Taming 7
Gibsie and Claire, the series' long-awaited comic-relief-turned-heartbreaker pairing. Lighter than the Lynch books on the surface, with Walsh's signature ache underneath.
Everything You Need to Know About Taming 7
Gerard 'Gibsie' Gibson has been the comic relief of the series since book one, Tommen's cheekiest lad, never without a joke. Taming 7 is about what the jokes are covering. Haunted by events in his past, Gibsie uses humor to keep the world at arm's length, and almost nobody has ever looked closely enough to notice. Claire Biggs has. The resident sunshine girl has loved Gibsie her whole life, her brother's best friend and the boy next door, and she is done waiting for him to take her seriously. When she sets out to tame her wild-at-heart childhood best friend, lines get crossed, and suddenly it is not clear whether their friendship will survive being turned into something more.
The tone swing. After the Joey books, Gibsie and Claire's chapters feel like sunlight, and Walsh gets real comedy out of two narrators who are both slightly ridiculous. But the book earns its tearjerker reputation, because Gibsie's backstory reframes several books' worth of clowning in one stroke. It is also the series' best showcase for the whole ensemble. The friend group that has been assembling since Binding 13 operates at full strength here, found family done properly, with everyone's stories overlapping at the edges.
Childhood sexual abuse, disclosed and dealt with on the page. The death of a parent, grief, PTSD and panic attacks, alongside the series' usual drinking and teenage recklessness. The comedy does not make it safe reading for everyone.
Friends-to-lovers fans, this is your entry. It is the funniest book of the six and the sweetest couple, with the caveat that a serious trauma storyline sits underneath the comedy, so calling it the light one is only true by comparison. As with the rest of the series, the characters are in school but the books are written for adult readers; see how we rate spice if that matters for you. Readable on its own in theory, far better in order.
Book five of six. Gibsie and Claire's story runs alongside the events of the earlier books rather than after them, and it assumes you already know the friend group. The sixth book, Releasing 10, belongs to Claire's brother Hugh and Lizzie Young.
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