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A review by lemonsandligaments
The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.25
This book started out rocky for me, I didn't know what was to be achieved.
As I began to like the characters though, things improved A LOT. The main characters have a lot of chemistry (to me). In fact, it was some of the best chemistry I've seen.
What I like is that they were very communicative.They were honest to themselves about their attraction to each other and did not beat around the bush like in most fiction. There was no slow annoying buildup where they doubled back or anything, they were attracted to each other full stop. That was refreshing
It's sometimes a wonder why this specific type of pairing is very popular in romances. I'd say it's because unlike typical romances, this kind features two independent and perfectly capable individuals that enhance each other, rather than having one clearly superior one. I enjoyed that aspect a lot. I'm normally apathetic about fornication scenes but this book has some of the better ones I've seen, just putting that out there. I could FEEL the chemistry.
For the parts that I did not like, the Chinese. It might be a matter of personal preference, but I wish that they used pinyin instead of gwoyeu (what I think they used). Spelling 册那 as ca na instead of tsaena sounds more accurate to me. Some of the phrases were spelled so foreignly I could not recognise them. I appreciated Chao mian being spelled the way it was but using it in that metaphor felt a bit shoehorned to me. I feel like the whole China thing could have been executed better, or done away with entirely, as it just feels quite corny. Or better, make Vaudrey Chinese.
For the first third of the book, I felt that the pace was too fast, which might not be true if the story properly depicted immédiate attraction. I desperately wished there was a film version of it because I felt that it could do a lot more showing that a book could.
Then the rest came with a softer, more romantic moments that showed how well they worked as a couple. It sold me on them really, really well.
This book feels like your typical cheesy rom com (which I like) but in a medieval setting (is this book even in a medieval setting?). It was interesting seeing certain tropes in more heteronormative fiction being used here, such as the "she's a VIRGIN, what a problem!" one.
Overall, a good romance, I'm open to reading more installments of these two.
As I began to like the characters though, things improved A LOT. The main characters have a lot of chemistry (to me). In fact, it was some of the best chemistry I've seen.
What I like is that they were very communicative.
It's sometimes a wonder why this specific type of pairing is very popular in romances. I'd say it's because unlike typical romances, this kind features two independent and perfectly capable individuals that enhance each other, rather than having one clearly superior one. I enjoyed that aspect a lot. I'm normally apathetic about fornication scenes but this book has some of the better ones I've seen, just putting that out there. I could FEEL the chemistry.
For the parts that I did not like, the Chinese. It might be a matter of personal preference, but I wish that they used pinyin instead of gwoyeu (what I think they used). Spelling 册那 as ca na instead of tsaena sounds more accurate to me. Some of the phrases were spelled so foreignly I could not recognise them. I appreciated Chao mian being spelled the way it was but using it in that metaphor felt a bit shoehorned to me. I feel like the whole China thing could have been executed better, or done away with entirely, as it just feels quite corny. Or better, make Vaudrey Chinese.
For the first third of the book, I felt that the pace was too fast, which might not be true if the story properly depicted immédiate attraction. I desperately wished there was a film version of it because I felt that it could do a lot more showing that a book could.
Then the rest came with a softer, more romantic moments that showed how well they worked as a couple. It sold me on them really, really well.
This book feels like your typical cheesy rom com (which I like) but in a medieval setting (is this book even in a medieval setting?). It was interesting seeing certain tropes in more heteronormative fiction being used here, such as the "she's a VIRGIN, what a problem!" one.
Overall, a good romance, I'm open to reading more installments of these two.