Well-written/Editor Needed: Well-written
Personal Thoughts: I feel like such a hater for saying this, but
The Binding just didn’t wow me. It isn’t poorly written, which makes my lack of enthusiasm hard to explain. I never felt especially invested in Lucian or Emmett’s relationship with him, and I think that the structure of the book three arcs, in which the entire second section is a flashback that explains the significance of the first doesn’t work the way the author intended. Lucian, as he appears in both the first and third sections, is a character whose uneasy combination of trauma and privilege have made him unpleasant to be around. He s hardly recognizable as the person Emmett fell in love with. It isn’t exactly unbelievable that Emmett continues to pursue him, convinced that if he can just get Lucian’s memories back he will become that person again, but it feels like a cheap out to use magic in lieu of character development.