A review by cayleeconnelly
Binding 13 by Chloe Walsh

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Stupid cliffhangers. I will be needing to start Keeping 13 very soon. 

Did I stay up too late several nights in a row because I couldn’t put this one down? Yes. Did this book make me laugh so hard my husband looked at me sideways? Also yes.
Did this book make me cry my eyes out? Absolutely. 

I wasn’t expecting to love Johnny as much as I did. He’s everything you’d want in a protective, swoops in to save the day, MMC. But also this book is very much a case of “Caylee fell in love with the side characters” because every scene Gibsie was in was automatically a favorite. He apparently gets his story later in the series so for that alone I kinda want to keep reading. Claire is the best kind of best friend to Shannon, and I just adore both of them so much. I honestly loved all of the side/minor characters so much that even if I didn’t like the FMC or MMC I would’ve kept reading just for them 😅

Shannon has a very hard life. And that’s putting it mildly She goes through a lot of trauma before she lands at Tommen and the trauma unfortunately doesn’t stop because it’s not just the bullies at school she has to worry about. My heart aches for the insecurity she feels and the need to keep her head down and be invisible. Of course she would get noticed by (and fall for) the most visible boy at school 🙃

My biggest critique would be that the “rugby is my life” got a bit repetitive and probably could have edited some of that out. But it wasn’t a deal breaker for me. It’s a rugby romance so that was kind of to be expected. 

Please check trigger warnings before picking up this series, because while I loved it… it was hard to get through some of it. 

🤬 the MMC is an Irish rugby player who notably “curses like a sailor” early in the book. If you’re sensitive to colorful language this might not be the one to read. 

🌶️🔥 I would say this book does contain mild-moderate spice with a bit of open door content but it’s primarily suggestive dialogue/internal monologue. As mentioned earlier, the MMC is a teenage rugby player and I do think the dialogue matches that of teenage boy locker-room talk. 
Explicit scenes/chapters ⏭️ 
Ch 5 mentions watching explicit videos, detailed reaction 
Ch 63- detailed injury & heated make out
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