The Binding Season – Spoiler Free Review

Hello book friends! Today I bring to you my long overdue review of The Binding Season, by Claudia Cain. I meant to post this months and months ago, but life hit me in the face with a brick and well, it got stuck in my drafts for a while. Either way, I thought y’all deserved this review because I love this series and also I’m reviewing the fourth and final book soon!

The Binding Season is the third book in the Fallow Creek series. So far, this series has been amazing. It has witches, creepy monsters and plenty of mystery. Click below to see the content warnings and read on for my full thoughts!

The Binding Season

By Claudia Cain

Cassandra Reilly has faced monsters and devastating losses. Now she’s overcome death itself, completing the rite to become the Witch of Fallow Creek.

It’s a shame it didn’t work.

Cass has survived the rite, but with an unexpected result: she can’t control her magic. Haunted by ghosts and struggling with her damaged family, she already has enough to deal with when a body is found in the woods, and the local Fae task her with tracking down the killer.

But this murder is more than it seems. Power never comes unchallenged, and not everyone is happy about the new Witch.

This challenge might be more than Cass can handle.

This book picks up right where the second left off. If you’ll recall, Cassandra made the decision to become The Witch. Like the blurb says, there’s something wrong though. A big part of this book’s story is about Cass’s personal journey. Her grappling with the fact that she became The Witch, and therefore can’t leave Fallow Creek; her struggle with her magic; and of course losing her aunt but gaining a sister. Of course worry for her family and Merich play a big part in this story.

I love that with each book, the story gets a little darker and grittier. This time the horror of choice was plants. Yes, plants. But trust me when I say these plants gave me the heebie-jeebies. I also love that we get to know more about the Fae. Up to know, we’ve only ever encountered Merich, but of course, there are way more Fae out there. Speaking of Merich, I love the relationship he has with Cass. It’s very slow burn, but also feels very real and well… normal.

I really enjoyed the main conflict because it answered some questions I already had. Like if the Fae are so powerful, why don’t they rule the forest? Without going into spoilers, all my questions got nicely answered. The conflict here, therefore, is a bit more on the ethical side and not so much the monster side. However, overarching this story is a larger issue that sets up the fourth book beautifully. Just like with all previous books, the last chapter really did it for me. I always enjoy a good shock at the end of a book, and this one did not disappoint. I already can’t wait for the fourth and final book!

And that’s it for my review of The Binding Season! Like I said, I’ve really been enjoying this series and I cannot wait for the final installment. My hope is that more people will pick up this series, because it’s been a fantastic ride so far.

Interested in my review of the previous two books? You can find my review of Lovely, Wicked and Deep here, and my review of Wicked Walking here!