Unbound

Even though I'm usually not a fan of second-chance romances, Unbound surprised me in a positive way. The story pulled me in quickly and ended up being much more emotional than I expected. Paloma was one of the most interesting characters for me. In the previous books, she was always more of a side character, so I never really got to know her. In Unbound, she finally gets her own story and a lot more depth. Her traumatic past is revealed little by little, which kept me interested and made me want to keep reading. At the same time, I could understand her fears and the choices she made, even though I sometimes wanted to shake her. I already liked Bennett in the previous books, but this book helped me understand him and his behavior much better. The way his autism and OCD were portrayed felt realistic and natural. These parts of his character were reflected in his thoughts and actions instead of being included just to make him seem more unique. The only thing that didn't always work for me was how intense some of his behaviors toward Paloma felt. His focus on certain details about her and his constant need to take care of her sometimes felt a little repetitive, a little bit too much. One of my favorite parts of the book was the inclusion of poetry. It added another emotional layer to Bennett and Paloma's relationship. I was a little disappointed that this aspect became less important as the story went on because I would have loved to see more of it. I also wish there had been more hockey in the book, since training sessions and games only played a very small role in the overall story. I was also happy to see familiar characters from the previous books return. The story switches between the past and the present, which helped build tension and slowly reveal what had happened between Bennett and Paloma. However, some of the time jumps were a little confusing to me at times. Overall, Unbound is an emotional story about love, trauma, healing, and trust that I enjoyed reading, even if it didn't fully live up to the potential I felt it had. And of course, Bennett's dog Seven was my absolute favorite character!