Emoji Review by Rebecca Dixon
I just finished Broken Bonds, Book 1 of ‘The Bonds That Tie’ series, by J Bree and I have to say that I am BLOWN AWAY 🤯🤯🤯!!! I started the book late at night, stayed up until 4am reading it 😅 and then finished it after work the next day! I told a Book Bestie, Maria Tracy, about it and she started the book while I was on the homestretch & she actually beat me to the finish line 😆!! That’s how good it is 🙌🏻!! This book SERIOUSLY HOOKED me in from the VERY first chapter and I was OBSESSED 💜 with it page after page, chapter after chapter! Like words cannot say how much I love this book. But I’ll certainly try to 😁😁😁!
The story takes place in our modern world where some humans have ‘Gifts’ and they become the ‘Bond’ or the ‘Bonded.’ It’s a super interesting concept and I’m not entirely certain I understand all of the worldbuilding yet. But this is no fault of the author! Whereas some books have worldbuilding that is complex ( (a+b)^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b) and confusing 🤔… this book is intentionally mysterious and challenges us to wonder about all of the details! It is so REFRESHING to have a story not just tell us everything we need to know from the get-go! This book drops hints, clues 🔍, and little gems 💎 of info throughout and makes us work for it! AND I LOVE IT! 💜💜💜
So the story is about a FMC who at 14 years old has a tragedy occur that makes her run away from her 5 “Bonded” (essentially “mates.”) They haven’t met her yet when she runs away, but society is centered around this whole pre-destined Bond/Bonded relationship which heightens power for those who bond (yes they bond through steam 🔥!) So it’s truly DEVASTATING to her mates that she runs away and they then despise 😠 her for it! She has her reasons (which we still don’t completely know at the end of Book 1 and I actually LOVE ❤️ that!) But then 5 years after she runs away, her pretty dang hot 🥵 & powerful 💪🏻 fated mates FIND her, CAPTURE ⛓ her, and FORCE her back into their world. A world that rejects her for running away in the first place and that does not know of her truly good-hearted 💗, selfless, and brave actions for doing so. A world that does not realize how powerful ☠️ and truly special ✨ she is! A world that think she’s simply a human with no Gifts whatsoever & belittles her for it!
So this book TOTALLY has Zodiac Academy vibes for me in the BEST of ways! It’s not a bully romance, but the hostility 😠😠😠 from the mates definitely gave me similar feels! This is a Reverse Harem, but it did not feel like one! I say that because I used to not be a fan of RH’s. But that was mainly because the ones I read had plotlines that were more focused on 🔥 for the sake of 🔥 …. instead of 🔥 supporting fantasy. This is NOT the case with this book! The mates are AUTHENTIC to the plotline and just make SENSE in the story 👏🏻! Not to mention I’m totally IN LOVE 🥰🥰🥰 with a few of them…they are HOT 🥵 with AMAZING characters! So how can I blame our girl if she falls for more than one of them like I have 😂😂😂?!
Honestly EVERY single page of this book was DRAMA 🎭🎭🎭 and I soaked up EVERY single sentence of it! I can’t tell you how many times I wrote messages to my girlfriend about how AMAZING this book is!!! This is one of those incredible stories that you get ANGRY 😡, but in the BEST 🏆 possible way because you KNOW in your HEART of HEARTS that our girl is going to shock everyone 😱 & be a complete BADAS$S 🤺! All we have to do is wait for it! It’s only a MATTER of time! Every single word, every single page, every single scene, every single chapter … just builds to something MORE 👏🏻. And BOY does it pay off 🙌🏻! The DRAMA 🎭 is off the charts INCREDIBLE 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻!
AND THE FMC! OH MY GOSH I LOVE 💜 HER! I love everything about her! I love her bada$sness, her sassiness, her swearing, her approach on EVERYTHING, her stubbornness, her will & insistence to not give up, and her HEART. SHE IS GOOD. She is AMAZING 🤩. And I LOVE HER. But not only that! Let’s talk about the GUYS! Although there are definitely ALPHAHOLES and moments where I was SEETHING 😡 (OK, like A LOT OF SEETHING 🤬 moments! 😂) … I sort of fell for, like, almost all of them 😆😆😆! There are some that I’m totally in love with!!! These guys not only have hotness 🥵 that is boiling over, but hearts ♥️ bigger than the ocean 🌊 itself! Gestures made from the guys won 🥇 me over and I found myself once again, msging my girlfriend with heart ♥️ emoji’s, GIFs, and well anything to try to explain my love for some of these guys! They are AMAZING 😍. One in particular was the biggest hero in the most unexpected way… a way that saves the day with his big palms 🤚🏻 & splaying fingers (and it’s not what you think! 🤣)
This book is completely 100% my cup ☕️ of tea! I loved the emotional turmoil and how angry 😠 I got! I loved that I knew that this kickbutt FMC would step up and show everyone who really is boss 👊🏻 & that I just had to wait for it! I loved the characters, relationships, plotline, romantic tension & angst… honestly I just loved it all 🙌🏻. I knew this book was amazing early on and I started posting on FB about it well before I got close to finishing it (which I never do… I always wait until I finish a book before I post about it just to be on the safe side with my recs!) But there is NO need with this one to wait!! It’s DEFINITELY going in one of my favorite series of ALL TIME! And I am SO THANKFUL 🙏🏻 that Book 2 was out when I finished Book 1! It was after 2am when I finished this book and I loved 💜💜💜 it SO MUCH that I had to write this straight away! And as soon as I was done writing this… guess what I did?! Yup! I started Book 2! It doesn’t matter that it was 3 AM!!!! 🤣🤣🤣 Totally WORTH IT 🙌🏻!
J Bree Author is officially a ROCKSTAR 😎 AUTHOR in my book and has now joined the ranks of one of my ALL time favorite 🥇 authors! This is really something that’s quite a feat considering I’ve read 100’s of Paranormal Romances, Urban Fantasies, and Romance Fantasies! So if you like a bit of a enemies-to-lovers, bully romance, rejected mates VIBE (I say VIBE because it really isn’t one of those… it’s just in it’s own wheelhouse)… you may want to give this one a go! It’s free on KU and you never know… it may just be the book that BINDS YOU!
