Binding 13 (Standard Edition): Epic, emotional and addictive romance from the TikTok phenomenon (Boys of Tommen, 1)

Binding 13 follows Shannon Lynch who is a painfully shy fifteen-year-old girl trying to survive bullying, domestic abuse, and a new school. Johnny Kavanagh is a seventeen-year-old rugby star with professional pressure bearing down on him from every direction. Their connection begins after he accidentally knocks her out with a rugby ball on her first day of school. This is honestly a very dramatic meet-cute. From there, their bond grows into a protective, emotional situationship filled with trauma, rugby pressure, family dramatics, and so much teenage longing. I can understand why readers in the right age range would devour Shannon and Johnny. Johnny is thoughtful, protective, and sweet with Shannon. He notices her pain without making her explain every bruise, flinch, and fear. Their wounded-girl-meets-golden-boy dynamic has plenty of swoony moments. Shannon’s home life gives the book a very serious thread. Her fear, isolation, and lack of self-worth all make sense because she is living inside a nightmare no child should have to survive. That said, Binding 13 did not work for me mostly because Shannon is fifteen and Johnny is seventeen. I could not get past it. The partying, pub scenes, sexual conversations, relationship drama, and constant body-focused jokes made these teenagers read like college students. I kept asking, where are the parents? Then the parents did show up and somehow that made things worse. Several parent-child conversations around sex and Johnny’s body after surgery felt so uncomfortable that I wanted to crawl out of my skin. The pacing also tested me. This book is over 600 pages and I swear it circles the same conflicts in different fonts. Johnny feels pressure from rugby, Bella wants him back, Shannon doubts herself, Shannon gets bullied, her home life gets worse, and then the side characters pop in with a cute little detour before the cycle starts all over. Similar to the cycle of abuse. I liked some of the side character moments, but a tighter edit would have made this a stronger story. The ending made me mad. The book builds toward a high-stakes confrontation with Shannon’s abusive father and then cuts off mid-moment to push the reader straight toward the sequel. A cliffhanger can be delicious when it feels intentional. This felt like someone slammed the book shut before finishing their sentence. I will not be continuing the series. I see the appeal for readers who love long, dramatic, emotionally intense teen romances with rugby boys, found families, and protective love interests. I am not the audience for it. The ages, repetitive pacing, uncomfortable sexual humor, awkward parent conversations, and unfinished ending made this feel more like an extended Wattpad romance than a polished novel.

this was actually so much better than I expected, I feared it’d be the teeny fragile girl trope with giant jock. And it is, don’t get me wrong but it works for all the right reasons. I don’t like picking up books that involve teenagers and high school cause I like to keep that in the PAST, but this book is VERY character driven. You relate, you grow to love the characters, in fact, the plot doesn’t even matter to me as some point because I’m just trying to get to know these people. I feel like you get giddy and blush bc you remember being a super awkward high schooler with their first crush. I was HOOKED. The fact that I didn’t realize I was 95% in before a kiss was amazing. I love the build up, the awkwardness, the SLOWEST OF BURNS. I must read the rest of the series.

The best gut wrenching heartfelt book I’ve read in a long time !

This book is so good! It brings out so many emotions and doesn’t really skip in the timeline which I love! I didn’t want to put it down! I laughed, I cried and I’m chomping at the bit to read the next one! Also I love Claire and Gibsie!!!

Such an emotional Rollercoaster. Could not keep the book down. The vulnerability of the FMC and the softness of the MMC is portrayed in such a raw manner. Loved it!