Series: Harper’s Destiny
Release Date: July 11th, 2017
After years apart, the prince is not the man she remembers. His cold demeanour quickly drives a wedge between them. But when a legend comes to life and offers three sacred feathers for three destined husbands, Princess Harper’s future is thrown into chaos.
With the threat of war on the horizon and a traitor within the Greenwood royal family, Harper will have to overcome the schemes standing in her path and forge new bonds with three men destined to be hers.
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
• No abuse
• No OW/OM drama
• Does have one of the Heroes and Heroine pushing away
• Does not have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
Rating: 2/5 stars
Not to be overly judgy, but I kinda feel that Feathers That Bind was a mess, but it had potential. Kirk had an excellent idea with the plot; it was engaging, action-packed and had sexy moments. But, the synopsis was utterly misleading. Going into Feathers That Bind, I thought Landon was evil, but then Landon isn’t actually Landon, and the plot got way more complicated. It wasn’t hard to follow, but I feel as if I missed a portion of the book where the main characters actually connected.
We–as readers–are simply told that Harper cares for Barret… except when she interacts with him at the beginning of the book (I admit I kind of skimmed it), there was nothing to suggest he was special to Harper. Also, marriage to Prince Landon is brought up in the first chapter, but we get no clue that they were best friends growing up. Even with Jonah, there wasn’t really anything to suggest intimacy… which makes sense since Harper hasn’t seen Landon or Jonah in 6 years! So, the fact that Harper, Landon, and Jonah go back to teasing and flirting right away really makes no sense.
Also, I feel at times Kirk kind of tried too hard to create a bond between her characters. It’s actually okay for characters to disagree and fight (as long as the fight isn’t stupid AF). But, there were many times when Barret and Jonah made decisions that made sense, and Harper would whine, pout and become angry because she wanted them to stick together… nevermind that they would be reunited in a few days. It made no sense since, in the beginning, we are introduced to a princess (Harper) who will do anything to protect her kingdom. But now it’s revised to she’ll do anything for her kingdom except being briefly separated from her lovers.
My biggest complaint was the complete misdirect concerning Harper and Landon. I started Feathers That Bind, expecting Harper to use her three destined lovers to fight and save her kingdom from Landon’s and his kingdom’s grasp. But, as it turns out, Landon is one of her three destined lovers… and is apparently her childhood BFF and (possible) ex-lover? If she loved him–like she claimed–why was she so resistant to the engagement in the first place? I get the whole “marry, or we invade your kingdom” puts quite a damper on things, but there wasn’t even a tiny moment where Harper expressed feelings of excitement over maybe marrying Landon.
Feathers That Bind wasn’t horrible–I did finish it–but I just feel that I missed out on the relationship-building between Harper and her mates… the whole taking to the next level. Reverse Harem is good because sorting things out between the characters is what makes it fun to read! The romance becomes even better when the characters have to fight for their relationship. We completely missed that in Feathers That Bind… since it was a weird mix of insta-love and arguments were brushed aside as “oh I didn’t mean it” or “I was just kidding.” That being said, I won’t be reading the next book in the series.
