Yessssss a sequel to All Our Hidden Gifts! While it stood well alone, I was MORE than happy for a sequel, and it definitely made me realise how much more there was to tell. I loved getting to spend more time with these characters.

I continue to love to not always like Maeve, I adore Roe, Fiona is fantastic and Lily is a nightmare which was great fun. To be fair, she has a good reason. Seeing them together does provide the book with a more contemporary feel to it than the first (especially with Roe being away and becoming more distant), though we are obviously still in the realistic fantasy universe. It was also great getting to see the characters learn more about their powers, even going to extremes with them at times.

I like that we get to lean more into the LGBTQ+ aspects, and also see some of what is going on behind the Children of Brigid. It definitely has a slightly darker aspect to it - possibly because it's less about the housekeeper and about a more human evil. Albeit one that may have a supernatural influence.

Overall this is a really strong series and I'm excited for the third book! 4 stars.

Fabulous eye catching cover! Maeve and her friends were just brilliant once again in this instalment and I am going to be eagerly awaiting the third book to find out what happens to them next. I even warmed to Lily as the book came to the close and I found her a bit cold (for obvious reasons) at the end of the previous book. Just fantastic teen angst and witchy goodness all around! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Gifts That Bind Us picks up soon after the end of All Our Hidden Gifts. This is hard to write about without giving away spoilers. Suffice to say, Maeve and her friends are getting to grips with the changes in their lives brought about by events in the first book. The sinister religious group The Children of Brigid is still very much in evidence. I admit that when I started to read this, I thought it was a duology and so was a little surprised at the pace. I couldn't see how it was all going to tie up. By the end I realised that there is still more to come (thank goodness!) I can't wait for book 3! Highly recommended for all who like an eerie, magical tale.

A brilliant YA novel and addition to the trilogy - can’t wait to see what comes next. This book is a treat for both teenagers and adults. Full of intrigue, mystery, quirkiness and queerness.

Good sequel which was definitely more focused on characters and feelings than fighting a bad guy, I wasn't sure the first book needed a sequel and I still think it didn't need it but it was better than I expected and worked well.

Gifts That Bind Us is the second novel in this brilliant series from Caroline O’Donoghue. Once again, we are thrust into a very modern Irish landscape filled with magic, supernatural gifts, and Irish mythology. Maeve, Roe, Fiona, and Lily are a 2020s Buffy Scooby Squad who as well as learning to master their magical gifts granted to them in the first book and battling the sinister Children of Brigid (go back and read this if you have not 😊) also must contend with very real-world issues from relationships to gender identity and everything in between. Where the first book was the set up of this world and its system of magic this second book is much more character led, which adds fascinating facets to this growing world. I also loved that whilst the book is not intentionally political in any way it does have an underlying theme touching upon the troubling rise of right-wing hate groups and the minority groups that these groups affect.
Gifts That Bind Us is a very readable sequel that builds on the brilliance of the first book. For fans of teen, supernatural drama then this should be on your Spring reading list 4 out of 5 stars.

The mesmerising sequel to the superb supernatural YA novel All Our Hidden Gifts. Four young gifted teens have forged a bond following on from their experiences in the first book. Maeve can read minds, but lacks strength and control in her gift, her boyfriend Row can pick locks. His sister Lily can create sparks with water and Fiona can heal. Over the course of the summer, they meet secretly to practice and hone their gifts. An old enemy resurfaces and threatens their safety - Aaron, another gifted sensitive like Maeve, is working on behalf of the Children of Brigid; a strict religious group with anti LGBTQ,+ leanings. This does not sit well with the group, as Rory, renamed Roe, fronts a trans band. The Children of Brigid's infiltration of the city and the country of Ireland is growing, as is their interest in young people, particularly in Meave and her friends. As mayhem and magic shake the lives of the teen coven, their friendship and bonds are truly tested. Another bewitching magical book for YA, with strong characterisation and LGBTQ + presence. I have no doubts that there will be more to come in this brilliant series. #thegiftsthatbindus #carolineodonaghue #netgalley

I really enjoyed All Our Hidden Gifts, so I was delighted to see the next in the series; The Gifts That Bind Us, released last month.
Maeve is a teenage girl living in Kilbeg, a moderately sized town in Ireland that recently became the focus of a far right, ultra intolerant religious group; The Children of God.

Maeve, along with her friends Roe, Fiona, and Lily, are determined to defeat them and protect their home, using their newly honed magical skills. Unfortunately for them, the Children of God have deep pockets and are more ruthless than they could ever have imagined.

I really loved this; possibly more than the first book. It feels warmly nostalgic to me, and reminds me a bit of watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer when I was a teenager (and all the years since, also 😅).
This will be a perfect Halloween read this year, and is ideal for the teen in your life that likes a creepy book series they can really get their teeth into. It’s also perfect for those of us slightly (ahem) past their teen years, that enjoy a good witchy YA story.

Can’t wait for the next one!
Recommend!

With thanks to @netgalley and @walkerbooksuk for the opportunity to read this book.

When I requested this book I was unaware it was a sequel and I purchased the first book to read, which I really enjoyed, so this one made sense. Unfortunately I much preferred the first one. In this one the plot gets a little saggy and the themes a little woolly. The aspects I found unique about the first one, the use of tarot cards for example, is largely lacking from this one. This might be middle book syndrome and the next book might pull it all back together again but sadly I've no desire to read on. I am most definitely not the primary target audience for YA however and I feel this book is very firmly entrenched in, and limited by, the tropes of that genre - that is to say, I'm not sure how much appeal it will have beyond it's teenage market. I also felt that book itself was at times confused at who it was aimed at - sometimes feeling quite childish but then also including first time sex. On the whole, it was OK but not great.

(Thank you to NetGalley and Walker Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review)

I loved the first book in this series so I had high hopes for the second instalment but unfortunately, it was a little underwhelming.

The pace and story itself were much slower than the first. In All Our Hidden Gifts, you were fully transported into the world of the book and were invested in the story but in this one, it didn't have the same effect. I still loved the characters and their relationships. They were given time to grow and develop which I liked.

The writing style was also great and easy to read although it was a little darker than the first book and deals with some heavy topics (please check trigger warnings before reading!).

Overall, it had some great elements and characters that you will get attracted to but was lacking a little in the plot.

The Gifts That Bind Us is the second book in the All Our Hidden Gifts series by author Caroline O’Donoghue. I reviewed the first book, titled, ‘All Our Hidden Gifts‘ back in June 2021. And to understand this book fully you do need to read book one first.

Set in Ireland, teenagers Maeve, Fiona, Lily, and Roe are back this time with their new hidden talents which they are practising using. The Christian cult, Children of Brigid, are also back and are up to something which the group needs to work out before it is too late.

This second instalment seemed to have a slower pace to it than the first and focused more on the friendships, love lives, fallings out, etc than the first. It also felt a little more sinister.

The book was certainly enjoyable and I loved watching the teenagers practice using their new skills, although many a time they went too far such as Fiona purposely cutting herself so she could heal herself again.

The story is very inclusive and diverse as well as showing you the opposite side with the cult who don’t believe in equality or sexual preference.

A brilliant follow-up to the first book and it was enjoyable following the friends on their new journeys, especially the self-discoveries they all had.

If you have read book one then you need to read this sequel. If you haven’t and you enjoy books that involve magic, mayhem, spirituality, etc then this is the series to pick up.

I picked up ‘The Gifts That Bind Us’ and before I knew it, I was in Southampton, 160 pages through the book and an hour and 45 minute train ride had vanished, and as I excited as I was to see my little sister, I was also secretly excited for the train home so I could go back to Kilbeg.

‘All Our Hidden Gifts’ was one of my favourite books of 2021 and the sequel lived up the magic of its predecessor.

SPOILER WARNING: Thought there won’t be any spoilers for ‘The Gifts That Bind Us’ in this review, there will be inevitable spoilers ‘All Our Hidden Gifts’ (which you should all go and read ASAP).

We pick up with Maeve, Roe, Lily and Fiona at the end of the summer following saving Lily from the river. Roe is heading to university, the others are starting their exam year, and Roe and Maeve are finally official. And their talents? They’re bigger and stronger than they could imagine after practising all summer long.

But old enemies are resurfacing, there are strange goings-on at school and it seems like their powers are attracting some unwanted attention. Before long, Maeve’s gift starts to waver and it looks as if someone hidden from even her is draining them right under her nose…

This BOOK. Caroline O’Donoghue put me through the absolute ringer with this one.

While there’s magic and mystery abound, this novel and also ‘All Our Hidden Gifts’ are about friendship. The jubilant, the painful, the shaky - all of it, good and bad, at a time when everything feels so feels so overwhelming. Maeve loves her friends in the way I loved mine as a teenager and as I do now, a way not always celebrated in fiction. While Roe and Maeve’s romantic relationship is important to her and to the novel, she’s lost and lonely without her friends and when the gang starts to fracture it sends her spiralling. That feeling sent me back to lonely times as a teenager when I diverged from my friends for some reason or another, and also to yesterday when I had a full on wobble about the impact of my group of friends reaching turning 30 this year and the ways we’ve slowly drifted apart, particularly since the beginning of the pandemic.

Even though I can’t read minds and I’m not (currently) worrying about my power being drained (except by my job but that’s everyone, right?), I understood Maeve completely.

The religious aspects were occasionally a little too much for me; I’m not religious, in fact it actively irritates me so I struggle when it’s a big component of a novel, but I do understand how big of a part it is of Ireland and it did fit into story and perfectly. It’s just something that makes me a bit ragey.

The middle book of a trilogy is hard and O’Donoghue did an amazing job with developing the world, story and characters while still setting up for the finale. This series is one of the best YA fantasy trilogies I’ve read in a long while and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for Maeve, Roe, Fiona and Lily as their story concludes.

In this sequel to All Our Hidden Gifts Maeve, Fiona, Roe and Lily explore and hone their new magical skills, with help from some unexpected places, in order to defeat old and new enemies. Even without the added fantasy elements this is an excellent YA full of highly relatable issues for all teens that is sure to resonate with Irish readers in particular . Highlighting the fear and pressure of the impending Leaving Cert exams that seem to dictate your whole life's trajectory at a very young age, examining the challenge of figuring out your identity both in terms of gender and sexuality, as well as your purpose in life, and exploring the complexity of relationships (platonic and romantic, with adults and with peers) as you grow up this book has something for every reader to enjoy.
The characters are all given space to develop and grow in this well thought out, modern YA novel and it will be very interesting to see what new challenges lie ahead in the next installment of the series. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the author doesn't shy away from difficult issues that her audience may be experiencing themselves such as self harming, navigating their first sexual experiences, and facing biogtry and prejudice in their lives.

Thanks to NetGalley and Walker Books for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I raved about this one in my stories while reading it, and honestly - if you’re not reading this series, you are missing out! The Gifts That Bind Us picks up where the first book left us, joining Maeve, Roe, Fiona, and Lily after they saved Lily and their hometown from magical destruction.

Coming back to these characters felt a little bit like coming home, for so many reasons. I’ve talked before about the homesickness I’ve felt since coming back to England, and there is so much in Maeve’s world similar to my own teenage years that it felt incredibly soothing to read this. No one writes magic like O’Donoghue, but I’ve also not read many who can write teenage life like her either.

We see the group fight (occasionally with each other!), struggle, and grow in this instalment of the series and I could feel every emotion in my very soul. At times, I almost had to stop reading with how tense or frankly terrified I was. Yes, this is a book very much about magic, but I think it weaves a magic of its own with how well it transports the reader to the town of Kilbeg.

I will continue to rave about O’Donoghe’s writing and this series for all eternity tbh, and I really do hope we get #sickfishgetbashed totes sometime soon - I will be first in line for one.

This is the second book in the series and I believe it’s a very good continuation of the story although I feel like this felt a little bit more of a standstill book where is the first brought us into the world. I did actually really like this book overall I thought it was intriguing and engaging and the writing style was great and I will read more from this author just maybe not this.

I was so happy to find there was a sequel to All our hidden gifts and I really wasn’t disappointed at all, this was as fast paced and plot filled as the first and I think it actually goes deeper into the dynamics of our friends. Yet again LGBTQIA representation and discussion is perfect. Overall this is a story of hope and self acceptance mixed in a magical world. Fantastic

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I really loved the first book in this series and the second book did not disappoint. It was great to go back to Kilbeg and spend time with this brilliant cast of characters. I cannot wait for the next book.

I love O'Donoghue's adult fiction and enjoyed the first book in this series but I found The Gifts That Bind Us just wasn't for me. It's well written but I found it a bit slow and a chore to finish. It's definitely something that'll appeal to a YA audience and just wasn't right for me.

This is such a perfect sequel. Some authors suffer from second book syndrome but I would say O'Donoghue shined so much more with her skills of crafting and weaving hers tory in this book.

4/5 cups of coffee, I think I would have loved more from the other characters but I did really enjoy it and it was almost perfect. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review. I CANNOT wait for book 3!!

Full RTC.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book!

The Gifts That Binds Us seems to be part 2 in a series by Caroline O'Donoghue, and the ending makes it fairly clear that we'll also have a part 3. I loved the main character Maeve, who in addition to her abilities, is struggling with her friends and trying to figure out the future. The thought of being left behind is terrifying, and then you have Aaron and Heather thrown into the mix as well.

I loved that Heather was able to use Maeve's fears about her friends and future to get in with her. The use of the creepy tea bags were also really interesting. I loved how different each character was, and I liked that we could see what they were really struggling with.