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Unmarked & Unbonded: Fated Mates, Why Choose, Sci-Fi Romantasy
Three men. One woman. Zero permission from the gods.In Velantra, the gods decide who you love. Every person receives a sacred mark that assigns their soulmate and their place in society. But when Rienna Vale steps forward for her ceremony, nothing happens.
No mark. No bond. No place in the world.
Until three soulmate bonds ignite beneath Rienna’s skin at once. Tamarath, Mirón, and Kyartan were never meant to cross paths, let alone be tied to the same woman. Their forbidden connection breaks every law their world is built upon, and something far more dangerous than fate is pulling them together.
As the bond deepens, so does the question no one in Velantra has ever dared to what happens when the gods get it wrong?
For Readers Who Want Something DifferentReaders describe Unmarked & Unbonded as both beautiful and bewildering—an experience meant to be felt as much as understood.
"I’ve not read anything quite like this." — Terri E.
"F—ked up in the right kinds of ways." — Tonicha-Jade M.
"An odd but intriguing blend of tech-based worldbuilding and faith-driven mythology." — Brandy O.
"I was entirely smitten with the magic system." — Paola N.
"Sinclair's writing is incredibly descriptive and the detail given on settings and the appearances of people are just phenomenal." — Lauren L.
Faith is power. Desire is controlled. Love is the rebellion.Fated Mates × Why Choose × Sci-Fi Romantasy
This is the first book in an epic romantasy series where the mythology unfolds layer by layer, and the relationships grow stronger as they push against those who want to control them. This is just the beginning of Rienna’s journey, and the gods are nowhere near finished with her.
No mark. No bond. No place in the world.
Until three soulmate bonds ignite beneath Rienna’s skin at once. Tamarath, Mirón, and Kyartan were never meant to cross paths, let alone be tied to the same woman. Their forbidden connection breaks every law their world is built upon, and something far more dangerous than fate is pulling them together.
As the bond deepens, so does the question no one in Velantra has ever dared to what happens when the gods get it wrong?
For Readers Who Want Something DifferentReaders describe Unmarked & Unbonded as both beautiful and bewildering—an experience meant to be felt as much as understood.
"I’ve not read anything quite like this." — Terri E.
"F—ked up in the right kinds of ways." — Tonicha-Jade M.
"An odd but intriguing blend of tech-based worldbuilding and faith-driven mythology." — Brandy O.
"I was entirely smitten with the magic system." — Paola N.
"Sinclair's writing is incredibly descriptive and the detail given on settings and the appearances of people are just phenomenal." — Lauren L.
Faith is power. Desire is controlled. Love is the rebellion.Fated Mates × Why Choose × Sci-Fi Romantasy
This is the first book in an epic romantasy series where the mythology unfolds layer by layer, and the relationships grow stronger as they push against those who want to control them. This is just the beginning of Rienna’s journey, and the gods are nowhere near finished with her.
211 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 2, 2025
137 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
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November 20, 2025 "Everyone else just got assigned a future. Now I get to make mine."
First of all, thank you to NetGalley and Lost Lust for the ARC. I am very conflicted and don't feel great about assigning a star rating to this book, because some aspects of it are 5 stars to me, and others are more like 2.
The story follows Rienna Vale, who is part of a society where everyone, at the age of 20, opens their soul to the Mother Flame who lets up their arm with and marks/pairs them with a soulmate. Rienna tells us that she used to look at the marks on her parents arms and dream about that day, but, for some reason that is never explained to us, she no longer feels that way and is jaded about soulmates/pairings to the point of blasphemy. When Rienna appears for her ceremony, nothing lights up on her arm. Rienna isn't fully an anomaly in this, because there is apparently a whole group of people in society like that none as "the silent" which she refuses to join and instead leaves. We encounter her again two years later, where she is a relic hunter. After a disastrous hunt where an explosion nearly leaves her dead, she suddenly has three soulmate marks and we meet her three soulmates throughout the story.
What really stands out to this to me, and would have made this a five star read, is the writing itself. Sinclair's writing is incredibly descriptive and the detail given on settings and the appearances of people are just phenomenal. As an example, here is the description given when we first encounter one of the men, Tamarath:
"Up close, his mouth looks built for orders, and his dark and unwavering eyes hold you just long enough to make it feel deliberate. He moves like discipline itself learned how to breathe. I'm not drawn to uniforms, but apparently I'm drawn to competence."
Amazing. I love it. And writing like that is everywhere throughout the book. Early on, before we met the primary characters, I really expected that I would be giving this five stars, even with things about Rienna not being explained. However....
Then we got to the meat of the book with the relationships and the men.
While Sinclair does a great job with descriptive writing, dialogue overall is a huge miss to me. Individual conversations stood out and were entertaining, but there are too many one word "zinger" responses in every conversation to make everything flow. There are also euphemisms and analogies used so frequently that, half the time, I lost the plot of the conversation entirely. Was it entertaining? Yes. Did it move my understanding of the plot and the people? Not at all. And, tonally, the conversations were the same with every grouping of characters. Which leads me to the main problem for me in this book.
The Men.
The draw for me in a why choose romance is the variety in the personalities and relationships/interactions with the FMC. We did not have that here. Rienna's interactions with the men all read the same regardless of which of the three it is. It is a dynamic that I enjoy, but it makes the "why choose" aspect fall pretty flat to me. The one that bothers me the most though is Tamarath, who happens to be the one that, based on the book's description, I typically would enjoy the most. The introduction we are given to Tamarath, who we meet before the explosion, doesn't match with what we come to understand him to be like in his interactions with Rienna pre-explosion and bonding. He is the only one of the three that we actually meet before it happens, and he seems to be interested in Rienna. Most importantly though, before the explosion, Tamarath seems to be doubting his faith and he also gets along with Rienna despite her being rejected from society. He is pretty much the only one in his crew that seems to accept her. After the explosion, and their being paired together, we see an entirely new Tamarath who seemingly hates Rienna for being a heretic. Mirón takes on the sweet personality that, formerly, was occupied by Tamarath during our initial introduction to him.
However, despite the seeming personality change in Tamarath, his interactions with Rienna mirror Mirón's. The types of banter they have with Rienna is nearly identical. So, it is enjoyable to read, but it doesn't differentiate these characters at all, which makes things confusing. Eventually, we get the same dialogue types and interactions with Kyartan, which makes me wonder why we need three men in here at all when, as far as the interactions in the relationship go, they are virtually the same.
The last issue in this for me is the timing/pacing of the story. Aside from the clearly stated two year time skip between our introduction to Rienna and the rest of the events in the story, I have no idea how much time passes. It seems like everything happens fairly quickly, but there are statements in there that make it seem like these characters know each other very well, even though they have just met.
All my issues I have with the book are things that make the story confusing, but due to the writing style I still found it enjoyable throughout. It's not a book that really allows you to engage critically with it, but enjoyable enough that I wouldn't *not* recommend it to people. However, as first stated, this makes it really difficult to rate.
First of all, thank you to NetGalley and Lost Lust for the ARC. I am very conflicted and don't feel great about assigning a star rating to this book, because some aspects of it are 5 stars to me, and others are more like 2.
The story follows Rienna Vale, who is part of a society where everyone, at the age of 20, opens their soul to the Mother Flame who lets up their arm with and marks/pairs them with a soulmate. Rienna tells us that she used to look at the marks on her parents arms and dream about that day, but, for some reason that is never explained to us, she no longer feels that way and is jaded about soulmates/pairings to the point of blasphemy. When Rienna appears for her ceremony, nothing lights up on her arm. Rienna isn't fully an anomaly in this, because there is apparently a whole group of people in society like that none as "the silent" which she refuses to join and instead leaves. We encounter her again two years later, where she is a relic hunter. After a disastrous hunt where an explosion nearly leaves her dead, she suddenly has three soulmate marks and we meet her three soulmates throughout the story.
What really stands out to this to me, and would have made this a five star read, is the writing itself. Sinclair's writing is incredibly descriptive and the detail given on settings and the appearances of people are just phenomenal. As an example, here is the description given when we first encounter one of the men, Tamarath:
"Up close, his mouth looks built for orders, and his dark and unwavering eyes hold you just long enough to make it feel deliberate. He moves like discipline itself learned how to breathe. I'm not drawn to uniforms, but apparently I'm drawn to competence."
Amazing. I love it. And writing like that is everywhere throughout the book. Early on, before we met the primary characters, I really expected that I would be giving this five stars, even with things about Rienna not being explained. However....
Then we got to the meat of the book with the relationships and the men.
While Sinclair does a great job with descriptive writing, dialogue overall is a huge miss to me. Individual conversations stood out and were entertaining, but there are too many one word "zinger" responses in every conversation to make everything flow. There are also euphemisms and analogies used so frequently that, half the time, I lost the plot of the conversation entirely. Was it entertaining? Yes. Did it move my understanding of the plot and the people? Not at all. And, tonally, the conversations were the same with every grouping of characters. Which leads me to the main problem for me in this book.
The Men.
The draw for me in a why choose romance is the variety in the personalities and relationships/interactions with the FMC. We did not have that here. Rienna's interactions with the men all read the same regardless of which of the three it is. It is a dynamic that I enjoy, but it makes the "why choose" aspect fall pretty flat to me. The one that bothers me the most though is Tamarath, who happens to be the one that, based on the book's description, I typically would enjoy the most. The introduction we are given to Tamarath, who we meet before the explosion, doesn't match with what we come to understand him to be like in his interactions with Rienna pre-explosion and bonding. He is the only one of the three that we actually meet before it happens, and he seems to be interested in Rienna. Most importantly though, before the explosion, Tamarath seems to be doubting his faith and he also gets along with Rienna despite her being rejected from society. He is pretty much the only one in his crew that seems to accept her. After the explosion, and their being paired together, we see an entirely new Tamarath who seemingly hates Rienna for being a heretic. Mirón takes on the sweet personality that, formerly, was occupied by Tamarath during our initial introduction to him.
However, despite the seeming personality change in Tamarath, his interactions with Rienna mirror Mirón's. The types of banter they have with Rienna is nearly identical. So, it is enjoyable to read, but it doesn't differentiate these characters at all, which makes things confusing. Eventually, we get the same dialogue types and interactions with Kyartan, which makes me wonder why we need three men in here at all when, as far as the interactions in the relationship go, they are virtually the same.
The last issue in this for me is the timing/pacing of the story. Aside from the clearly stated two year time skip between our introduction to Rienna and the rest of the events in the story, I have no idea how much time passes. It seems like everything happens fairly quickly, but there are statements in there that make it seem like these characters know each other very well, even though they have just met.
All my issues I have with the book are things that make the story confusing, but due to the writing style I still found it enjoyable throughout. It's not a book that really allows you to engage critically with it, but enjoyable enough that I wouldn't *not* recommend it to people. However, as first stated, this makes it really difficult to rate.
November 22, 2025
Adult fantasy. This is quite a weird book. As some others have said star rating is difficult. Somewhere between a I don’t really understand this 2 star, to a n ending/collective maybe 5 star.
It has a plot. Which is difficult to discern at times. It has mystery, that seems ultimately unexplained. (See all the questions I have after finishing the book). It seems to ask question as it analyses humanity, and relationships, and a search for self-acceptance. Is it a love story or love tangle, that twists and bucks, and never finds a totally accepted collective agreement.
The author does not give us all the answers. I think the reader needs to interpret what the narrative expresses, and decide for themselves.
I wonder what the intent of the author was, as the words flowed on to the page. Directed and planned, or left to just flow freely like water finding a downhill path, until the story found its own peace in a never completely levelled sea.
Many seemingly, to me, unexplained things. What is the history of this place/world? Is this a world directed by an inexplicable alien technology or a God? Who/what is really searching for these four people, and why? Why for the status quo are they so destabilising? Why is their collective confluence so destructive? Are they seen as heretical or a different destabilising unwelcome future? Where did this, is it electrical entity, come from? Especially why was Rienna was singled out, from the males, to enter the silence and break the bond? Since it is in reality a connection between all of them that was the issue. Why is she being singled out as the solution?
I’ll keep pondering.
Thank you to Lost Lust and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.
It has a plot. Which is difficult to discern at times. It has mystery, that seems ultimately unexplained. (See all the questions I have after finishing the book). It seems to ask question as it analyses humanity, and relationships, and a search for self-acceptance. Is it a love story or love tangle, that twists and bucks, and never finds a totally accepted collective agreement.
The author does not give us all the answers. I think the reader needs to interpret what the narrative expresses, and decide for themselves.
I wonder what the intent of the author was, as the words flowed on to the page. Directed and planned, or left to just flow freely like water finding a downhill path, until the story found its own peace in a never completely levelled sea.
Many seemingly, to me, unexplained things. What is the history of this place/world? Is this a world directed by an inexplicable alien technology or a God? Who/what is really searching for these four people, and why? Why for the status quo are they so destabilising? Why is their collective confluence so destructive? Are they seen as heretical or a different destabilising unwelcome future? Where did this, is it electrical entity, come from? Especially why was Rienna was singled out, from the males, to enter the silence and break the bond? Since it is in reality a connection between all of them that was the issue. Why is she being singled out as the solution?
I’ll keep pondering.
Thank you to Lost Lust and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.
November 29, 2025
Many thanks to Lolu Sinclair and the publisher for the advanced copy from Net Galley to read and review.
I will say the cover is stunning and drew me in. I love Why Choose and Sci Fi, so I was ALL IN.
Essentially our main character Rienna Vale is found to be unmarked - when all other citizens have discovered their fated mate, she's left to forge her own path. This suits her fine, and she rejects joining a group of unmarked souls, and moves forward with difficulty. She's a rebel, she wants to own her own future, but it's a bit unclear how that might come about.
As she pursues her goal, she encounters another rebel, a scientist and a soldier- who will become tied to her in various ways. Rienna and her band of not entirely willing men explore several options before settling on a game plan that will satisfy them all.
This story has good bones, dare I say - excellent bones. It unfortunately lacks the detail that I crave in this type of a novel. The world building is sparse so readers are left to fill in the blanks, which might be alright, but I found that I needed just a few more details about this world that we're drawn into. Is this a future earth? Another planet? Is it all a glass desert? Why is the Sanctum chasing after this one human woman, is she a threat to their way of life, or is the Sanctum just sort of cruel? What kind of end goal is there? The frequencies? The Math? This could be an excellent Sci-Fi Why Choose with a bit more world building and back story, as it was, I didn't feel a strong pull to any characters in general and in the end, didn't care that much about their future.
I will say the cover is stunning and drew me in. I love Why Choose and Sci Fi, so I was ALL IN.
Essentially our main character Rienna Vale is found to be unmarked - when all other citizens have discovered their fated mate, she's left to forge her own path. This suits her fine, and she rejects joining a group of unmarked souls, and moves forward with difficulty. She's a rebel, she wants to own her own future, but it's a bit unclear how that might come about.
As she pursues her goal, she encounters another rebel, a scientist and a soldier- who will become tied to her in various ways. Rienna and her band of not entirely willing men explore several options before settling on a game plan that will satisfy them all.
This story has good bones, dare I say - excellent bones. It unfortunately lacks the detail that I crave in this type of a novel. The world building is sparse so readers are left to fill in the blanks, which might be alright, but I found that I needed just a few more details about this world that we're drawn into. Is this a future earth? Another planet? Is it all a glass desert? Why is the Sanctum chasing after this one human woman, is she a threat to their way of life, or is the Sanctum just sort of cruel? What kind of end goal is there? The frequencies? The Math? This could be an excellent Sci-Fi Why Choose with a bit more world building and back story, as it was, I didn't feel a strong pull to any characters in general and in the end, didn't care that much about their future.
November 30, 2025
This was a quick read, I will admitted it took me a little bit to get into the story. The story has an interesting premise based on praying to their Mother Flame who upon each person's 20th birthday are marked on their arm that pair them with their soulmate. Rienna, however, does not get a mark and is therefore shunned by the other people.
The Silent group which includes more people who were not marked on their 20th birthday. They essentially pray harder so that hopefully one day they will be blessed with their soulmate. Rienna does not want any part of that.
Rienna becomes a relic hunter and there is a story time jump of two years. Rienna agrees to go on a sanctioned job/hunt. This one goes horribly wrong and she almost dies. Her life changes when she wakes up is she now has soulmates, yes that is plural.
The pacing of this book was confusing because I did not know how much time was passing during the book other than the 2 years. I also wish there was more development of Rienna's soulmates. They did not really have individual personalities. I did enjoy the book, but there were parts that didn't make sense and was a struggle to stay in the story.
Thank you NetGalley and Lost Lust for allowing me to read this early. I do hope that the story continues so I know if there is more to happen or develop between the characters. All of my opinions are my own.
The Silent group which includes more people who were not marked on their 20th birthday. They essentially pray harder so that hopefully one day they will be blessed with their soulmate. Rienna does not want any part of that.
Rienna becomes a relic hunter and there is a story time jump of two years. Rienna agrees to go on a sanctioned job/hunt. This one goes horribly wrong and she almost dies. Her life changes when she wakes up is she now has soulmates, yes that is plural.
The pacing of this book was confusing because I did not know how much time was passing during the book other than the 2 years. I also wish there was more development of Rienna's soulmates. They did not really have individual personalities. I did enjoy the book, but there were parts that didn't make sense and was a struggle to stay in the story.
Thank you NetGalley and Lost Lust for allowing me to read this early. I do hope that the story continues so I know if there is more to happen or develop between the characters. All of my opinions are my own.
November 15, 2025
This book honestly started off so incredibly confusing. I had to step away from it after the first few chapters and come back to it. I restarted it and it still didn’t make sense to me. We’re given a lot of information initially and the narrator is speaking to us like we know all the technical terminology of the work so I was quite confused for a long time. I feel like the flow was rough and bounced around a lot. There is a plot but you have to decipher it out of the limited and extra information in certain places of the story. It honestly didn’t start making sense to me until the last few chapters. I pushed through thinking it would get better and it eventually did in the very end. “Why choose” trope not really present in this book because FMC is only comfortable with 1 “fated mate” for the time being as in the last couple pages is getting comfortable with the idea of being bonded to 3 men. Will read book 2 just to follow the characters and see how this complicated relationship will develop.
January 18, 2026
DNF at 42%. Thank you NetGalley, publisher Lost Lust, and author Lolu Sinclair for the opportunity to read this ARC. Unfortunately I found myself disengaged, often skimming. For a book advertised as "Fated Mates, Why Choose, Sci-Fi Romantasy", I feel like we're missing a lot of Fated Mate and Why Choose and Romance for the FMC. The FMC also seems to have no personality except being an expert at rattling off one-liners that aren't particularly funny. As a result, every exchange of dialog feels like neither party likes each other, nor wants to even speak to each other. I believe we've met at least two of the potential partners for the FMC, but again, they don't even seem to like each other, let alone love each other. There's no warmth here.
January 8, 2026
I honestly don't know where to go with this one. I enjoyed it, I think. It feels heavy with religion. A different religion than what we have today, but still an organized, cult-like band of people forced into worshipping one entity. And that entity feels a whole lot like AI.
I'm not talking Skynet and "Come with me if you want to live." It's more subtle than that. It's more along the lines of I, Robot, where the technology decided the biggest threat to humanity, was humanity itself. The Divine Lattice definitely feels like that.
I'm still not sure I understand this story at all, but I'm down for book 2. Let's see where Rienna, her men, and the Lattice take us.
I'm not talking Skynet and "Come with me if you want to live." It's more subtle than that. It's more along the lines of I, Robot, where the technology decided the biggest threat to humanity, was humanity itself. The Divine Lattice definitely feels like that.
I'm still not sure I understand this story at all, but I'm down for book 2. Let's see where Rienna, her men, and the Lattice take us.
November 23, 2025
⋆⁺₊⋆☽⋆ 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 ⋆☾⋆⁺₊⋆
ꔫ — ∘♡༉∘ — ✩ — ∘༉♡∘ — ���
౨ৎ𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 ♥ 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲౨ৎ
౨ৎ23.11.25౨ৎ
— ∘♡༉∘ — 𝗔𝗿𝗰 ♥ 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 — ∘༉♡∘ —
Truly i dont know how to feel about this one. It's a strange and yet enjoyable? book.
Its very dystopian feeling and fucked up in the right kinds of ways, its a strange one the ending is interesting to say the least and im still sat here thinking wtf to the entire story.
i dont even know how to rate this one 2 star seems to low but 4 or 5 seems to high and a 3 star doesnt quiet fit either. so im marking it as a 3 star just out of sheer confusion and bewilderment
ꔫ — ∘♡༉∘ — ✩ — ∘༉♡∘ — ���
౨ৎ𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 ♥ 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲౨ৎ
౨ৎ23.11.25౨ৎ
— ∘♡༉∘ — 𝗔𝗿𝗰 ♥ 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 — ∘༉♡∘ —
Truly i dont know how to feel about this one. It's a strange and yet enjoyable? book.
Its very dystopian feeling and fucked up in the right kinds of ways, its a strange one the ending is interesting to say the least and im still sat here thinking wtf to the entire story.
i dont even know how to rate this one 2 star seems to low but 4 or 5 seems to high and a 3 star doesnt quiet fit either. so im marking it as a 3 star just out of sheer confusion and bewilderment
December 7, 2025
Rienna is a young 20 year old woman who is following tradition by opening her soul to a mother flame who pairs the women with their soulmates. Jaded and hesitant. She is unsure about the bonding. Years go by and she becomes a hunter who looks for relics. When a bomb/explosion detonated, she is suddenly marked with three soulmate markings. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and share my thoughts.
December 31, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this book. I really think the author did themselves a disservice by making this book a novella. This genre is not as familiar to me as Fantasy and I struggled with it. Most of the background info with this world was either implied with little detailed or not explained at all. Needed at least another 100 or so pages. I did enjoy the way the author explained how the FMC and love interests looked though-very unique
December 2, 2025
Unmarked & Unbonded by Lolu Sinclair.
Book 1 of Bonds of Silence.
This was a good read. I loved the cover and blurb of this book. I did like the writing style and the story. Rienna was my favourite character. Tamarath Mirón and Kyartan grew on me. I did like Breshia. I loved how she was. I listened to this book on kindle unlimited. I'm really looking forward to the next book.
Book 1 of Bonds of Silence.
This was a good read. I loved the cover and blurb of this book. I did like the writing style and the story. Rienna was my favourite character. Tamarath Mirón and Kyartan grew on me. I did like Breshia. I loved how she was. I listened to this book on kindle unlimited. I'm really looking forward to the next book.
December 30, 2025
the time line is confusing. ive read wattpad books better than this book. like there's information but its very jumbled. the time jumps are touched on but never explained or written out it feels like there are missing chapters pages or dialog.
January 24, 2026
dont really understand. jumpy. world building confusing. hard to finish.. gave it 3 stars because this is someone's dream - to have written this and share their creativity with others. just because its not for me, someone else may love this book - and i hope they do!
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