A review by itsgalactic
Bound by Honey by Jamie Dalton

Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.
I hear buzz about the cute pr boxes sent for this book and gave it a try since it was on kindle unlimited but I found it more puzzling in its choices. It takes about 40% of the book to get into how a conspiracy is afoot and just as long for the main love interest guy to barely develop beyond his rude interactions with the protagonist
I will give it to the author I thoroughly enjoyed the protagonist telling off the LI and then jumping off a balcony when he basically had her cornered. Unfortunately undercut by how as a reader you just know he’s right that his brother is bad so she was supposed to be in the wrong

Something else that was baffling was how easy it might have been to have a cozy romance between our protagonist and Freddy. Reasons spoilered
he allows her to stay in the library with him, sets up the events that get her a second job, they have an easy chemistry, she goes to him for help which he gives no question, and her motivation for studying a cure for turning into a gargoyle is helping Freddy.
While this is marketed as cozy fantasy romance, it really doesn’t quite nail the vibe for reasons that are hard to pin down as I write this. It might be that the protagonist and her love interest have negative interactions while she is having pertly charming interactions with Freddy, Asher, and the Love Interest’s brother which leaves love interest guy more of a prickly dude who is just there.
for example I really thought he would step in to help our protagonist when his brother came to force her to make a poison but once again Freddy helps her. Ha, watch me hype him up this whole review and he’s evil or something XD
it could maybe just be the floatiness of the narrative not moored to deep seated desires in our protagonist. While she wants to cure an curse, the way she immediately decides that is her new life’s work without us as an audience seeing she already such a skilled apothecary, it makes it feel off that everyone is treating her as a foremost expert and best hope in curing this curse that has been afflicting people for ages.
I think the final nail for me was just the writing in general felt in need of more edits and shoring up to tighten the narrative, pacing, and characters
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