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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The lighthearted romp I needed, that’s for sure
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-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
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit
Moderate: Animal cruelty
Minor: Death of parent
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
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
slow-paced
This book had so much potential but I felt it was lacking in the end. I loved the concept, a reverse swan Princess, forced proximity, enemies to lovers, rival nations? Yes please, sign me up! However, the execution of the book let me down. There were so many good ideas mashed together.
The bulk of the book felt slow, then the ending felt very rushed. The pinnacle moment of stopping the coronation just felt like it was lacking in excitement. The big reveal of the assassination plot almost felt like someone said “let’s throw a twist in!” With little explanation or follow through. Forgiving the person who was slowly killing you and exiling the other who wanted to take over was anti-climatic in my opinion.
I still have more questions than answers.
The bulk of the book felt slow, then the ending felt very rushed. The pinnacle moment of stopping the coronation just felt like it was lacking in excitement. The big reveal of the assassination plot almost felt like someone said “let’s throw a twist in!” With little explanation or follow through. Forgiving the person who was slowly killing you and exiling the other who wanted to take over was anti-climatic in my opinion.
I still have more questions than answers.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
I really liked the story and it held my interest all the way through. I wish the magic system was touched on a bit more considering the major role it played in the book.
Oops, you accidentally turned your new royal husband into a horse when you tried to stop an assassination attempt. Better go on the lamb (or horse!) to avoid further stabbings, and also maybe figure out how to reverse the spell? Neither of you want war between your countries.
This was a fun read. While our romantic leads obviously suffer from some serious miscommunication, it's delightfully obvious to the reader that they're just idiots (I say this with love) and that they've obviously both been manipulated and set up to fail. It's so obvious that he is falling in love with her, and that was delightful.
Idiots. (♥️)
I read this book in just a day or two, it was easily digestible for my overclocked foggy brain, and a soothing balm for my emotions.
Steam Level 5 (multiple on the page explicit scenes).
THERE WERE TINY DRAGONS. Shy little woodland glowwyrms, or firedrakes, stealing bites of provisions from their travel bags in the woods at night.
This was a fun read. While our romantic leads obviously suffer from some serious miscommunication, it's delightfully obvious to the reader that they're just idiots (I say this with love) and that they've obviously both been manipulated and set up to fail. It's so obvious that he is falling in love with her, and that was delightful.
Idiots. (♥️)
I read this book in just a day or two, it was easily digestible for my overclocked foggy brain, and a soothing balm for my emotions.
Steam Level 5 (multiple on the page explicit scenes).
THERE WERE TINY DRAGONS. Shy little woodland glowwyrms, or firedrakes, stealing bites of provisions from their travel bags in the woods at night.
Content Warnings
Dragons
This book is a good time with plenty of horse quips as the newly wedded couple starts off on the wrong hoof but seems to actually communicate!! 🥳 Super cute, funny, and the chronic illness and queer reps hit!
A very slow burn romance. The story did remind me of “The Swan Princess” mixed with a dash of “Disenchantment” and a feeling of watching a YA show on The CW. The storyline had potential but I found myself asking too many questions too often during the story. The beginning was a slow start but the end third of the book did keep me intrigued to get to the end to see how the story played out. The FMC and MMC are both duped and have a strong sense of duty to their people, over time they learn they are more alike then they realize.
I did enjoy ⭐️ LGBTQ+ representation ⭐️Chronic illness representation ⭐️Magic ⭐️Love wins in the end
I did enjoy ⭐️ LGBTQ+ representation ⭐️Chronic illness representation ⭐️Magic ⭐️Love wins in the end
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-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
This started out really strong in my opinion.
We're introduced to Bianca, a younger sister who has celiac disease. She's getting arrange married to the neighboring King. The treatment she's sent is also vaguely threatening. Interestingly, the world (or at least Bianca's country) is queernormative, which is normally a huge plus for me but this was mentioned in the beginning and then forgotten about until the end.
Anyway Bianca goes to Gildenheim and she has a rough time. This was my favorite part of the book. She falls into the water, seems to have a contentious relationship with everyone, and her betrothed is icy to her. The get married with a magic ritual, but they get interrupted before they can consummate their marriage. By an assassin.
Here is where things started to decrease in quality fin my opinion: Bianca saves them from the assassin, who was specifically targeting Aric, by using a protection charm her sister gave her. She also turns Aric into a horse. Aric thinks she was behind the assassination attempt, and we also find out that he was strongarmed into their marriage.
Once Bianca starts actually speaking to some other characters, the dialogue is not that great. The characters don't say things that are very believable. Bianca straddles this weird line of acting like a royal and also being very immature, so she she has a lot of very clear thoughts and then she'll say something like "Well I didn't know that." And then Aric will just seem to know all of her thoughts and sympathize with her, even though he has good reason to think she or her country is trying to usurp his throne.
Overall I liked the writing style, I think some of the attempts at imagery were misplaced. "The innkeeper's accent, by comparison to Aric's, was like pond water to melted ice." I read this line a few times because I had nonidea what was being said, but the next line tells us that Aric was speaker "crisper", and I guess colder? There was some imagery issues throughout. This overly flowery imagery continued through the most of the book, and then when the action picked up the author stopped doing it so much. This quirk alone made the first half of the book slow to get through for me.
The book tried its best to put in some popular tropes. There was an "only one bed" scene, which was honestly silly to me because the characters are literally married. You are very aware of this because when they call each other husband or wife the word gets italicized. But in this only one bed scene, Bianca says "Oh." in her internal narration four times. Two times it's italicized. There's even an "Oh. Oh." When a character says "oh" so many times, I expect them to be having some kind of revelation. I'm honestly not sure what she was realizing here, because she's still very childish with Aric after this.
Miscommunication was used so heavily throughout the book, it got frustrating very quickly. Bianca kept assuming she knew everything going on and never asked any questions to make sure she was right. I wish instead of repeating the same things over and over, like "I'm so weak" "It's okay I love you anyway" that more time was spent developing their relationship. It seemed like Bianca went from being a snob to being in love without much in between, which ja confusing because the book is from her POV so I should've experienced that with her.
All that said, I really liked the last 60 or so pages of this book. It was fun, the writing was much better than the rest of the book in my opinion, and while it was nothing new it was satisfying to read. The ending made me bump this from a 3 star to a 3.5 star. I'd read more Romantasy from M Stevenson, I think most of the issues I had with this book are from inexperience. I also really liked the world, and while there isn't much left to explore without changing the setting, I'd like a novella about Tatianna or even her mean parents.
One last critique that I don't necessarily think is a big deal: I think this would've been better as a YA novel. The concept was very YA, the characters were very immature, honestly the spicy scenes didn't seem very well-placed. I didn't mind them, but I think this book was very YA.
We're introduced to Bianca, a younger sister who has celiac disease. She's getting arrange married to the neighboring King. The treatment she's sent is also vaguely threatening. Interestingly, the world (or at least Bianca's country) is queernormative, which is normally a huge plus for me but this was mentioned in the beginning and then forgotten about until the end.
Anyway Bianca goes to Gildenheim and she has a rough time. This was my favorite part of the book. She falls into the water, seems to have a contentious relationship with everyone, and her betrothed is icy to her. The get married with a magic ritual, but they get interrupted before they can consummate their marriage. By an assassin.
Here is where things started to decrease in quality fin my opinion: Bianca saves them from the assassin, who was specifically targeting Aric, by using a protection charm her sister gave her. She also turns Aric into a horse. Aric thinks she was behind the assassination attempt, and we also find out that he was strongarmed into their marriage.
Once Bianca starts actually speaking to some other characters, the dialogue is not that great. The characters don't say things that are very believable. Bianca straddles this weird line of acting like a royal and also being very immature, so she she has a lot of very clear thoughts and then she'll say something like "Well I didn't know that." And then Aric will just seem to know all of her thoughts and sympathize with her, even though he has good reason to think she or her country is trying to usurp his throne.
Overall I liked the writing style, I think some of the attempts at imagery were misplaced. "The innkeeper's accent, by comparison to Aric's, was like pond water to melted ice." I read this line a few times because I had nonidea what was being said, but the next line tells us that Aric was speaker "crisper", and I guess colder? There was some imagery issues throughout. This overly flowery imagery continued through the most of the book, and then when the action picked up the author stopped doing it so much. This quirk alone made the first half of the book slow to get through for me.
The book tried its best to put in some popular tropes. There was an "only one bed" scene, which was honestly silly to me because the characters are literally married. You are very aware of this because when they call each other husband or wife the word gets italicized. But in this only one bed scene, Bianca says "Oh." in her internal narration four times. Two times it's italicized. There's even an "Oh. Oh." When a character says "oh" so many times, I expect them to be having some kind of revelation. I'm honestly not sure what she was realizing here, because she's still very childish with Aric after this.
Miscommunication was used so heavily throughout the book, it got frustrating very quickly. Bianca kept assuming she knew everything going on and never asked any questions to make sure she was right. I wish instead of repeating the same things over and over, like "I'm so weak" "It's okay I love you anyway" that more time was spent developing their relationship. It seemed like Bianca went from being a snob to being in love without much in between, which ja confusing because the book is from her POV so I should've experienced that with her.
All that said, I really liked the last 60 or so pages of this book. It was fun, the writing was much better than the rest of the book in my opinion, and while it was nothing new it was satisfying to read. The ending made me bump this from a 3 star to a 3.5 star. I'd read more Romantasy from M Stevenson, I think most of the issues I had with this book are from inexperience. I also really liked the world, and while there isn't much left to explore without changing the setting, I'd like a novella about Tatianna or even her mean parents.
One last critique that I don't necessarily think is a big deal: I think this would've been better as a YA novel. The concept was very YA, the characters were very immature, honestly the spicy scenes didn't seem very well-placed. I didn't mind them, but I think this book was very YA.