A review by jacobmillerchapin
Velise by Cebelius

medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

The world is interesting but the character motivations aren't fully developped, and the romance collapses into an undeserved happy ending. The first protagonist, Bremmin, completely falls apart the second — not the second someone does something truly heartfelt for him, or helps him grow as a character — but the second someone manages to pull the strings he tries so hard to hide. He starts off as a fairly solid self-respecting man, but by the end of the book has completely transformed into a cookie cutter doey eyed malleable romance hero. Velise, the other protagonist, even if by the end she does claim to love him, there's no sense that that isn't only because of what he can give to her, and I'm left with the impression that her love only means that she would briedly hesitate before abandoning him. Refusing to use a safeword during BDSM play is a huge red flag. I like reading books like this because they give a good although not self-aware insight into relationship dynamics, and can reveal certain patterns in both myself and other people that by seeing clealry I can better navigate, but I really wouldn't say that anything about this story is romantic. Romantic in a self-destructive sense, if nothing else. I guess some peole are into that.
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