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docrobreads 's review for:

The Bonds That Break Us by Erin Mainord
5.0
adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Wow. I was not expecting this book to be as good as it was. 🥳 And I don't say that to be mean; I just knew that it was the author's second book, so I assumed there was going to still be a learning curve. Welp. Clearly, she learned very quickly! 

Mainord did a really great job of easing the reader back into the world without spelling everything out explicitly, so I had several moments of, "Oh, that's right, so-and-so is that character who did that thing...". Sometimes, fantasy stories struggle to establish a sense of time and place in subsequent books, but that was not the case here. 

Wren and Sin, the main characters, are appropriately flawed and also easy to root for. I love it when a storyteller decides to highlight people and not stereotypes, and this expertly woven tale did just that. Thank goodness it did not fall victim to the "2nd book syndrome." Do yourself a favor and check this series out. You won't regret it. ❤️