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ameliagthorn 's review for:
A Bargain So Bloody
by Vasilisa Drake
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
While this doesn’t reinvent the wheel, I found it offered a really refreshing taste of a very trope-heavy genre.
While the plot was rather predictable, Drake has a genuinely addictive writing style with such flow and individual voice/prose that I didn’t much mind that fact. I finished this book in just over a day which is very quick by my standards! I don’t have much comment about the narrator, she did the spooky voices well enough but otherwise I found her to be a little too slow for my tastes. I listened at 1.75x speed!
The surrounding cast is made largely of common archetypes but with enough individuality that made this book feel fleshed out, lived in and multi-dimensional. You have the witty assistant who takes no sh*t, the stoic mentor, the evil librarian (okay maybe that’s less an archetype but it was fun.)
I’ll also mention that I loved the FMC, where she could have easily fallen into the classic “I’m a badass” precisely until the MMC turns up and she in fact turns out to have all the backbone of a roasted marshmallow, Sam was really really enjoyable to follow. A strong, kind of violent, morale-driven character that reads (well listens) as just as intelligent as she claims to be. Her motives from first chapter to final always rang true and genuine, and the core of her character is something anyone reader would enjoy.
The MMC was hot, I have no shame in admitting it. One of my major problems with books centred on a character that changes midway through (SPOILER: [an obvious one but still a spoiler] he turns out to be the vampire king) is that after the reveal it feels like they change character completely. In the context of this book it only cemented what we already knew of the character, made motive and temperament more clear. He’s loyal, violent (hush I have a type) and rips people to shreds when they hurt his woman. Oh and he was hot.
What more does a woman need from her romantasy?
I’ll be blunt I pictured old Draco Malfoy for much of this for Raphael which might not have been the aim but it worked for me.
I don’t know where the trend for magic being based in decks of cards came from the last couple of years, this was another example of this and I really enjoyed the magic system. It was kind of basic, a little barebones but enough set rules that you could understand how and where things work.
Where this fell short of five stars for me was some of the theming, which I’ll admit is very personal. I really enjoyed when it seemed that Drake was going to explore themes of consent with the very obvious brothel allegories and power dynamics. I didn’t much enjoy that Sam tended to ignore and/or belittle the willingness of individuals to consent, I found this could be interpreted as demonising/dehumanising real life sex workers. Then I massively enjoyed that it was the MMC who called her out on this rhetoric.
Only for this meaty theme to be thrown aside to drive the storyline forward, by killing the individual. This could have been a genuine and very interesting exploration of that theme, instead it fell short by taking the easy way out for me.
However, I didn’t find this ruined the book nor the ending and I will absolutely be picking up the next book in this series.
While the plot was rather predictable, Drake has a genuinely addictive writing style with such flow and individual voice/prose that I didn’t much mind that fact. I finished this book in just over a day which is very quick by my standards! I don’t have much comment about the narrator, she did the spooky voices well enough but otherwise I found her to be a little too slow for my tastes. I listened at 1.75x speed!
The surrounding cast is made largely of common archetypes but with enough individuality that made this book feel fleshed out, lived in and multi-dimensional. You have the witty assistant who takes no sh*t, the stoic mentor, the evil librarian (okay maybe that’s less an archetype but it was fun.)
I’ll also mention that I loved the FMC, where she could have easily fallen into the classic “I’m a badass” precisely until the MMC turns up and she in fact turns out to have all the backbone of a roasted marshmallow, Sam was really really enjoyable to follow. A strong, kind of violent, morale-driven character that reads (well listens) as just as intelligent as she claims to be. Her motives from first chapter to final always rang true and genuine, and the core of her character is something anyone reader would enjoy.
The MMC was hot, I have no shame in admitting it. One of my major problems with books centred on a character that changes midway through (SPOILER: [an obvious one but still a spoiler] he turns out to be the vampire king) is that after the reveal it feels like they change character completely. In the context of this book it only cemented what we already knew of the character, made motive and temperament more clear. He’s loyal, violent (hush I have a type) and rips people to shreds when they hurt his woman. Oh and he was hot.
What more does a woman need from her romantasy?
I’ll be blunt I pictured old Draco Malfoy for much of this for Raphael which might not have been the aim but it worked for me.
I don’t know where the trend for magic being based in decks of cards came from the last couple of years, this was another example of this and I really enjoyed the magic system. It was kind of basic, a little barebones but enough set rules that you could understand how and where things work.
Where this fell short of five stars for me was some of the theming, which I’ll admit is very personal. I really enjoyed when it seemed that Drake was going to explore themes of consent with the very obvious brothel allegories and power dynamics. I didn’t much enjoy that Sam tended to ignore and/or belittle the willingness of individuals to consent, I found this could be interpreted as demonising/dehumanising real life sex workers. Then I massively enjoyed that it was the MMC who called her out on this rhetoric.
Only for this meaty theme to be thrown aside to drive the storyline forward, by killing the individual. This could have been a genuine and very interesting exploration of that theme, instead it fell short by taking the easy way out for me.
However, I didn’t find this ruined the book nor the ending and I will absolutely be picking up the next book in this series.