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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
4.5 stars
This book just took ma little heart and destroyed it. It was so angsty but so good to read.
This book was even better by the audiobook experience - the narrator was AMAZING and all the differente characters had distinct ways of speech.
This book just took ma little heart and destroyed it. It was so angsty but so good to read.
This book was even better by the audiobook experience - the narrator was AMAZING and all the differente characters had distinct ways of speech.
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is a lovely M/M romance set in what is very definitely a fairy-tale mood and story arc. Brute/Aric is a wonderful, slightly larger-than-life character, in more ways than one. He is kind, patient, strong, smart if uneducated, compassionate, restrained... and lonely. Gray, the prisoner he is set to watch, and whom he gradually befriends, is a perfect foil, a man whose treatment has been so harsh that he needs every ounce of the caring and support Aric gives him. The fact that Gray gives back the first deep human affection Aric has had since his mother died adds sweetness and poignancy. The story arc is familiar, the resolution expected, smooth and easy, but because this is couched in fairy-tale terms and tropes, that feels right and complete rather than boring.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
3.5
I thought this book was ok, but ultimately a bit of a disappointment. This is partly because I went in really expecting to love it and ended up just liking it, which is fine, really. Normally that would be enough, but when you have especially high hopes, ok feels far worse than it is.
There were several things I didn't like about the book, but let me start by saying how much I did like Brute, Gray and the characters of the palace. Plus, I loved that the main characters are a bit older, both physically disabled (one a maimed, ugly, giant and the other blind, stuttering, and emaciated) and this is a really sweet read. I liked the book, but the following things were an issue for me.
I was uncomfortable with the power dynamic in a romance between a prisoner and a guard. Yes, the prisoner is the one who initiates the relationship. Brute is not supposed to have taken advantage of Gray in any way. You can tell that from the text. But I was still never comfortable with it. There are too many ways it could go wrong and too many ways that Gray's psychological state surely were effected. I just couldn't be comfortable with it.
The book is slow. It takes a long time for Brute to even meet Gray, and then a long time for anything to progress between them, and even once it does, there's still a lot of book left. Because of this it did seem to drag at times.
I couldn't buy how Brute's life went from being so horrible in his village to being all hearts and rainbows as soon as he moved to the palace. Was there really not one kind person in his whole previous 27 years? Was there really not one jerk he encountered in the city? It was too stark a difference and honestly just felt clumsily done.
Lastly, everything was too easy. For over a year Brute and Gray were never once interrupted, never once caught doing anything they shouldn't. Then there is the whole last adventure, which I won't spoil, but it's all too easy. Until, in the end, a happily ever after is just dropped in their lap without their even pursuing it. People suddenly let old hurts go and forgive each other before running off into the sunset.
All in all, a sweet read that I'm glad to have spent time with, but not the home run I had hoped for.
I thought this book was ok, but ultimately a bit of a disappointment. This is partly because I went in really expecting to love it and ended up just liking it, which is fine, really. Normally that would be enough, but when you have especially high hopes, ok feels far worse than it is.
There were several things I didn't like about the book, but let me start by saying how much I did like Brute, Gray and the characters of the palace. Plus, I loved that the main characters are a bit older, both physically disabled (one a maimed, ugly, giant and the other blind, stuttering, and emaciated) and this is a really sweet read. I liked the book, but the following things were an issue for me.
I was uncomfortable with the power dynamic in a romance between a prisoner and a guard. Yes, the prisoner is the one who initiates the relationship. Brute is not supposed to have taken advantage of Gray in any way. You can tell that from the text. But I was still never comfortable with it. There are too many ways it could go wrong and too many ways that Gray's psychological state surely were effected. I just couldn't be comfortable with it.
The book is slow. It takes a long time for Brute to even meet Gray, and then a long time for anything to progress between them, and even once it does, there's still a lot of book left. Because of this it did seem to drag at times.
I couldn't buy how Brute's life went from being so horrible in his village to being all hearts and rainbows as soon as he moved to the palace. Was there really not one kind person in his whole previous 27 years? Was there really not one jerk he encountered in the city? It was too stark a difference and honestly just felt clumsily done.
Lastly, everything was too easy. For over a year Brute and Gray were never once interrupted, never once caught doing anything they shouldn't. Then there is the whole last adventure, which I won't spoil, but it's all too easy. Until, in the end, a happily ever after is just dropped in their lap without their even pursuing it. People suddenly let old hurts go and forgive each other before running off into the sunset.
All in all, a sweet read that I'm glad to have spent time with, but not the home run I had hoped for.
A perpetual party of pity and despair populated with flat, predictable characters, a romance based in Stockholm Syndrome, with badly written gay erotica thrown in. Terrible.
Kim Fielding's prose is really suited to the kind of fairy-tale setting here, and this was a really comforting read. I feel like there's a little bit of "true love solves everything" happening but I don't really care, it's a good book. Brute is an instantly sympathetic character, and it's easy to root for him; I felt like I had to keep reading just for his sake.
Grey is okay, but it's surprising how relatively fine (and a little bit immature) he is in comparison to his decade-long imprisonment. The book jumps between months later on, which is maybe why I don't see Grey's development, but still, a little jarring. That said, a great character-driven romance.
Grey is okay, but it's surprising how relatively fine (and a little bit immature) he is in comparison to his decade-long imprisonment. The book jumps between months later on, which is maybe why I don't see Grey's development, but still, a little jarring. That said, a great character-driven romance.
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced