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A review by natalieetruesdell
Lady of Darkness by Melissa K. Roehrich
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Really fun fantasy romance!
Scarlett is a trained "Maiden of Death" which basically means she's a part of an infamous lady assassin trio. She is impulsive, secretive, and undeniably skilled. When she meets the General of the King's armies and he bests her in a sword fight, she convinces him to train her. They are instantly drawn to each other while they discreetly pursue their separate agendas. It's a story about magic and secrets, friendship and grief, and love and betrayal.
I think that the author did a really good job of balancing the romance with the fantasy and magical aspects. They were connected to each other, so I never felt like there was too much of one or the other. The relationship-building in this book was really good, and I specifically liked how it continued to progress. I thought the relationship was really well done and complex, and the chemistry was steamy. I also liked that there wasn't a total information overload that usually accompanies worldbuilding in fantasy novels. The new information was pretty much always directly related to the character or plot, so I didn't need to skim. It's probably because the MC is learning about these things at the same pace that we are. It hinders our depth of the world but makes it easier to comprehend.
At times, it was frustrating that the MCs had important information about the situation that they didn't share with us until the very end. Instead of figuring out what was going on along with the character, we had to wait, knowing that we didn't have all of the relevant facts. Also, there were a good amount of spelling+general editing errors that could have easily been ironed out with an editor. But, I think that this was self-published, so it didn't bother me too much.
The ending was a little bit predictable, but only because the author left clues pointing towards it on purpose. I think that sometimes endings can be predictable because they slot perfectly into place.
Overall, I thought that this author did a really good job on both the fantasy and romantic aspects of this book. It felt like a lot of work was put into this book, and I would love to read other books by this author outside of this series. Just watch out for the trigger warnings.
Scarlett is a trained "Maiden of Death" which basically means she's a part of an infamous lady assassin trio. She is impulsive, secretive, and undeniably skilled. When she meets the General of the King's armies and he bests her in a sword fight, she convinces him to train her. They are instantly drawn to each other while they discreetly pursue their separate agendas. It's a story about magic and secrets, friendship and grief, and love and betrayal.
I think that the author did a really good job of balancing the romance with the fantasy and magical aspects. They were connected to each other, so I never felt like there was too much of one or the other. The relationship-building in this book was really good, and I specifically liked how it continued to progress. I thought the relationship was really well done and complex, and the chemistry was steamy. I also liked that there wasn't a total information overload that usually accompanies worldbuilding in fantasy novels. The new information was pretty much always directly related to the character or plot, so I didn't need to skim. It's probably because the MC is learning about these things at the same pace that we are. It hinders our depth of the world but makes it easier to comprehend.
At times, it was frustrating that the MCs had important information about the situation that they didn't share with us until the very end. Instead of figuring out what was going on along with the character, we had to wait, knowing that we didn't have all of the relevant facts. Also, there were a good amount of spelling+general editing errors that could have easily been ironed out with an editor. But, I think that this was self-published, so it didn't bother me too much.
The ending was a little bit predictable, but only because the author left clues pointing towards it on purpose. I think that sometimes endings can be predictable because they slot perfectly into place.
Overall, I thought that this author did a really good job on both the fantasy and romantic aspects of this book. It felt like a lot of work was put into this book, and I would love to read other books by this author outside of this series. Just watch out for the trigger warnings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Violence