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A review by alexblackreads
In the Ravenous Dark by A.M. Strickland
2.0
I feel like this book couldn't decide if it wanted to be romance or a really plot driven political fantasy, and it straddled the line between the two without giving either enough development.
I couldn't stand the romance in this. For one thing, it was absolutely immediate. The main sees a hot girl and away she goes, head over heels, without knowing anything about her. Within two conversations, they're in love and the main character fully trusts her, despite being in a very precarious political situation. Rovan just knows that the princess is trustworthy, in much the same way Rovan immediately knows the friend they make is trustworthy. It was irritating.
And on top of the instalove, the romance didn't feel like it fit well in the story. They'd be in the middle of a big dramatic fight and have to kill some people, and then Rovan would pause to hook up with the hot princess. Like let's ignore the literal corpse on the floor so we can dramatically fall into bed together. It grated on my every nerve.
And I hated Rovan as a character. She was so annoying and acted like an immature, spoiled brat. Like I get this is YA. I read YA on a regular basis. But characters need to rise to the situation they're in. I do not believe that Rovan could have survived even a single afternoon in the royal palace. She ran her mouth, she couldn't even once look at the big picture, she wasn't capable of seeing anything more than her own problems, and she treated everyone like they were disposable.
But on the positives, I did really enjoy the general plot. I liked the magic system. I liked the politics. It was so interesting and I wish there'd been more time to develop all of those aspects. I found it genuinely so cool, but after reading this book, I still don't really have any idea how the magic works. Rovan was supposedly learning how to control her magic, but we didn't get to see much of it. The court was absolutely twisted and I wanted to explore all of the intricacies. But there just wasn't time.
390 pages isn't very long for a standalone fantasy, especially when so much of it was focused on the romance. I think there was too much crammed into this little book and there was a much better story inside. I was so tempted to give this three just for the fascinating magic, but the characters ruined it. Unfortunately this was a flop for me.
I couldn't stand the romance in this. For one thing, it was absolutely immediate. The main sees a hot girl and away she goes, head over heels, without knowing anything about her. Within two conversations, they're in love and the main character fully trusts her, despite being in a very precarious political situation. Rovan just knows that the princess is trustworthy, in much the same way Rovan immediately knows the friend they make is trustworthy. It was irritating.
And on top of the instalove, the romance didn't feel like it fit well in the story. They'd be in the middle of a big dramatic fight and have to kill some people, and then Rovan would pause to hook up with the hot princess. Like let's ignore the literal corpse on the floor so we can dramatically fall into bed together. It grated on my every nerve.
And I hated Rovan as a character. She was so annoying and acted like an immature, spoiled brat. Like I get this is YA. I read YA on a regular basis. But characters need to rise to the situation they're in. I do not believe that Rovan could have survived even a single afternoon in the royal palace. She ran her mouth, she couldn't even once look at the big picture, she wasn't capable of seeing anything more than her own problems, and she treated everyone like they were disposable.
But on the positives, I did really enjoy the general plot. I liked the magic system. I liked the politics. It was so interesting and I wish there'd been more time to develop all of those aspects. I found it genuinely so cool, but after reading this book, I still don't really have any idea how the magic works. Rovan was supposedly learning how to control her magic, but we didn't get to see much of it. The court was absolutely twisted and I wanted to explore all of the intricacies. But there just wasn't time.
390 pages isn't very long for a standalone fantasy, especially when so much of it was focused on the romance. I think there was too much crammed into this little book and there was a much better story inside. I was so tempted to give this three just for the fascinating magic, but the characters ruined it. Unfortunately this was a flop for me.