*Received from the author, but all gushy opinions are my own*
Gotta admit: this review is coming a little sooner than I planned. Basically I’m procrastinating on a review of a book that made me less-than-happy with one that made me all warm and fuzzy inside. Makes sense, right?
This novella, which takes place between Grey Sister and Holy Sister, packed *a lot* into the tight space. It was entertaining, emotional and even a little funny. The dialogue had a witty punch to it; the writing was assured and effective. It’s intricately plotted and manages to come full circle in a delightful way.
More importantly, it’s an incredibly sweet tale. There are moments of atmospheric tension, however, above all this is a romantic tale- and you guys know how I love my romance! This was a simply lovely story woven from a seemingly insignificant point. As you might be able to tell, I’m struggling not to give anything away and will only say that this is a narrative that shows us there is nothing more dangerous than a kiss.
What I especially liked was how it felt like a necessary edition to the series- yet is also a delectable treat that whets the appetite for more. As someone that already adores the characters, I was obviously invested, but this gives a little bit more when it comes to going behind the scenes and developing relationships. Bound brings you straight back into the world of Book of the Ancestor, whilst easily being its own thing. In short, it does exactly what a story of this length should do!
Rating: 5/5 bananas
Evidently, I’m having a lot of luck with novellas recently! Has anyone else read this? And do you have a novella you’ve enjoyed lately? Let me know in the comments!
the orang-utan librarian 
I wish these authors would include these novellas IN the novels. I have very little interest in reading a short story set between books, as its own little thing. But add it to the end of a book and I’m always up for adding another 50-100 pages to a novel I like.
I get that ebooks make this kind of thing possible, but honestly, I can’t stand it. McClellan is one author I consider egregiously guilty of this kind of thing. He’s written like 2 short stories between every book but I don’t want to take the effort to track down 6-10 short stories. The assumption is that I’m such a fan of Series X that I will do the work of reading it and figuring out where it belongs. Series are complicated enough nowadays without adding even more complication into the mix. The other assumption is that as a fan I am hanging on every word of honey dripped forth from Author X and I’ll be happy to stop everything I’m already in the middle of to read THEIR latest little offering.
Blast it all, I am grumpy at the moment. Sorry.
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haha I can completely understand that! Until the last couple of novellas I read, I was equally grumpy about novellas from series- so I really get where you’re coming from. I’ve read a fair number of pretty pointless novellas (particularly in YA). That said, I gotta say when it’s done well, there can be upsides (like the last one I read was an excellent characters study for a villain and this one was a really sweet romance). So I’m feeling a lot happier reading these- cos I now have some proof they can be done well 😉 But completely get the other perspective
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I enjoyed this one. I actually appreciated that it was short, sweet and to the point as the actual novels can get so involved! Definitely wets my appetite for me including what little miss you know who that showed up at the party of the questionable alliances (and decision making) is really up to 🙂
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I’m really glad you enjoyed this too!! Definitely agree with you there! hehehe yes!!
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Oh, this sounds quite lovely and I love your delight with it. Fantastic review and you didn’t give anything away!
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Thank you so much!! That’s a relief 🙂
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On my list to read… the title is a bit unfortunate… 😂😂 at first search one mainly gets SM type books… until I added the authors name…
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hahaha! Gosh that made me laugh so much!
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I’m generally not a fan of novellas, or short stories which I would probably categorise this as, but I am very tempted to make an exception for this one. I am curious though, do you think you need to read it before Holy Sister or would it be fine to skip it?
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That’s fair! I often don’t like them too- but there are exceptions- and this one was just purely enjoyable. I think you could get away with skipping it (I don’t know what’s covered in Holy sister, ie if there’s any repetition) but I did really like reading it and think it does fill a gap (hehe I’m sorry my answer was so inconclusive 😉 )
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Aww… lovely happy review and I really like your term ‘atmospheric tension’. May have to ‘borrow’ that one 😉
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Thank you!!
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This is one novella I’ll gladly read even if romance isn’t something I’d usually pick up! Anything in this series is an insta-read for me!!! Glad you loved it! 😀
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Awesome!!! 😀
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Hi! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could locate
a captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform
as yours and I’m having difficulty finding one?
Thanks a lot!
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