***Warning!! This review may contain spoilers from the previous title in this series! Continue reading with caution, you’ve officially been warned!***

To see my review of book #1 – Broken Bonds – Click HERE

Total Star Rating: 4.25 Stars

Oh, my girl likes that? You want me to kill everyone who dares to look at you? I will. I’m not a good man, not like the rest of your Bonds. I’m good for you, and fuck the rest of them. If you want blood, Sweetness, I’ll give it to you. I’ll give you whatever you want.”

– J. Bree, “Savage Bonds”

What It’s About:

The Official synopsis:

With my gift coursing through my veins, the tables have turned on the Draven Campus.

I’m no longer the Giftless reject, no longer the girl who’s fair game to the other students for daring to run away from my Bonds.

But there are bigger problems heading my way.

With destiny pushing me closer and closer to each of my Bonds, I’m fighting tooth and nail against nature to keep my distance.

But they’re fighting harder to keep me in their grasp.

When it becomes clear that the Resistance is closer than we ever thought, I don’t know who I can trust.

Can I finally take control of my gift, or will it take control of me?

*Savage Bonds is a full length reverse harem PNR novel with material that may be difficult for some readers. This book will end on a cliffhanger. It’s recommended for 18+ due to language and sexual situations.

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Alright, so now were getting somewhere!

This book felt like actually so much better than book one now that we’ve finally gotten some pages behind us, we’re familiar with the characters by now, and some secrets that have been kept hidden are finally coming to light. Not all of them, unfortunately, but enough to keep you wanting more and more and more as this series progresses.

Book 2 felt like it had some of the same issues for me, which was just a very slow midpoint and a lot of the conflict amongst Oli and her 5 bonded are just becoming a big miscommunication trope that’s getting incredibly repetitive…like part of me just wants Oli to finally come clean to the guys so they can stop being such d-bags to her because their fragile egos…but I also suppose the author is doing her job if she’s making me feel this strongly about the characters!

The big thing with this book are the shifts in the dynamics of the relationships amongst Oli and her bonded. You know exactly who she’s hanging around with because her relationships with Gryphon, North, Nox, Gabe, and Atlas are all so different from one another and so dramatically stand out. There is definitely no repetition with these, and the author does an amazing job of developing each individual relationship at its own pace. Some are warming up to Oli faster than others, and others have their reasons for keeping her at arms length way more than the others do, but we also don’t know all those reasons from their end either…there’s obviously secrets being kept on both sides of this battlefield, at it’s creating quite an interesting story to say the least!

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If you burn, I burn with you. You’re not alone, Oli, not for one second. I told you before, I’m not afraid.”

– J. Bree, “Savage Bonds”

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What I Liked:

1. FINALLY Some Romance! We Have Spice People!! It’s sparse, but finally we see something along these lines and at this point I’ll take anything!
2. Brutus! Oli has a NEW man and his name is Brutus! He’s actually a shadow puppy made by Nox who first appeared at the end of book 1 during that battle, but I guess he took a liking to Oli and sticks around…hey I’m all about animal companions so no complaints from me!
3. The Development Changes Between ALL Her Bonded! So book 1 was all about how Oli was keeping secrets and her 5 bonded were mad at her and had written her off as a spoiled, ungrateful brat, but then they realize that there is WAYYYYYY more going on than what meets the eye with her and that she is definitely holding things back from them in terms of information and just exactly how powerful her abilities truly are. So a big part of this book is all of them slowly taking her in with a new pair of eyes and slowly warming up to her, but each at their own pace. Some are able to do so faster than others of course too. It was impressive how the author made each and every relationship Oli had with each guy feel unique in this sense. These books seem to have a lot of repetition in some ways, but not when it comes to the relationships and how they develop amongst her cast of characters.

What I Didn’t Like:

1. Midpoint Pacing Continues To Be Slow and Repetitive…Once again the midpoint was just very repetitive in the same ways that book 1 was, luckily I’m invested enough in the characters by this point, but I will say if you’re not someone who’s very into character-driven stories like this one seems to be so far, you might struggle.
2. I Feel Like The Secrets Are Becoming A Miscommunication Trope By This Point…Okay so the secret keeping that Oli is doing worked for book 1, but now it’s starting to get on my nerves a little bit. These guys are putting you through the wringer and making you feel like an absolute garbage human being because they don’t know the full story because you’re not telling them the full story….shouldn’t you maybe clue them in to some degree? Like either Oli has a degradation kink with some of these guys, or I’m just starting to get miscommunication trope vibes from this. And maybe I’m also just impatient for them to learn why she’s holding out whatever it is on them, but by this point I’m starting to fail to see why she takes this abuse STILL by this point in the story. It’s kind of adding into the repetitiveness I’m critiquing in the previous point.

Conclusion:

Overall, book 2 definitely improved off of book 1 in terms of character development and the fact that there’s a glimpse of actual romance AND spice in this book! There’s definitely still some slower midpoints that I can see some readers really getting bored with, but if you’re really invested in the characters by now, this shouldn’t be an issue!

There’s another cliffhanger that you definitely don’t see coming, so also be prepared to want to jump IMEDIATELTY into the next book! Which is what I’m doing now…

Thanks for Reading!

— Nick Goodsell