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alysonemery's review
I loved the first book in this series, but in this book, I am so confused why Arabella is “in love” with Dhuro. Arabella is strong, and kind, and thoughtful, and I fully believe that Dhuros is in love with her. She’s a great character to read. Dhuros, however, does literally nothing to inspire love. (And no, fucking doesn’t count. Neither does picking a single flower for her after said fucking, nor saving her life after being the one to put it in danger .)
He’s been a jerk, then good in bed, then convinces her that she’s a danger to their entire party and needs to be tortured by a magic-blocker to keep control of her powers… which have not actually been “dangerous” since she realized she shouldn’t use them in battle… . He puts her and the rest of the team at risk for the sake of his own opinion of her capabilities, which stay insultingly low throughout the novel.
His character development does come out towards the end of the novel, but it stays embarrassingly weak. This is especially noticeable when staged opposite Arabella, who has just been through some serious trauma. Speaking of which, we’re not even going to try to dive in to that, to show any growth or recovery after what she’s been through? Really?
I mean, damn. If I had been tortured daily for four months straight while stuck in the body of a horse I would come out catatonic.
Thus, the love story read with a huge power imbalance from said trauma, and it made my heart break every time Dhuros made Arabella second guess her intentions. I’m leaving the last four chapters unfinished, so maybe that is where the author addresses some of this. At this point, I’ve seen enough of Dhuros’s character to know that there are too many red flags to be addressed in four chapters, at least for my taste.
All this to say, this book is not what I was expecting. The tagline is “grumpy meets sunshine”, but I’d say it’s closer to a “rejected mates”, “alpha male”, or even “bully romance lite”. If you’re into that, I would say give it a read - no judgement here, different strokes for different folks. I just can’t stomach the stuff.
He’s been a jerk, then good in bed, then convinces her that
His character development does come out towards the end of the novel, but it stays embarrassingly weak. This is especially noticeable when staged opposite Arabella, who has just been through some serious trauma. Speaking of which, we’re not even going to try to dive in to that, to show any growth or recovery after what she’s been through? Really?
I mean, damn. If I had been
Thus, the love story read with a huge power imbalance from said trauma, and it made my heart break every time Dhuros made Arabella second guess her intentions. I’m leaving the last four chapters unfinished, so maybe that is where the author addresses some of this. At this point, I’ve seen enough of Dhuros’s character to know that there are too many red flags to be addressed in four chapters, at least for my taste.
All this to say, this book is not what I was expecting. The tagline is “grumpy meets sunshine”, but I’d say it’s closer to a “rejected mates”, “alpha male”, or even “bully romance lite”. If you’re into that, I would say give it a read - no judgement here, different strokes for different folks. I just can’t stomach the stuff.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Torture
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