Reviews with content warning for Body horror - A Dance with the Fae Prince

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A Dance with the Fae Prince by Elise Kova

4 reviews

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.0

The first book of this series has been on TBR for a while and it was gifted to me for my birthday, me being me – I had to carry on with this series. I thought the first book in the series was weak, but this one was so much stronger, a bit predictable but very enjoyable.

This book is based on Katria and she knew her hand in marriage would be sold and she swore never to fall in love. She's seen what “love” means through the cruelty of her stepmother and sisters. So when she is married off to the mysterious Lord Fenwood for a handsome price, all Katria wants a better life than the one she’s leaving. Feelings are off the table. But her new husband makes not falling in love very difficult. As their attraction begins to grow, so too do with the oddities within her life: strange rules, screams in the night and attacks by fae that Katria never thought were real. When she witnesses a ritual not meant for human eyes, Katria finds herself away to the land of Midscape. Surviving the fae wilds as a human is hard enough. Katria must survive as a human who accidently pilfered the magic of ancient kings – magic a bloodthirsty king is ready to kill her for in order to keep his stolen throne and her new husband is the rightful heir in hiding. The power to save the fae is in her hands. But who will save her from a love she vowed never to feel?

I was a little nervous going into this book considering I didn’t enjoy the first one. However, this book managed to hook me in from the first sentence. I love both of these main characters and I love the love story between them. The chemistry. The banter, I was all for it. Davien was so expressive and honest and I love that he wanted to communicate and didn’t want Katria to shut down because she was scared. The weaknesses that I found in the last book weren’t in – the world building in the first book didn’t exist where this one had more of an explanation of what was being done and what had happened.

Unlike the first book where I wanted it shorter, I wanted this to be longer. The ending was quite short and abrupt. I wanted to see how Katria was going to get along in the world as queen and would have love to see how to Raph was doing in the world and just to see more of her settled in this new world she hated then loved. Rather than her going off on a horse that she spent the whole book missing. I did find the book a bit predictable at times just because of how many fae books are out there nowadays like her being the heir instead of Davien - I saw that coming from the ritual but I still enjoyed it.

I loved the aspect of retelling Cinderella, and I cannot wait to see what the next one is about.

Content Warnings

itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

So this is book is the reason I was interested in picking up this series despite not really being a big romance fan; specifically I heard the "under no circumstances are you to ever lay eyes on me" line and I just found it fucking hilarious that I just had to find out what was going on.

Turns out this book was not what I expected it to be, both for good and bad reasons.

Things I liked about this book:

I take back what I said about feeling elf and fae magic were the wrong way around because I liked the execution of rituals (especially coming off the back of watching a playthrough of Alan Wake 2 where rituals are a big deal in that game). I still think they could have gone into more depth in places but it was an interesting magic system.
All of the side characters in Midscape were interesting and I was really invested in their relationships.

Things I felt neutral on:

Katria being not only fae but the lost heiress to the throne gave me mixed feelings. I think Kova definitely played her hand on the big twist a bit too early in the story and it kept being foreshadowed in ways a bit too obvious for my liking. I don't mind the twist itself, I just think it could have been better executed, maybe with her finding out she's fae and THEN much later that she's the heiress and not both reveals so closely back to back.
I have mixed opinions on Katria as an abuse victim and her recovery leading onto self-actualisation. I like that her trauma wasn't immediately healed by love, and she had to unpack what she went through. That said I had two issues that bothered me:
- I don't like the fact that the romance itself in the end is what "healed" her. Yes you can learn to love through a romantic partner, and yes Davien did stress that love comes in many non-romantic forms. I understand I'm coming across as a bit stupid for complaining about this in a romance book, but I feel Katria could have bonded more with the side characters if familial love/the love of friendship was as important as romantic love.
- I want to preface this by saying that I have no issue with Katria acting out despite being told various times not to do this. It's a realistic thing for some abuse victims to lash out against people trying to help them or completely uninvolved parties. My problem comes from the fact that it felt like the same thing over and over again for the sake of conflict, rather than Katria acting out in various ways which would be more realistic, in my opinion. It was always "someone tells her not to do x and makes her promise not to" > "she promises" > "she ends up breaking the promise and things go to shit" > "the other person is mad at her but they shrug it off instead of discussing in depth" (the incident with the old crone near the start is a notable exception).

Things I didn't like/felt could have been improved:

The plot felt like Kova was initially going for one thing and then swerved into another the moment Katria interrupted the ritual and everyone had to flee into Midscape; as if she combined two different drafts together a bit haphazardly. Once they reached Dreamsong it felt a lot more cohesive but getting there was a bit of a slog.
The dynamic of the romance didn't hit for me like it did with Elf King. I understand that Davien was supposed to be torn between his duty as an heir apparent and being in an arranged marriage to a wife he is slowly falling for. The problem was that the transition between being duty bound and following his heart felt too sudden. Also I feel like the dynamic at the beginning where Katria wasn't allowed to look at him was filled with wasted potential.
Note for all aspiring writers: Can we PLEASE stop trying to insert omegaverse themes into faerie smut, subtly or not. Faeries are creatures different from humans and should not be subject to our constructs of gender, so why are we so hellbent on shoving cisheteronormative gender essentialism into our smut when it has no place being there (or anywhere for that matter, it's 2023 for god's sake). What the fuck do you mean by "a way a man and woman could fit together conceptually"?
The ending was super rushed and had so much lost potential that I would have liked to have seen.
I wanted to see the visit of Eldas and Luella. I wanted to see Katria's magic lessons. There was just so much that happened and we get the sparknotes version.

I think I'm going to wait until Wolf Knight comes out because I'm not a fan of vampires and I've heard Kova shot herself in the foot a bit with the handling of themes in Siren Duke. And maybe because I'm a furry.

Content Warnings

forgottencupoftea's review

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Content Warnings

iamsammie27's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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