Saving & Redeeming 6 Review
Boys of Tommen Books 3 & 4 by Chloe Walsh ***SPOILERS AT THE BOTTOM***
I recently finished my review of books 1 & 2 of this series and included it in my last months wrap up. I recommend reading those first if you haven’t here:
My Binding & Keeping 13 Review
Now after completing books 3 & 4, since it followed the same structure where its two books that read like one book but cut in half due to length. So I am going to make another single review with one rating which includes both. I don’t typically do this, but for this series it just makes sense.
For a quick recap, I loved Binding and Keeping 13! It was really impressive for YA books. I was excited to keep going and follow two new characters. The structure of the book and how it fits into the series was interesting. Books 3 & 4 pretty much cover the same timeline as books 1 & 2, just from the different MMC and FMC point of views. Saving 6 does have more back in time moments to get the history of the two main characters and how they grow and develop together and how their relationship started which wasn’t covered in the first two books. But once we go through all of that, we revisit a lot of the same scenes. Even with the same dialogue. I didn’t mind it but I would warn people that you aren’t going to necessarily move much “forward” from where you left off in book 2.
Comparing the themes of this book, I would argue these books are darker than the first two books. Even though both characters in books 1 & 2 had their own individual struggles, the struggles the main characters deal with in these books takes it up a level. It was also a bit of a role reversal. In Binding/Keeping 13, the MMC Johnny Kavanaugh is the golden boy, athlete, '“touch her and die” kind of character. He is the one that saves the FMC Shannon Lynch “like the river” from her abusive home life. In Saving/Redeeming 6, we are following Shannon’s brother Joey Lynch and his girlfriend Aoife Molloy, who we also meet in Binding/Keeping. They each have their own struggles, Joey with drug addiction on top of his abusive home life and Aoife’s trying to love and be in a relationship with an addict along with her issues.
There was booktok influencer who made a good point that Binding/Keeping is a “he saves her” while Saving/Redeeming is a “she saves him”. So you might end up liking one of these more than the other depending on your personality. Don’t get me wrong, I loved both. But there were issues I had with Aoife during this book and the constant thing I kept thinking was this was one of those “I can fix him” situations. Which honestly, if this wasn’t YA I would dock it points, but because we’re reading about teen love and so many first experiences you have to remember that these characters LITERALLY don’t know any better. It can be frustrating to read as an adult, but if you take a step back and remember it meant for YA, I can look past it and see how it makes sense.
As dark as the first two books were, I was really surprised at how far Walsh went with Joey’s drug use and addiction in the story. Again, some people might not think it’s appropriate, but it’s the sad and unfortunate reality that too many teens and young adults are facing. If you read my review on Binding/Keeping 13, I go into why I think these books are appropriate and should still be considered YA. Also, like the first two books, these end up with a hopeful and happy ending all things considered which I believe places it in the firm YA genre. My only gripe was that I didn’t get to see Aoife’s character really recover and grow in the same way we saw Joey. You get some of it in the prologue, but I would’ve liked to see more. Again, that comes with the issue of the book not moving beyond the book 1 & 2 timeline.
Overall, I still thoroughly enjoyed these two books and plan to continue to Taming 6 (which I am really excited for and have been wanting to read since I found out the character POVs from book 1). It had me crying multiple times and had a lot of emotional heartbreaking and gut wrenching moments. But even with all that, there is still a lot of love and hope shown in the story and would definitely recommend.
Rating: 4.25 ⭐️ / 3 🌶️
Format: Audiobook/eReader
Till next time, just keep reading :)
***SPOILERS BELOW***
.
.
.
.
.
Ugh, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t thrilled about the whole teen pregnancy story line. I understand why Walsh went in that direction, and while I didn’t love it for Aoife’s character, I understood why it was good for the book regarding Joey’s character arch. I just wish we got to see more of Aoife back to her old self in more than just the prologue. I felt like her character ended up struggling and not getting the same level of happiness at the end. They just quickly jumped to Joey asking her to move in and she gets to go to Tommen, but her real struggle at the end was motherhood and I would’ve loved to see her get a better resolution on that other than the prologue, which was more of her and Joey being cute together again and not showing her feeling capable of being a good mom. I was annoyed that the epilogue was from Shannon’s POV and wasted on a snowball fight and not Aoife settling into being a mom. It just felt like a missed opportunity.
I also am really intrigued about Lizzie and her whole arch now. They were basically teasing her story throughout the book in small moments but now I want to read hers like how I wanted to read Gibsie and Claire’s after the first two books. I was surprised it was Lizzie who was the one to pull Joey back and stop him from committing suicide. I think between Joey’s note and their conversation as she was holding him back, it was a really well written moment that had a lot of emotional impact on both sides. To understand how someone can feel so depressed and low that they actually feel like it’s the right thing to do, and the reality about how it affects the people you leave behind. It was one of those moments that I cried and it just was heartbreaking.
Finally, I am so excited to read Taming 7! I love Gibsie’s character and his and Claire’s dynamic. They are definitely the friends to lovers vibe and I’m here for it. I also hope at some point Joey picks up rugby. It would be fun to read with Johnny, Joey and Gibsie together.
Onto the next one!
If you read this series, let me know what you think! Would love to hear your thoughts!