just not rip the clothes off her pack at any given time so maybe she was too distracted with that to worry about being a badass. I feel like Bliss was all over the place. She kept getting herself into sticky situations that required her to be saved. A little too much damsel in distress for my liking.

I have nothing against M/M romance on its own but in my reverse harems I tend to like all the men being solely focused on the female without any intermingling between them. Just a personal preference. So when I read the prequel and enjoyed it so much I was anxious to read the next until I got to the M/M romance trigger warning. I sighed in resignation but still plowed through it. I had hope that maybe it would be fine. Maybe it wouldn't ruin the overall story for me if it was just an occasion addition to some bedroom activities. But, no, it's an every single time bedroom activity norm. I finished the book out of sheer stubbornness and am waffling on reading the last book in the series. I would like to see where the plot goes but at the same time, the fact the romance has aspects I'm just not that into, it kinda sours the taste a bit for me. I will likely still read the next book because I want to know what happened, but I don't know if my star rating will grow with reading the next installment.

I think this book would be perfect for someone who loves omegaverses and doesn't mind M/M romance being involved within the harem. The plot is there, the connection between the characters is also present (possessive growling is top tier), but the romance itself is lukewarm for me.