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A review by thepandy
Rain of Shadows and Endings by Melissa K. Roehrich
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I'm into dark romance. I'm into pushing boundaries and wicked protagonists. But I'm really not into slavery or annoying/irredeemable protags. And ultimately, that's what it came down to. I don't like either of the protagonists, and I feel like this book is going to be a lot of "misunderstandings." And honestly, with the forced bond, literal papers of ownership, forced breeding, I'm just not here for whatever this is. Even IF Tessa were to fall in love with Theon, I'd never believe it was genuine. It's already spiraling into stockholm syndrome ("OH, maybe he DOES care about me! I mean... he did do kind of nice things for me that one time. Things that are really the lowest bar of human decency, but hey, gotta start somewhere!"
And Theon's dumbass is like "Oh, I was so close to seducing her! Then it didn't work. Hrm, I know! I better be a complete fucking asshole and then be absolutely bewildered when she doesn't want anything to do with me!" I mean, this dingbat's entire plan to get his literal slave to love him is to tell her she's his and doesn't have a choice. Yeah, that'll really peel her panties off. I'm sure there's going to be some lame excuse at the end of the book that it was this way because the bond wasn't in place, and he wasn't sure he could trust her, but I'm not going through another 17 hours of this.
And while I love a good character driven book, what's even going on here? It started pretty fast out of the gate, but it's been bobbing along going no where slowly. It doesn't help that the narrators are annoying. I'm not sure why Tessa's narrator gives her this weird, snobby British accent that none of the other characters have? And then Theon's narrator manages to make her sound insufferably whiny (and no accent) all the time (which, she kind of is).
In a way, this feels like it's supposed to be a homage to ACOTAR (many, so many of the same themes run through this book, along with the same repetitious descriptors). I really wish authors would stop with the male/female nonsense as well.
And Theon's dumbass is like "Oh, I was so close to seducing her! Then it didn't work. Hrm, I know! I better be a complete fucking asshole and then be absolutely bewildered when she doesn't want anything to do with me!" I mean, this dingbat's entire plan to get his literal slave to love him is to tell her she's his and doesn't have a choice. Yeah, that'll really peel her panties off. I'm sure there's going to be some lame excuse at the end of the book that it was this way because the bond wasn't in place, and he wasn't sure he could trust her, but I'm not going through another 17 hours of this.
And while I love a good character driven book, what's even going on here? It started pretty fast out of the gate, but it's been bobbing along going no where slowly. It doesn't help that the narrators are annoying. I'm not sure why Tessa's narrator gives her this weird, snobby British accent that none of the other characters have? And then Theon's narrator manages to make her sound insufferably whiny (and no accent) all the time (which, she kind of is).
In a way, this feels like it's supposed to be a homage to ACOTAR (many, so many of the same themes run through this book, along with the same repetitious descriptors). I really wish authors would stop with the male/female nonsense as well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Slavery
Moderate: Misogyny
Minor: Rape