•Genre: New adult emotional romance
•Tropes: friends to lovers, hidden trauma, mental health, sunshine x sunshine, angst
•Pages: 551
•Series: Boys of Tommen #5
•Spice: 3/5️

favorite quote
“Claire Biggs had a lot of things. My back. My attention. My heart. My soul. Yeah, she had all of me and that wasn’t an exaggeration.” - Gibsie

Gibsie and Claire have known each other since they were kids. They grew up with just a street separating their doors and are best friends, but as they grow older, they realize that their relationship might not be able to stay within the bounds of friendship.
But is it worth losing your best friend to discover love?

The funny but deeply hurt Gibsie with his traumas and the ray of sunshine Claire are here to tell us their story, which, I won’t hide from you, ended up disappointing me a bit.
If you’ve made it this far in the series, you will have loved and singled out Gibsie just like I did, and you would literally expect, with such attitude and such a mouth, for his book to be explosive.

Wrong!
The characters here have somewhat lost their identity. I feel like they became a bit more impulsive and more immature than what would befit their young age.

The story, while generally very heavy and dealing with a draining and serious situation, does not focus as deeply as the previous books in the series, but rather makes a discreet “rush” with the omens for Lizzie’s book taking center stage and stealing from the main plot.

On the positive side, of course, is Gibsie and his defense mechanism of facing hardships with his humor, as well as the familiar group that offers us many delightful scenes.

So far, the weakest book in the series, which nevertheless remains a book with very distinctive writing that delivers its own powerful messages and takes you on a journey to the golden era of the 90s-20s, evoking a sweet nostalgia in your soul.

I recommend this book to those who know how to appreciate good humor and to those who are always looking for something more in their romance books.

‼️ATTENTION‼️
Read the trigger warnings and make sure that none of the book’s scenes will affect you negatively.

⚠️Trigger warnings: reference to rape and child sexual abuse, drowning, loss of father, substance abuse
▫️A few words about the book: Taming 7 is the fifth book in our beloved Boys of Tommen series (I won’t accept any other opinion here). The story of the book focuses on Gibsie, one of my personal favorite side characters who appears in the previous books, and his relationship with Claire.
▪️Style/Writing of the book: If you have read the other books, Chloe Walsh’s writing will win you over here as well, just like in the previous ones. She builds the characters and their connection gradually, while our story develops naturally, slowly revealing details and individual events.
▫️Why I loved it: The truth is I didn’t expect to love it so much, as I saw Gibsie more as the joker of the group rather than someone with a deeper personality. But of course, all the plot twists I didn’t expect happened!
▪️Why you should read it: Of course, to read this book, you need to read the rest of the series to get the full meaning, otherwise you’ll miss important details that have been mentioned. If you’re one of those who have read them and are wondering if you should pick this one up too, I’ll tell you OF COURSE, don’t even think about it. The book will pleasantly surprise you, and it will make you love Gibsie & Claire even more!