Scan barcode
A review by owlegory
The Unseelie King by Kathryn Ann Kingsley
2.0
I hate-finished this series. I just had to know how it ended because surely there was something I was missing. How did Abigail fall in love with Valroy? Take away that she thinks he's hot and...? She literally never mentions anything else about him other than she finds him attractive and he could have forced her to sleep with him, but he didn't, so hey, that's a plus. Like? Excuse me, ma'am, but he literally views entire races as disposable. I just don't buy how much she loves life and living creatures and is okay with him being so happily sadistic to everyone. Even her. He claims he would never hurt her, and yet he does, on multiple occasions—he just doesn't view her as enough of an equal to see it that way. I wanted to love their night and day, good and evil dynamic, but it really felt non-consensual. You're telling me she was willing to die to give all those people a few months of peace but she couldn't kill one person to save them all forever? Pfffffft. Okay.
Really, the side characters are what kept me going. I loved the worldbuilding, for the most part, and was intrigued by all the different manner of creatures. I will say, as much as I love Perin and Anfar, their relationship felt so rushed. I wanted to love it more, but I couldn't get invested because it was so fast, especially in comparison to Abigail and Valroy. Puck also drove me nuts, but I guess he was sort of supposed to? His modern mannerisms really threw me out of it, though. I mean, SpongeBob references?! Cmon.
Overall, I was disappointed. I know it's marketed as a villain romance, but Valroy's motivation was selfish and evil for the sake of evil. Boring. He wanted to own and conquer, but not as equals. The clear power imbalance felt gross and exploitive, and on many occasions, Abigail was pressured into agreeing without the slightest compromise on Valroy's behalf. He refused to even consider other options or compromises for his desires because that's "just the way he is" and then decided to consistently take his anger out on "friends" while simultaneously wondering why no one likes him.
Really, the side characters are what kept me going. I loved the worldbuilding, for the most part, and was intrigued by all the different manner of creatures. I will say, as much as I love Perin and Anfar, their relationship felt so rushed. I wanted to love it more, but I couldn't get invested because it was so fast, especially in comparison to Abigail and Valroy. Puck also drove me nuts, but I guess he was sort of supposed to? His modern mannerisms really threw me out of it, though. I mean, SpongeBob references?! Cmon.
Overall, I was disappointed. I know it's marketed as a villain romance, but Valroy's motivation was selfish and evil for the sake of evil. Boring. He wanted to own and conquer, but not as equals. The clear power imbalance felt gross and exploitive, and on many occasions, Abigail was pressured into agreeing without the slightest compromise on Valroy's behalf. He refused to even consider other options or compromises for his desires because that's "just the way he is" and then decided to consistently take his anger out on "friends" while simultaneously wondering why no one likes him.