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3.38 AVERAGE
3.38 AVERAGE
came in with high hopes but i think i just found their game tedious through the middle. 3.5 stars
I'm clearly reading too much romance (and I've reached the point where I skim all the sex scenes; I know the routine) but the light narrative stakes and the resolvable heartbreak fit my current mood. I confess to not understanding why James and Violet haven't reconciled earlier -- why did the author choose to make their estrangement last four years?
My rating is more of a genre/trope preference than it is anything with the story itself or writing. Super cute, and it's hard not to love James and Violet, but my GOD it took 60% of the book to find out what The Fight™️ was about and I think at that point we read about one kiss (despite the sexual tension that jumped off of the page). I cannot stand when people - real life or otherwise - are so willing to commit to NOT communicating that they repeatedly make everything worse for themselves. It's not for me, so I was more frustrated than anything else.
I received an ARC copy of this from Atria Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Summary
Violet and James married for love. But 5 years later, after a huge blow out 4 years ago, they can't stand each other. But when Violet receives a letter that her husband was thrown from his horse and is unconscious, she rushes to his bedside. Only once she arrives, he is completely okay. This kickstarts an all out war. But deceiving each other forces them both to acknowledge their real feelings - they might not hate each other after all.
Overview
➸ POV: 3rd Person
➸ Violet Grey: 23, No sense of "meekness", Curious and Snarky, Married 5 years
➸ James Audley: 28, Second son to a Duke, Gentleman, Closed off and Untrusting, Owner of profitable stables
➸ Content Warnings: Toxic relationships
My Thoughts
This was a fun regency romance, but unfortunately it didn't quite live up to expectations.
I really loved the beginning of this! I thought the characters were funny and charming. They main characters' meet cute was adorable, and James was lovably grumpy. But this book really started to drag for me around the 100 page mark..
First this things I liked!
Violet was such a strong heroine. I loved how confident and self-assured she was. Even when everyone was telling her to act differently, she was steadfast in her decisions. She was intelligent, sarcastic, and openly against a lot of societal norms of the time. I love strong, feminist characters in historical!
James was a grumpy hero with a secret heart of gold - my favorite. I really liked that we got his thoughts as well as Violet's. I liked knowing his motivations for his actions and it made him a really likable character despite his flaws.
However... I thought the writing in this was so repetitive and arduous. There was such an overabundance of unnecessary punctuation. There was absolutely no need for that many dashes, parentheses, etc. Every sentence started to feel cumbersome to get through. And if I had to read James' age one more time I was going to lose it. We get it! He's 28!
But the story itself was repetitive too. Not only were phrases used over and over again, but the characters kept repeating their actions. I think this book could have been 150 pages shorter and equally effective. By the 75% mark I was sick of the back and forth lying.
Overall the drawn out, repetitive nature of this book really brought my rating down. While I enjoyed the characters and banter, the pacing just was just too drawn out. This is a debut novel though, so I'm really interested to see what Martha Waters writes next!
Summary
Violet and James married for love. But 5 years later, after a huge blow out 4 years ago, they can't stand each other. But when Violet receives a letter that her husband was thrown from his horse and is unconscious, she rushes to his bedside. Only once she arrives, he is completely okay. This kickstarts an all out war. But deceiving each other forces them both to acknowledge their real feelings - they might not hate each other after all.
Overview
➸ POV: 3rd Person
➸ Violet Grey: 23, No sense of "meekness", Curious and Snarky, Married 5 years
➸ James Audley: 28, Second son to a Duke, Gentleman, Closed off and Untrusting, Owner of profitable stables
➸ Content Warnings: Toxic relationships
My Thoughts
This was a fun regency romance, but unfortunately it didn't quite live up to expectations.
I really loved the beginning of this! I thought the characters were funny and charming. They main characters' meet cute was adorable, and James was lovably grumpy. But this book really started to drag for me around the 100 page mark..
First this things I liked!
Violet was such a strong heroine. I loved how confident and self-assured she was. Even when everyone was telling her to act differently, she was steadfast in her decisions. She was intelligent, sarcastic, and openly against a lot of societal norms of the time. I love strong, feminist characters in historical!
James was a grumpy hero with a secret heart of gold - my favorite. I really liked that we got his thoughts as well as Violet's. I liked knowing his motivations for his actions and it made him a really likable character despite his flaws.
However... I thought the writing in this was so repetitive and arduous. There was such an overabundance of unnecessary punctuation. There was absolutely no need for that many dashes, parentheses, etc. Every sentence started to feel cumbersome to get through. And if I had to read James' age one more time I was going to lose it. We get it! He's 28!
But the story itself was repetitive too. Not only were phrases used over and over again, but the characters kept repeating their actions. I think this book could have been 150 pages shorter and equally effective. By the 75% mark I was sick of the back and forth lying.
Overall the drawn out, repetitive nature of this book really brought my rating down. While I enjoyed the characters and banter, the pacing just was just too drawn out. This is a debut novel though, so I'm really interested to see what Martha Waters writes next!
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Fun, silly read but pushing the limits with the miscommunication lasting four years over what I don’t even remember.
Yikes that was not good. Do I just not like regency romance? I’ll never make it through Bridgerton then! Or if it that these characters are super bland, bland. And the plot is stupid and boring.