The Wings That Bind – Past Midnight Book Reviews & More

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️

Title: The Wings That Bind (Bloodwing Academy, #3)

Author: Briar Boleyn

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 448

Publication Date: 3/10/26

Publisher: MIRA

Categories: Dark Academia, Romance, Fantasy, Series

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to MIRA for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The night’s chaos left us breathless. Now the real nightmare begins.

In the wake of last winter’s tragedies, through loss and heartbreak, we somehow made it to a new year. But our fight is far from over.

A second dragon has awoken–her heart tainted, and her power commandeered by two ruthless highbloods who will stop at nothing to uncover the dangerous, bloody secrets at the borders of Sangratha. Their cruelty knows no bounds.

Florence, my dearest friend, teetered on the brink of death. A dragon saved her, but now she’s tied to him in a way I can scarcely understand. What will this new bond do to the woman I’ve come to love as a sister?

And then there’s Blake. Once my relentless tormentor, then the keeper of my heart… he betrayed me again, nearly condemning Nyxaris to a cursed, stone-cold fate. But something has shifted in him. His gray eyes hide a secret he’s desperate to protect. I saved Blake’s life, despite everything. Yet with every heartbeat, I have to question where we go from here.

With Bloodwing Academy in turmoil and a new headmaster no one saw coming, only one thing is certain: This is going to be one hell of a year.

This dark fantasy series tackles mature themes. Readers are advised to consult the trigger warnings before embarking on this intense, morally gray/black journey through the realm of Sangratha!

Content Warning: violence, death

+ I don’t have a great love for this series, but I did binge the first two books because there is so much going on and wanted to know what happens next. So I was going to wait to borrow book three, but got a chance to read the arc instead. I still enjoy the elements of this dark academia campus which has vampires, and dragons, but also secret shifters.

+~ If you love Medra and Blake’s story, I think you might not love this book as much because there are two side characters who kind of become the main characters. But for me, I liked seeing other characters grow besides Medra and Blake, because I felt like we had too much about their romance drama in book two. So this kinds of gives us a break from that and I appreciated it. Regan has a redemption arc in this one – is it deserved? I think some people might say no, because she chose power – but we also get to see she cares about her brother too and that maybe this was the only path she saw to finding him. Florence, is Medra’s friend and the studious one who now gets a dragon. So she goes from the studious to trying to believe in herself that she can be a dragon rider.

+~ Because we get a little break from Medra and Blake’s relationship drama, I actually liked the moments we get with them in this book. They have some spicy scenes but we can see their bond turn into something different, something more meaningful as Medra sees the beast in him, literally. But theirs is not the only romance happening here, there are a few new ones, very surprising ones I’d say and I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.

+~ I think the writing in this one flowed better than the first two books, but the story is still just okay for me and it could be the stye of writing that I don’t gel with. I can’t say much happens in the beginning of the book and most of the action comes at the end of this book, so pacing wise, the beginning is slow as we see Regan run the academy and Florence trying to figure out her relationship with her dragon.

Final Thoughts:

If you are a fan of the series, I think you won’t be too disappointed in this book, but Medra and Blake do take a backseat to the other characters that get more page time. I do think the first half moves a little slow, with all the action and new trouble coming at the end of the book. It will be interesting to see how Blake’s character will grow in the next book because that guy has been going through it! Talk about a transformation, and I didn’t love him in book two but I think I like him better in this one. It will be nice to see everyone united on one side trying to fight the villain now, hopefully we get to see more growth in book four and since we got to know more about Regan and Florence, maybe we will get to know more about Kage.

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