I feel like most books that are in the "this used to be fanfic" category fall into the buttery genre of popcorn fiction. Bonds of Brass is no exception. It doesn't ask itself to be taken seriously so you will have to forgive me if my critic isn't as scolding as some would expect.

I will say that I can't image getting your hooks into Bond of Brass unless you have an idea of the background it comes from. The author just doesn't give us enough details of the world and characters to justify NOT having the baseline understanding that "this is basically Star Wars." Starships, empires, revolutions, characters, motivations, relationships, and more are just no0t fleshed out enough to stand on its own. But I guess I don't really NEED it to be fleshed out to still have a good time.

This is in fact just some AU/roles reversed Storm-Pilot fan fictions. Its very tropey: friends to lovers, bodyguard AU, there's only one bed, pretend boyfriends. Its all here. Including the scorch mark that I feel dropped this title down to a 3 star for me: miscommunication trope. I honestly can not stand it when the whole base of a problem comes down to "this would all be fixed it they just talked to each other."

The twist was visible a mile away. The writing is passable. The characters are likable and the techno-babble isn't entirely off putting. Its a combination of enjoyable enough and short enough to justify picking up book 2.