Review by latesummer -- The Bonding by Imogen Keeper
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latesummer
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- Latest Review: "The Bonding" by Imogen Keeper
Review by latesummer -- The Bonding by Imogen Keeper
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Bonding" by Imogen Keeper.]
3 out of 4 stars
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Review of The Bonding by Imogen Keeper
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars
The Bonding is a science fiction romance novel by Imogen Keeper about love, fate, loyalty and the bonds intertwining them.
Summary
When her planet is taken over by dangerous, violent beings from space, Nissa - the queen designate - and 99 other Triannons place themselves into cryopods and launch into space hoping someone will rescue them and their planet. What they never expected was to end up contracting a deadly disease whilst in deep sleep. On a mission for his own planet, Tam - a warrior of Argentus - finds Nissa and realizes that the only way he can save her is to bond himself with her through mating. His serum is the only cure. The Bond isn’t something to be taken lightly though. Women are few and far between on Argentus and bonding with one is a lifelong commitment. Breaking a bond could be lethal. He’s realizes that his only choice is to save her and hope they can face the consequences together.
Content Warnings
This book is what I would define as a roller coaster - both in good and bad ways. First, I want to address that if you are considering picking up this book, you should be very comfortable with reading sex scenes. While the author does give a content warning about the adult content, I was not expecting the amount of sex scenes that were included in this book. Out of twenty-one chapters, there were only seven of them that had no sexual content at all. Several of the chapters literally were nothing but continuous sex scenes and did nothing to really further the plot at all. Sex is a big part of this novel since it is literally what causes the Bond and what keeps the characters from becoming very sick. This did not bother me in the least. However, I felt a lot of it could have been cut from the story to move the plot along a bit quicker in the places it dragged.
Characters
Due to the continuous sex scenes, I actually had quite a bit of difficulty connecting with Nissa and Tam for the first half of the book. It was hard to get to know them since there were only little bits and pieces of their personality sprinkled throughout that half of the book. After the halfway point in the novel, the plot began to pick up and I was able to see more sides of the main characters and actually began to become attached to them. I loved how Tam would do pretty much anything for Nissa. More than that though, I enjoyed reading about Nissa’s struggle with their relationship due to the chemical nature of the Bond. It was very heartening watching these two characters grow close from being complete strangers. I did have one major problem with Tam though. He was overly possessive of Nissa. I understand that this is part of the Bond, but there were points in the story where he definitely took it way too far and it became uncomfortable to read.
Side Characters
While the relationship between Nissa and Tam was great to read, I fell even more in love with the side characters. I loved the personalities of all the Argentus warriors that we were introduced to and I constantly wanted to read more about them. They were so well developed that they definitely held their own in the story. You would have never thought about them as “side” or “supporting” characters. Ajax - Tam’s best friend - was easily my favorite of all the characters. His support for Tam was amazing. It literally will make you wish he was your best friend. I’m definitely going to be picking up the second book in this series that focuses on his story.
World Building
The world building in this story is amazing. You can easily picture everything on all the planets and in the space settings. Keeper did a great job describing the surroundings and the rules in this book. She didn’t do a lot - if any - info dumping about the worlds. It was all perfectly sprinkled throughout the book. I actually look forward to seeing how she keeps this up and continues to develop the world in the next book.
Overall Rating
If I could give this book a rating on a half-score, it would probably be 2.5 out of 4 simply because of the many slower parts in the plot and Tam’s overly-possessive behavior throughout the story. However, I can’t, so I am going to lean on the positive side and give this book 3 out of 4 stars. The side characters and the world building did end up making me enjoy this book more than I thought I would throughout the first half. If you are comfortable with a lot of adult scenes in a book and love a story that is very character driven, this is a book for you.
******
The Bonding
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3 out of 4 stars
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Review of The Bonding by Imogen Keeper
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars
The Bonding is a science fiction romance novel by Imogen Keeper about love, fate, loyalty and the bonds intertwining them.
Summary
When her planet is taken over by dangerous, violent beings from space, Nissa - the queen designate - and 99 other Triannons place themselves into cryopods and launch into space hoping someone will rescue them and their planet. What they never expected was to end up contracting a deadly disease whilst in deep sleep. On a mission for his own planet, Tam - a warrior of Argentus - finds Nissa and realizes that the only way he can save her is to bond himself with her through mating. His serum is the only cure. The Bond isn’t something to be taken lightly though. Women are few and far between on Argentus and bonding with one is a lifelong commitment. Breaking a bond could be lethal. He’s realizes that his only choice is to save her and hope they can face the consequences together.
Content Warnings
This book is what I would define as a roller coaster - both in good and bad ways. First, I want to address that if you are considering picking up this book, you should be very comfortable with reading sex scenes. While the author does give a content warning about the adult content, I was not expecting the amount of sex scenes that were included in this book. Out of twenty-one chapters, there were only seven of them that had no sexual content at all. Several of the chapters literally were nothing but continuous sex scenes and did nothing to really further the plot at all. Sex is a big part of this novel since it is literally what causes the Bond and what keeps the characters from becoming very sick. This did not bother me in the least. However, I felt a lot of it could have been cut from the story to move the plot along a bit quicker in the places it dragged.
Characters
Due to the continuous sex scenes, I actually had quite a bit of difficulty connecting with Nissa and Tam for the first half of the book. It was hard to get to know them since there were only little bits and pieces of their personality sprinkled throughout that half of the book. After the halfway point in the novel, the plot began to pick up and I was able to see more sides of the main characters and actually began to become attached to them. I loved how Tam would do pretty much anything for Nissa. More than that though, I enjoyed reading about Nissa’s struggle with their relationship due to the chemical nature of the Bond. It was very heartening watching these two characters grow close from being complete strangers. I did have one major problem with Tam though. He was overly possessive of Nissa. I understand that this is part of the Bond, but there were points in the story where he definitely took it way too far and it became uncomfortable to read.
Side Characters
While the relationship between Nissa and Tam was great to read, I fell even more in love with the side characters. I loved the personalities of all the Argentus warriors that we were introduced to and I constantly wanted to read more about them. They were so well developed that they definitely held their own in the story. You would have never thought about them as “side” or “supporting” characters. Ajax - Tam’s best friend - was easily my favorite of all the characters. His support for Tam was amazing. It literally will make you wish he was your best friend. I’m definitely going to be picking up the second book in this series that focuses on his story.
World Building
The world building in this story is amazing. You can easily picture everything on all the planets and in the space settings. Keeper did a great job describing the surroundings and the rules in this book. She didn’t do a lot - if any - info dumping about the worlds. It was all perfectly sprinkled throughout the book. I actually look forward to seeing how she keeps this up and continues to develop the world in the next book.
Overall Rating
If I could give this book a rating on a half-score, it would probably be 2.5 out of 4 simply because of the many slower parts in the plot and Tam’s overly-possessive behavior throughout the story. However, I can’t, so I am going to lean on the positive side and give this book 3 out of 4 stars. The side characters and the world building did end up making me enjoy this book more than I thought I would throughout the first half. If you are comfortable with a lot of adult scenes in a book and love a story that is very character driven, this is a book for you.
******
The Bonding
View: on Bookshelves
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Latest Review: "The Bonding" by Imogen Keeper
