Reviews with content warning for Confinement - Broken Bonds

Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Broken Bonds by J. Bree

19 reviews

ariesdaydream's review against another edition

emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

2/5. I hate how much I couldn't stop reading this book. It reminded me of the soulmate fanfics I used to read on fanfiction(dot)net in middle and high school a decade ago.

The writing is so bad. I'm convinced it was never touched by a professional editor.

The amount of times "freaking" was used was ridiculous. You can easily end up in a hospital if you turned how many times it was used into a drinking game.

The story also has that classic misogyny where every female character is an enemy to our precious female main character. Only two women are nice to her, and any other women who are nice are workers under one of her bond's payroll so they don't count.

I'm surprised all the guys weren't written to be lusting after Oli. Her character is a complete mary sue, and it's not even her powers that are the reason for me calling her that. I love overpowered characters! The reason for her mary sue label is

that I'm still not over how after ONE week of Gabe training her she's able to expertly see the flaw in someone's fighting stance. And despite dropping out of high school and simply going to the library during her life on the run, she's able to immediately get good scores in a prestigious college with the help of some studying sessions.

At some points the timeline was weird?

Like the training with Gabe was said to went on for some time, but then Oli outright states they've been training for only a week.

The characters are pretty decent. They're cartoonish, in a half good half bad way. Some of the dialogue made me cringe, and I had to skip a few of them.

And that ending was so lackluster. The action kicks up, and then the story is abruptly over. I honestly thought there was going to be a next chapter but nope. That's just the way the story ended.

Unfortunately, this story has something I love dearly, and that is soulmate stories with some angst, plus ones where the person has multiple hot soulmates. I have a huge weakness for that in fanfics, and this is the first time I'm reading a book centered around that.

Some tiktoks have said that the other books get better, and I hope to god that's true. Please! I need this story to be written better.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of the books. I want to see North and Nox grovel for the way they treated Oli, and I hope to HIGH FUCK that she doesn't immediately forgive them. I am begging and hoping that their redemption arcs are long and filled with juicy rejections from Oli.

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iben_flor's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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amberandthings's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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bangiebangs's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Oh this was a tricky one.

Things I liked:
- the writing (notwithstanding occasional typos)
- the mysterious setup... this feels like a pretty new take (maybe I just havent read the book series similar to this one?)
- Gryphon. Also Atlas. They seem like rounded people who think before they act. (The rest of the bonds are just insufferably childish, self-centered dudes)

Things I disliked
- he world-building. There is some info about what these bonds are and how they work, but why, when do you usually learn about your bonds, how do you find them (like, some people are "waiting to find" them? Also, seems like you can reject a bond, what happens then? How is power heightened or acquired when a bond is completed? So many questions, but not in a good "mystery we will uncover" way, but more a "causes confusion when reading" way. Also, what is the Resistance resisting against and why? No idea. But they seem to be the baddies for some reason?
- the FMC's naivité. Annoying as hell. I'm personally not a fan of mysteriously self-sacrificing characters, especially when it is then used to explain some shitty behavior without much context?
- description of FMC through the book. She seems to have a normal (or even hot) body in the beginning, enjoying her food, and as soon as she is forced to do more physical exercise the fact her clothes don't fit and are too big gets mentioned a lot. I find that annoying.
- How old are the bonds? Like, all around same age, or some way older? Some are councilmen and uni professors, others students?

But overall... I read this quickly, and I was hooked. Spice is not happening here (0.5/5 for some drooling over hot bodies), but that's likely because this is setting up the series. Wished that I wasn't so confused half of the time when it comes to in-world politics, but hoping that things will clear up.

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doubletherazzle's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Solid audiobook read if you can get over the constant use of f bombs and pseudo f bombs. The plot wasn’t too complicated to track while listening and crafting/multitasking. The writing isn’t great and I agree with other reviews that say there’s a lot of whining, but I don’t think it’s an issue. She’s 19 and got a lot crap going on. I find the story interesting and dramatic and will definitely keep going.

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booksalacarte's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

2.75⭐️ 2.5🌶️ (1 SA scene not included)

This was out of my comfort zone. Reverse Harem just isn’t for me. From this I’ve found that I am just not a fan of more than 1 love interest in a book.

It’s an entertaining read, bachelor-esk and surprisingly has quite a bit of plot outside of the main relationships. I appreciate the RH clarification in the synopsis from the author. There is also a LOT of cursing in this book.

Forced proximity

One bed

Instalove

Slow burn

Strong friendships

Life on the run

College life

Oil being 19, in college, and forced into living under house arrest isn’t my ideal set up. But the prologue was attention catching, for sure.

It reads as a little bit of a bully romance… but for the world building, kinda-almost-maybe justified? But I hate the name calling (effing B*tch) between main love interests. It feels super disrespectful and foul. Especially from someone, or many, who are supposed to be endgame love interests. I hate it. I don’t even like typing out the words. There was also a SA scene with a love interest. Be aware.

The romance was slow burn, which is good, considering the vitriol that is flying left and right. There is a lot to make up for and any actual romance would have been gross without warming up.

The world building was really minimal, which it being a contemporary romantic fantasy isn’t as important as a high fantasy. But I found a lot to be desired in that area. The magic system is interesting, but very vague.

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briochebun's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

3 out of 5 ☆’s.

”I'm playing to win, Oli. This is one hand I refuse to lose.”

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I have heard many many things about ”Broken Bonds” within the past year & I am so excited to be beginning this journey! :)

I want to start off by saying that I adore the premise of this novel — it’s very original + interesting!

While the characters are also intriguing — I can’t wait to delve deeper into their personalities — there were times where they came across as being a bit juvenile? I wish there was better communication amongst all of the characters & not an absurd amount of mentions about things that Oli could never even think to share with her bonds (or the audience, for that matter).

ੈ✩‧₊˚

I am excited to continue the rest of the series & see how all of the relationships progress, though! ♡

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