2023 Audiobook review:
I am only gonna talk about the narration in my updated review because the story was just as good as it was when I read it last year. I thought this was going to be a tough one to be able to perform because of the various accents. I think the narrators had a lot to deal with and the accents were great at moments and then were tough for me in some scenes. So Maeve did a phenomenal job with Rosa but her accents for the guys in the chapter were not as strong, especially Tiernan’s. The same would be for Alexander. He did such an amazing job with Tiernan, but he wasn’t strong a lot of the time with Rosa’s parts and her accent. If this had been a duet narration I would have easily given it 5 stars across the board, but because some of the accents got muffled I brought it down to a 4 stars for the narration. I still really enjoyed it, I was engaged and sucked into this world until the accent misalignments brought me out of it. They had all the right emotions and the tension and angst was done really well!
🎧 Audiobook Obsession Reviewer – Flock Team 🎧
2022 Original ebook review:
Wow, I have read a lot of books by this author and this one really surprised me! In the best of ways 😊 I really loved the premise of the shared world (I love mafia romances and reverse harems even more!) and how this story had twists and turns you didn’t see coming. I loved Rosa and how strong she was, I would totally want to be her one day (or have her as a trusty wing woman!). She was stubborn, fierce, but allowed some fun times in the bedroom where she wasn’t in control. Out of the 3 men, I wanted to give Colin a huge hug and not let him go. His background was so tragic and he was so gruff, but total teddy bear. I loved his random snark and one-liners haha. Shay was adorable and so flirty but loyal to Rosa. I loved the shopping and house appt scenes, made me heart so happy. Nooooow for Tiernan haha. So he was the most complicated of characters (besides Rosa) and I did appreciate his arc and seeing his journey from the start of the book to the end. I think we all wanted to shake him or smack him upside his head a bunch of times, but the glimpses of his love and devotion to his wife (by arranged marriage) was incredible to see. I loved when he bought stuff to help her feel better when she was on her time of the month. AAAAAAND don’t even get me started on him in the bedroom. I loved seeing his Dom come out, and those steamy scenes were fantastic and I didnt want them to end.
I did love the storyline and family aspect of the book as well. Ivy did a phenomenal job making us fall for other characters (I looooved Ma/Saoirse – she was so funny but loving, made me feel welcomed while reading with how welcoming she was with Rosa). I am glad Niall/Pa got his stick out of his you know where. I really was sucked into the family dynamic and the story with Patrick. The epilogue made me teary-eyed and so happy, I was kinda hoping there wouldn’t be an epilogue so we could get more from these characters. My favorite series by Ivy is Rotten Love and this might have topped it. I was pleasantly surprised by how much she was able to include in this standalone ❤️
I really appreciated Ivy going out of her normal writing style (while still being true to herself) and giving us an even darker love story than she has done, while still keeping with her tell-tale angst and romance. I am so excited to read the other books in this shared world and so happy they are releasing every 2 weeks, so we don’t have book hangovers for too long haha. I would highly recommend Binding Rose and for those who want finished series, this is a completed standalone. Each of these books are interconnected, but have their own individual stories focusing on one of the crime families and one of the daughters of the mafia world.