I didn’t write a review for Broken Bonds by J. Bree, the first book in this entire series, so I should probably start by saying that I enjoyed that book. Aside from the captivating covers that first initially lured me in to reading, I was entranced by the premise of one woman being bonded to five men that she wants nothing to do with. I loved the idea of a society that could determine the soulmates of individuals before they’ve ever even met. And I loved how this series attempted to flip the soulmate trope around and give us a character that was running from her mates rather than towards them. (All while still remaining a reverse harem fantasy book that promised and delivered lots of spice.)
Blood Bonds marks the third book in this series and focuses on Oli’s time spent back in the Resistance camp, where the head of the Resistance is desperately trying to figure out who Oli’s Bonds are. This is the book where too many things started to not make sense or mesh up with the information that had been presented to readers in the first two books. I feel like the author had lost touch with what she was writing, begun to jumble character motivations, and write things into the story that weren’t consistent with the plot or continuity.
Blood Bonds Review
In particular, I can’t get past 2 big (huge) parts of this book that make absolutely no sense whatsoever:
1) Everyone knows who Oli’s Bonds are except for the one guy who excels at spying and gathering information: the head of the Resistance.
To explain why this is such a big deal, I first need to point out that the first 2 books revolve around Oli spending her time at school after being forced to reunite with her Bonds.
EVERYONE, AND I MEAN EVERYONE, IN THE WHOLE F**KING SCHOOL KNOWS EXACTLY WHO HER BONDS ARE.
It’s a huge part of the plot, in fact: the way that everyone treats her poorly because they know she’s the Draven’s Bond and Gabe’s Bond, and those guys feel animosity towards her, so everyone else hates her, too.
BUT THE POINT IS THAT EVERYONE KNOWS EXACTLY WHO IS IN THIS BIG F**CKING BOND GROUP.
AND IT’S MENTIONED MULTIPLE TIMES THAT EVEN THE COUNCIL IS KEEPING AN EYE ON THEM BECAUSE THEY’RE WORRIED ABOUT HOW POWERFUL THEY ARE.
SO THIS KNOWLEDGE EXTENDS WELL BEYOND THE SCHOOL.
And then we get to the third book— THIS BOOK.
And we learn that the main big bad guy, the guy who is the terrifying leader guy of the Resistance, has one major goal: HE WANTS TO FIND OUT WHO OLI’S BONDS ARE so that he can use them to grow and control Oli’s powers and make her his ultimate weapon in the Resistance.
We also learn that there are multiple spies for the Resistance around Oli’s home life and the Draven’s home life.
We learn that one of North’s employees is working for the Resistance.
We learn that certain students are working with the Resistance.
BUT YOU’RE GOING TO TELL ME THAT THE HEAD OF THE WHOLE F**KING RESISTANCE STILL HAS NO F**KING CLUE WHO OLI’S BONDS ARE?????!!!!
He’s spending all this time in the book torturing her to try to get her to tell him who her Bonds are…
It’s common knowledge!!! It seems every freaking character in this book series knows exactly who Oli’s Bonds are. Except for him!
So you’re telling me that not a single one of these spies reported back to their leader that Oli and the Dravens, plus the other guys, are Bonds?!
And you’re telling me that he wasn’t able to figure this info out for himself when it wasn’t even secret information but rather was common freaking knowledge that a whole school and community knows?!!!
Oh, come on!!
You don’t need to try to torture the information out of her, bro. Just ask LITERALLY ANYONE ELSE IN THIS BOOK. You are truly an incompetent leader if you can’t figure this shit out.
2) And that leads to the second thing in this book that just doesn’t make sense either:
We learn the end goal of the Resistance in this book.
You want to know what it is? They want Gifted people to take over the world, basically. They want Gifted people to rule over non-gifted people.
I’m sorry, what?
So you’re telling me that we spent the first 2 books watching the Resistance capture and murder Gifted people, to the point that it’s mentioned multiple times that the TacTeams who try to rescue them have never been able to get everyone out alive because so many of them end up dead.
So they’re capturing, torturing, and murdering Gifted people…all for the sake of finding the most powerful of the Gifted…so that they can rule the world and be free and say eff you to all the non-gifted people in the world.
I’m sorry, but WHAT?!!!
None of it makes any sense. And despite my love for Nox and Brutus, I just can’t bring myself to keep reading this series when so much of it now contradicts the first book. Maybe I will eventually continue on with this series, but for now, I think I have to take a break.
Blood Bonds Review Originally Written on February 25, 2023
Leave a Reply