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Well, this was painful. Just not only for the reasons I was hoping it to be 😭😭


*Note: in order not to repeat myself, I won’t be talking about the blurb again, you can read my review of Saving 6 if you are interested :)


I understand the author was restricted to fit everything that happened in K13 (book 2) so there wasn’t always room to do what the story needed. But having all the drama of K13 on top of the situations regarding Joey and Aoife was too much. In contrast to the other three books in the series, there wasn’t any balance between the good and the bad; there weren’t any moments to breathe and get ready for what was yet to come. It was like going free fall for over 800-hundred pages, which ironically made the emotional impact smaller. You need to stand up in order to fall again. That was something Chloe Walsh mastered in K13, where I was shaking with laughter at one chapter and with fear at the next. There was nothing more than angst here and I needed some equilibrium to stay attached to the story.


The pace was off. It follows a similar timeline to K13 but the summarizing of dialogues and actions that happened in K13 made it feel like we were jumping from one scene to another. Maybe to compensate, Aoife and Joey spent the first 80% of the book walking in circles, copying what had already happened in S6 but getting worse and worse with time. It would probably have worked better if we didn’t know what was going to happen at the end- I still remember how my heart raced with fear in K13-, but here I just wanted to know what was going to come next. Only to realize that ‘next�� was only 20% of the book, with more scenes about other characters than the main couple and with way too many problems that were left to imagine were solved in the epilogue.


While I still adore how Aoife loves Joey unconditionally, how strong she is during the whole process, I missed having more growth on her character. It pains me to say this, but the constant back and forth between them tired me so much that I finished this book feeling less into them than I did at the end of K13-and they were my favs just after Gibs. I finished the book thinking ‘that was it? After so much pain and tears, that’s all we are going to see of them happily together?��.


As a side note, I don’t get why Aoife was so adamant to know how many girls Joey had been with before dating her. And don’t get me started with the amount of violence. I can give Joey a pass, but all the others? Is there any male leader that it’s not going to solve problems by beating them?


It also rubbed me the wrong way how many characters were either ‘evil characters�� or ‘good characters��, how even the scenes between Johnny’s mum and Joey got me out of the story. We didn’t have the time to let the secondary characters bond with Aoife and Joey, it felt they were just there to fulfill a role and that’s it. I never felt that way when I was reading Shannon’s story. If anything, it was the other way around: the secondary characters stole so many scenes, it was the whole reason why K13 is one of my all time favorite books.


Again, most of the problems were regarding the structure/pace and that couldn’t have been easily solved due to the restrictions of the timeline. I’d even argue that the pregnancy trope was an unnecessary added drama to an already crowded tragedy, but that wasn’t something the author could have changed. However, I think it could have been partially solved if the majority of the story happened after K13, instead of just the 20%, giving the author more room to give new content and a more satisfying happily ever after.


Overall, it may not feel like it but I love this series, I love these characters, I will continue to look forward to every single volume (Gibbs and Claire-bear’s the most). It’s just that, sadly, this didn’t live up to my expectations and left me with a rather bitter aftertaste.


�� Series:
1. Binding 13: 4 stars
2. Keeping 13: ALL THE STARTS❤️
3. Saving 6: 4.25 stars
4. Redeeming 6: 2.5 stars