Review of ‘Bonded Love’ by Renee Roman
I thought this was one of Roman’s best books but it was still very up and down for me. Roman tends to write some storylines or characters that I really like, but then there is always something that doesn’t work for me. It puts a lot of her books in the middle of the road category for me, with this one being a little better than average. I feel like Roman is just a few steps away from writing a book that I absolutely love, and that feeling is why I keep reading her books.
When I saw that the two characters in this book had the jobs of emergency room nurse and master carpenter, my interest was piqued immediately. I have always been interested in woodworking and I love anything even remotely medical romance-ish. I did like the scenes revolving around the characters’ jobs, but I wish there was more of it. I must have read the blurb wrong (which happens to me way too often) but I thought the nurse character was going to be “nursing” the carpenter back to health and their time together would be when they fell in love. That wasn’t the case though and instead, I felt their connection was pretty instant. This is a moderately slow-burn romance so it’s not insta-love, but I just thought they needed more time together so that when they constantly thought of each other, it would seem more realistic.
An example of my ups and downs really came in with the characters. One character was great, a romantic hot butch who is a complete gentlewoman with a good heart. I mean her character was almost too good. The other woman didn’t know how to communicate, was wishy-washy, and wicked flighty. I was having trouble understanding what about her the too good to be true character liked so much. The only thing I could think of is since we are told over and over how beautiful she is, is it must be all physical attraction. It was just hard because one character is so great that you want to see her be with someone just as great.
My other main issue was how slow parts of this book were. It took me three days to read this. That is not normal for me. When it comes to average-sized reads, I pick a book up and I finish it the same day. The first 50% really slowed down and there wasn’t much keeping me reading. I don’t think enough really happened at the beginning of the book. But, here comes the up, the last 50%. I enjoyed the second half much more and I flew through it in a few hours on the third day. The pace was so much better and the book more enjoyable.
There was so much of this book that was almost there for me. For every issue I had, there was something good to counterbalance. I feel like Roman is so close to a big hit if she can just put all those ups together without the downs. If you are looking for a slower-paced lesbian romance with a decent amount of angst, this might be for you. I do think this was one of her best books so I’m hoping her next will take that final step and be a real winner for me. 3.50 stars.
An ARC was given to me for an honest review.
