Book Review: The Binding
This is a Christian historical novel with a bit of mystery woven throughout the story. If you’re familiar with the James Bond series, or even Indiana Jones, then you’ll likely enjoy the suspenseful and thrilling setup of The Binding.
As a fellow Christian myself, I love looking for good quality Christian fiction, so I was very pleased to get my hands on a book like this. Gilbert could have easily turned this into a steamy action-thriller with protagonists John and Irene and their undeniable attraction to each other. This could have been filled with foul language, brutal deaths, and pages of scenes I typically skip but instead we are presented with a clean, intriguing, and purely entertaining journey.
John is a master thief and Irene is an intelligent historian; as you would expect, they go through some romantic development as their paths are connected and the story unfolds but there’s more to The Binding than just a simple romance. We do spend some time working our way through the lives of the cast but, to me at least, everything is connected and really pulls the story together. I was drawn in by the mystery and curious events surrounding our characters—John and Irene in particular meet under very interesting circumstances. In many ways, they are opposites, so their romance itself is quite a journey, but it doesn’t pull from the overall plot.
When it comes to the historic ties and connections made in the story, I felt it was very well written and immersive but I have to say, I think this book feels like more of a period mystery novel than historic fiction, and as someone who is relatively unfamiliar with mystery novels, I’d say this was certainly one that pulled you in from the start.
The only real complaint I have is about the characterization. There was certainly development of the characters and between the characters, but I didn’t really enjoy them as much as I would have liked. Irene came off as a little dimwitted, despite her clear intelligence. But, more than anything, she seemed emotionally immature. I don’t know what it is about Christian authors, especially male ones, but the portrayal of women in Christian work is sometimes questionable. We are not all little lambs who shy away at the smallest romantic gesture. Believe it or not, being a virtuous woman does not necessarily mean you are a woman who will blush and giggle and do other weird, girlish gestures at the wink of an eye. While this book was certainly good and had good characters, I just wish that they had been more deeply relatable.
Overall, I think anyone who likes a clean-cut, to-the-point story with a plot that doesn’t drag its feet will certainly enjoy The Binding. This will be most appreciated by adult Christian readers with an interest in mystery and history.
*The Rebel Christian received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*