Review: Taming 7 - Chloe Walsh

Review: Taming 7 - Book #5 Boys of Tommen Series - Chloe Walsh - April 2024

Right, settle in with your favourite cuppa, get cosy on the sofa, and let me tell you about the book that absolutely wrecked me in the best possible way. Taming 7 has been on my most-anticipated list for what feels like forever, because if you've been following along here at The Phantom Paragrapher, you'll know that Gerard "Gibsie" Gibson has had a very special place in my heart since the moment he first bounced onto the page. And let me tell you  Chloe Walsh delivered, and then some. OMFG, my heart was breaking from page one and it did not let up.

Gibsie. Our lovable, chaotic, endlessly funny Tommen boy. The class clown. The lad who could make you snort-laugh in the middle of a tense scene and then leave you absolutely floored two pages later. From the very first chapter, Walsh strips back that cheeky, irreverent humour to reveal what so many of us suspected was lurking underneath , a deeply broken boy carrying the weight of a painful past, using laughter as armour against a world that has hurt him in ways we're only beginning to understand. It's gut-wrenching, it's raw, and it is absolutely magnificent storytelling.

And then there's Claire Biggs  - our Claire-Bear sunshine personified. She is warmth and light and stubborn, beautiful determination all wrapped into one. She has spent her whole life seeing the real Gerard, the version he keeps hidden from everyone else, and she refuses to look away. Their dynamic is everything ,  the childhood best friend slow burn, the agonising push and pull, the crossed lines and complicated feelings that have been simmering across previous books finally coming to a head. Walsh handles their story with such care and emotional intelligence that you feel every single moment in your chest.

Like its predecessors in the Boys of Tommen series, Taming 7 brings all the feels, the high-octane emotions, and that signature Walsh angst that keeps you turning pages at midnight when you absolutely should be sleeping. She writes messy, complicated, deeply human characters who you cannot help but fall completely in love with, and Gibsie and Claire are no exception.

I cannot wait to dive into Book 6, and the news that Boys of Tommen is being adapted for TV has me absolutely buzzing. Much like Monica Murphy's Lancaster Prep series, this is one of those fictional worlds I'll be genuinely sad to eventually leave behind.

Taming 7 earns a rare and very well-deserved 5Ps from me here at The Phantom Paragrapher. Don't miss this one.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/4rvv4sb