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A review by no2camels
Royally Endowed by Emma Chase
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
***A Review, really, of all three books in the series.
This book MUST be trolling its readers. . . each book in the series is a bit more problematic than the last. Each MMC goes through some kind of crisis in masculinity: under the thumb of a leading woman (book 1), loss of free will (book 2), an failing as a protector (book 3), and in each book the masculinity in crisis is reaffirmed and stabilized through a fragile and hapless/helpless victimized FMC. And honestly each book gets more and more disturbing, until we get to this last book where all of the FMC from all three books are spun into uber-fragility: an emotional pregnant with twins Olivia who is hunted by a stalker; a PTSD and crowd shy Sarah who is struck dumb and helpless when confronted with her abuser; Elly who cannot do a single thing for herself except cutely sing in the kitchen--and apparently breed boys (at the end of this book she has dropped out of college, and is LITERALLY pregnant with her third boy, dancing barefoot in a kitchen making breakfast.
Yes, you read that correctly: barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.
And on one hand, kudos to Emma Chase if this is a class critique ("Oh you like royalty--let me show you what eroticizing that kind of power means"), but if she is not offering this as a staggering critique of Royalty narrative, then. . . ooof, what a disappointing conclusion to a series that started compellingly.
Andi Arndt and Shane East are always good--but it is also clear that East recognizes this shit-pile because his narration is over-the-top machismo.
This book MUST be trolling its readers. . . each book in the series is a bit more problematic than the last. Each MMC goes through some kind of crisis in masculinity: under the thumb of a leading woman (book 1), loss of free will (book 2), an failing as a protector (book 3), and in each book the masculinity in crisis is reaffirmed and stabilized through a fragile and hapless/helpless victimized FMC. And honestly each book gets more and more disturbing, until we get to this last book where all of the FMC from all three books are spun into uber-fragility: an emotional pregnant with twins Olivia who is hunted by a stalker; a PTSD and crowd shy Sarah who is struck dumb and helpless when confronted with her abuser; Elly who cannot do a single thing for herself except cutely sing in the kitchen--and apparently breed boys (at the end of this book she has dropped out of college, and is LITERALLY pregnant with her third boy, dancing barefoot in a kitchen making breakfast.
Yes, you read that correctly: barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.
And on one hand, kudos to Emma Chase if this is a class critique ("Oh you like royalty--let me show you what eroticizing that kind of power means"), but if she is not offering this as a staggering critique of Royalty narrative, then. . . ooof, what a disappointing conclusion to a series that started compellingly.
Andi Arndt and Shane East are always good--but it is also clear that East recognizes this shit-pile because his narration is over-the-top machismo.