Book Review✨ New Adult Romance

⭐️Overall rating: 5/5

Plot Notes📒:

Shannon Lynch, a sophomore high school girl in Ireland, is the only daughter of 6 children. The story begins with Shannon joining a new school after being bullied out of her former. She gets hit, accidentally, by a rugby ball and she meets the boy who threw it. Johnny Kavanaugh is a senior who has big dreams to play rugby professionally. Their first meeting catapults them into a sweet, slow burn romance in the midst of a heavy situation involving Shannon’s troubling home life and Johnny’s weary future in rugby. Although it’s a romance novel, it is a slow-burn that takes up two books for these characters. Despite these books being around 600 pages each, you won’t want to put them down even for a second. Read my review for the second book of Shannon and Johnny’s love story on my page.

Favorite Quote:

“You could love this girl your whole life, the crazy thought persisted inside my brain over and over, if you just let yourself.”

- Johnny Kavanagh

Comments:

Binding 13 is one of my favorite books ever! It is a sickeningly sweet slow burn romance that’s filled with tropes like found family, friends to lovers, and sports romance. I love reading novels from Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and Kate Quinn, but I also love indulging in sweet romances like Chloe Walsh has provided. She’s a phenomenal writer as she brings you into the fold of a big friend group that loves hard. I do want to caution those who may feel triggered by heavy topics such as domestic violence, abuse, and addiction. Although the romance is sweet, the plot is very heavy and it should not be taken lightly. The plot is traumatic and heartbreaking. I also recommend having the second book, Keeping 13, ready on hand because you will want to start it immediately after finishing Binding 13. Don’t be intimidated by the page count! You won’t even notice it once you’re in the thick of it.

Happy Reading!