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Cait's avatar

Update--I inhaled the first four books (2500+ pages) in one week (to be fair I was on vacation) and am feral for the remaining two. Burrowing into these melodramatic teens' psyches was exactly the escapism I needed right now. Could each of the two duets have been a single shorter than 600 page book? Absolutely yes. Do I want them to be? Absolutely no.

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Alyssa Morris's avatar

omg thank you for your service here. I can totally see them as perfect escapism!

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Cait's avatar

Just finished book 5--definitely not as good in either plot or writing as the first two sets (which was disappointing as I loved the characters when they were sidekicks in the first one). And 6 looks to be even more over the top in melodrama, but let's see if she got any better at writing...

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Cait's avatar

A good way into book 6 and I’ve clarified what was wrong with book 5–she should have woven that story into the book 6 storyline, 5 was not enough to stand on its own (as a 500+ page book). 6 is better, though the trauma porn moniker is probably accurate…

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Lady Jane's avatar

I’m reading this late, but it looks like there’s been quite a controversy about Releasing 10 and she’s posted a fairly long response video (I saw it in Instagram). I don’t know all the nuances, but I saw someone call it “trauma porn” and apparently there were no content/trigger warnings.

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Alyssa Morris's avatar

oh boy, sounds like I need to do some research and write a follow up

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Lady Jane's avatar

I didn’t watch her whole video response…it’s 14 minutes long!

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Alyssa Morris's avatar

!!!! and I can't even watch it on 2x speed!

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Lauren MacWilliams's avatar

I found this extremely helpful and riveting reporting haha. This book has been circling my TBR without officially landing a spot on it for at least a year. I also had no idea it was a jersey number reference, I thought it was a friend group of 13 people LOL. Idk, high schools at prep schools have a lot of friends? A jock clique? But this makes more sense. (Or maybe not… what does “binding” mean in this context… is this Irish slang?)

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Alyssa Morris's avatar

Ok so! Binding is apparently a thing that happens in rugby and in the book Binding 13 is a bet all of the older girls have about being the first to lock Johnny down, it’s supposed to be a racy play on words I think? But obviously I understand neither rugby nor 2005 era Irish slang

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Cait's avatar

Except binding is a thing for forwards and 13 is a back position... I guess can see the slang evolution from that

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Cait's avatar

I've also been thinking about attempting Boys of Tommen--are there HEAs? Are there different characters through the series? My assumption from just looking at the titles is that the numbers refer to the MMCs' rugby positions and so some relationships get 2 books (Binding/Keeping 13, Saving/Redeeming 6) and some get 1 (Taming 7)?

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Alyssa Morris's avatar

Correct! This first one is like a duology - book 1 ends on a cliffhanger, book 2 resolves, but there is crossover with all of the characters between all of the books. So if you're willing to commit to 1600 pages you'll get an HEA. It's a little closer to Magnolia Parks than a standalone romance.

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Cait's avatar

If I like the writing I will read many, many books to get my HEA :) Love me a RH/WC series, the longer the better (I know these aren't RH but an intertwined friend group series is almost as good)

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