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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Ok so the first like 80% was amazing but then the end was like weird and dumb. I feel like she got wrapped up in the exposition/ middle then didn’t know how to end the story.
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My first book by this author, I had an idea of what I was getting myself into but this book blew my expectations out of the water. The romance was very sweet, as well as spicy. The plot of the story had some thrilling twists. It was well worth the read!
I've read most of Ruby Dixon's back catalogue. Bound to the Battle God is one of my favourite books and I've enjoyed a lot of her other books. This one has very few reviews and, even on fan sites, I've hardly heard it mentioned, so I was a bit unsure going in. These are my thoughts having listened to about 40% of the audiobook, before getting bored and giving up.
The premise:
A princess is locked away in a tower for 7 years and her only company is a Monstrous prince from an enemy race. I really like forced proximity and enemies to lovers, so it sounded promising.
Things I liked: possessive MMC who likes to read and is sexually inexperienced. I almost always love Ruby Dixon's MMCs. The spice was pretty good and I enjoyed the tension building up to it. liked that the FMC was very forward and unashamed of her sexuality. Worldbuilding had promise.
Things I disliked:
Problem number 1: I kept getting the name wrong because the author already has books called Bound to the Battle God & Sworn to the Shadow God and this is like the two combined. Very confusing - and from what I got through, he isn't a “shadow” anything. Despite the name being very similar, this is set in a different universe to the Aspect and Anchor series and is unrelated, but there are similarities (length, POV, fantasy setting).
Problem number 2: This is only available as an audiobook - I found it on Libby. It was originally released in a pay per chapter app, and apparently it will eventually be released on KU.
Problem number 3: (the main one) It's soooooo loooong. The audiobook is 21 hours! I've listened to 40% and there are only really 2 characters and they are locked in a tower, so there's no movement or interactions with others. So it's pretty slow. I assume this is linked to the fact it was released pay per chapter, so the more chapters the more money (unless people get bored and give up…). It really needs some heavy editing. I don't need to read whole chapters about cooking stew.
Bound to the Battle God is a similar length but they're constantly on the move, visiting new locations and meeting new characters, so it doesn't feel so slow.
Problem number 4: the logistics of being locked in a tower don't make sense to me at all. The tower has no door and *no windows* - not even slits to let in light or air. She spends the first few months just sitting in the dark. She has nothing to occupy her time - no books, no sewing, nothing. In the first year there are periods of many weeks where she speaks to nobody. Surely a person would go literally insane. Not to mention the food situation - they get a year's worth of food (and presumably water) delivered at a time. How is a medieval tower storing the gallons and gallons of water which would be required to sustain two people for a year? No fresh fruit and veg, so they're probably both getting scurvy and rickets. Normally I could suspend disbelief for this sort of thing, but when not much else is happening your mind starts to wander!
Problem number 5: minor, but I got pretty fed up with the FMC constantly calling things “dragon shite” and telling the MMC to “piss off”. Use a bit of variety! Another thing the editor could have done.
The premise:
A princess is locked away in a tower for 7 years and her only company is a Monstrous prince from an enemy race. I really like forced proximity and enemies to lovers, so it sounded promising.
Things I liked: possessive MMC who likes to read and is sexually inexperienced. I almost always love Ruby Dixon's MMCs. The spice was pretty good and I enjoyed the tension building up to it. liked that the FMC was very forward and unashamed of her sexuality. Worldbuilding had promise.
Things I disliked:
Problem number 1: I kept getting the name wrong because the author already has books called Bound to the Battle God & Sworn to the Shadow God and this is like the two combined. Very confusing - and from what I got through, he isn't a “shadow” anything. Despite the name being very similar, this is set in a different universe to the Aspect and Anchor series and is unrelated, but there are similarities (length, POV, fantasy setting).
Problem number 2: This is only available as an audiobook - I found it on Libby. It was originally released in a pay per chapter app, and apparently it will eventually be released on KU.
Problem number 3: (the main one) It's soooooo loooong. The audiobook is 21 hours! I've listened to 40% and there are only really 2 characters and they are locked in a tower, so there's no movement or interactions with others. So it's pretty slow. I assume this is linked to the fact it was released pay per chapter, so the more chapters the more money (unless people get bored and give up…). It really needs some heavy editing. I don't need to read whole chapters about cooking stew.
Bound to the Battle God is a similar length but they're constantly on the move, visiting new locations and meeting new characters, so it doesn't feel so slow.
Problem number 4: the logistics of being locked in a tower don't make sense to me at all. The tower has no door and *no windows* - not even slits to let in light or air. She spends the first few months just sitting in the dark. She has nothing to occupy her time - no books, no sewing, nothing. In the first year there are periods of many weeks where she speaks to nobody. Surely a person would go literally insane. Not to mention the food situation - they get a year's worth of food (and presumably water) delivered at a time. How is a medieval tower storing the gallons and gallons of water which would be required to sustain two people for a year? No fresh fruit and veg, so they're probably both getting scurvy and rickets. Normally I could suspend disbelief for this sort of thing, but when not much else is happening your mind starts to wander!
Problem number 5: minor, but I got pretty fed up with the FMC constantly calling things “dragon shite” and telling the MMC to “piss off”. Use a bit of variety! Another thing the editor could have done.
I quite liked the first half and was really enjoying it all but sometime after the first half, it lost a bit of steam for me. I finished reading it just to know what happened and even though I didn't see any of it coming I was also nit really at the edge of my seat.
fast-paced
Hear me out - I LOVED this story. There were some points where it dragged, but I think this was some of Ruby’s best writing from a character, banter, and world-building perspective.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
Can I enjoy a single POV, 21 hour long audiobook about two people trapped alone together for 7 years?
Not really, I fear 😅
Even if Queen Ruby writes it. And I really love Ruby Dixon’s brand of fantasy romance: it’s campy, smutty, and romance plot-tacular.
But this one gets added to the pile of Ruby Dixon books originally released as serialized chapters that I didn’t enjoy as a full-length (emphasis on length) novel because:
▪️ it was longggg
▪️ I dreaded the chapter breaks. It kept summarizing (and re-summarizing) what had happened so far (as if I’d forgotten in two seconds) and I was kinda losing my mind
▪️ the plot became increasingly disjointed
▪️ it was too freaking long for the romance plot to have this little drama
▪️ it was almost impressively repetitive in its description of the setting, characters, and plot stuff. I was begging it to please PLEASE pick a new way to explain things. At least some synonyms, I was dying
▪️ did I mention it was long?
And maybe I just don’t enjoy knotting as much as the next person? The book was definitely leaning into the knot and I was getting nothing 😆
Oh well, can’t win them all. I still love this author. By my last count, I’ve given 36 (!) of her books 5 stars so she’s still an all-time fav.
Not really, I fear 😅
Even if Queen Ruby writes it. And I really love Ruby Dixon’s brand of fantasy romance: it’s campy, smutty, and romance plot-tacular.
But this one gets added to the pile of Ruby Dixon books originally released as serialized chapters that I didn’t enjoy as a full-length (emphasis on length) novel because:
▪️ it was longggg
▪️ I dreaded the chapter breaks. It kept summarizing (and re-summarizing) what had happened so far (as if I’d forgotten in two seconds) and I was kinda losing my mind
▪️ the plot became increasingly disjointed
▪️ it was too freaking long for the romance plot to have this little drama
▪️ it was almost impressively repetitive in its description of the setting, characters, and plot stuff. I was begging it to please PLEASE pick a new way to explain things. At least some synonyms, I was dying
▪️ did I mention it was long?
And maybe I just don’t enjoy knotting as much as the next person? The book was definitely leaning into the knot and I was getting nothing 😆
Oh well, can’t win them all. I still love this author. By my last count, I’ve given 36 (!) of her books 5 stars so she’s still an all-time fav.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes