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A review by rowan_reviews
The Orc and the Innkeeper by Cora Crane
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I received a free copy of the audiobook from NetGalley in exchange for a review - thank you to NetGalley and the publisher!
The Orc and the Innkeeper is a revenge fantasy masquerading as a cozy romantic fantasy. Mariah, a human, owns an inn but doesn't have the money to remediate a pixie dust mite infestation - but she can't afford NOT to either. Thorak, an orc, is her high school bully and tormentor - who meets with a human investor in the common room of Mariah's inn and she overhears him say he has a human fiancee. Well, it turns out there is no fiancee, no partner and certainly no human in his life - but knowing his family is rich, Mariah strikes a deal: She'll play the part of his fiancee if he'll foot the 20k bill to get rid of her infestation, and he agrees.
The characters fell flat for me. There's build at the start of some promising world-building and character history, with Mariah talking about how she's spent 10 years successfully avoiding him because she is still hurt and angry over how he treated her. Having financial incentive to team up with him makes sense, but it feels like although she brings up her hurt and anger throughout it doesn't ever feel fully resolved in a way that makes their relationship progression make sense. Also mean boy is mean because he liked pretty girl is just so..... so painfully stereotypical.
There is fantasy racism - orcs hate humans because of what sounds like at the very least a forced "migration" if not outright genocide (it was somewhat tip-toed around) and of course humans seem to largely be bigoted towards all/any magical creatures. I don't feel qualified to speak towards the issues that have been pointed out by many Black book influencers regarding the use of orcs in fantasy as a substitution for Black people - if you pull the fantasy elements, it shows.
Anyway, if you've dreamed of making a man grovel while he's pleasuring you, you may enjoy this.
The audiobook narrators did a good job - I found them to be easy to understand and they brought the characters more to life than I feel like they would have been were I just reading off the page. I have early stages of (genetic) hearing loss, I am not yet eligible for hearing aids however I do sometimes really struggle with audiobooks due to it if I'm struggling to understand the narrator - sometimes it has to do with their enunciation, sometimes accent, sometimes audio quality. I did not have any issues with those in this case, I'm happy to say.
The Orc and the Innkeeper is a revenge fantasy masquerading as a cozy romantic fantasy. Mariah, a human, owns an inn but doesn't have the money to remediate a pixie dust mite infestation - but she can't afford NOT to either. Thorak, an orc, is her high school bully and tormentor - who meets with a human investor in the common room of Mariah's inn and she overhears him say he has a human fiancee. Well, it turns out there is no fiancee, no partner and certainly no human in his life - but knowing his family is rich, Mariah strikes a deal: She'll play the part of his fiancee if he'll foot the 20k bill to get rid of her infestation, and he agrees.
The characters fell flat for me. There's build at the start of some promising world-building and character history, with Mariah talking about how she's spent 10 years successfully avoiding him because she is still hurt and angry over how he treated her. Having financial incentive to team up with him makes sense, but it feels like although she brings up her hurt and anger throughout it doesn't ever feel fully resolved in a way that makes their relationship progression make sense. Also mean boy is mean because he liked pretty girl is just so..... so painfully stereotypical.
There is fantasy racism - orcs hate humans because of what sounds like at the very least a forced "migration" if not outright genocide (it was somewhat tip-toed around) and of course humans seem to largely be bigoted towards all/any magical creatures. I don't feel qualified to speak towards the issues that have been pointed out by many Black book influencers regarding the use of orcs in fantasy as a substitution for Black people - if you pull the fantasy elements, it shows.
Anyway, if you've dreamed of making a man grovel while he's pleasuring you, you may enjoy this.
The audiobook narrators did a good job - I found them to be easy to understand and they brought the characters more to life than I feel like they would have been were I just reading off the page. I have early stages of (genetic) hearing loss, I am not yet eligible for hearing aids however I do sometimes really struggle with audiobooks due to it if I'm struggling to understand the narrator - sometimes it has to do with their enunciation, sometimes accent, sometimes audio quality. I did not have any issues with those in this case, I'm happy to say.