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A review by marimoose
The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I will say it right now, even though I've said this so many times already to whoever was listening to me at the time: this book did not need to be over 500 pages long. I get the aspect of the slow burn romance, but when the title of the book is The Courting of Bristol Keats, I actually expected actual slow burn courting to take place. Yes, there's the overall goal of searching for her missing father in the world of the fae, but there's also the aspect of Bristol herself supposedly being courted by the world of the fae. Very little of which actually happened in this book. And that's what made it so disappointing to me.
Some good parts first lest we think I'm completely negative: I'd actually liked where this started. I liked that Bristol had the audacity to defy the fae she'd encountered from the beginning. I liked the meeting between the two main characters, and I definitely saw great potential in their hate to love relationship. Especially knowing what Tyghan knows about Bristol and her family. I like that there was this aspect of a competition looming in the world, and the politics was interesting at the very least. I liked that there's a lot of call back to fae lore, and there were little homages to fairy tales that littered the pages in a subtle way. I also kind of liked Eris I guess. He's like the Uncle Iroh of the entire book.
But the entire story kind of gets mired by the fact that this whole plot hinged on the miscommunication trope. I don't know how many times I've said this in previous reviews, and on most of my socials, but I f****** hate the miscommunication trope. On a good day, and in the right situation, it works for what it is. I'm not often please buy it, but I Barrel through because sometimes it just works for the characters. The story did not need the miscommunication group to be a story. The plot could have been plotting, and all Tyghan really needed to do was to actually tell Bristol the f****** truth and trust that she will react accordingly. This has a host of problems already, and everybody lying to her could have been resolved from the get-go and shortened this book tremendously.
Unfortunately my grievances did not stop there. I also took a lot of issue with the fact that there were so many random povs that got thrown in the storyline that didn't make sense to me. I get that certain parts of a story cannot be told in the main characters' eyes, so a new, brief perspective is understandable. But they were not needed here! Tyghan has suffered trauma, we could have seen this through his reminiscence, and this would not have detracted from the air of mystery surrounding his past. Bristol has this idea of her parents that are different from Tyghan's--which was great to see tbh--but instead of letting that play out naturally, we get bludgeoned constantly with the dad storyline THAT WE DID NOT ASK FOR. Logan Keats and his six foot four self could stay missing for all I care (Side note: Why the hell was it necessary to constantly bring up this man's height at the beginning of the book? It had no bearing on him as a person, and for his DAUGHTER to be cotemplating this about her dad is just ODD).
And don't get me started on the slow burn that wasn't actually a slow burn. As I said before, I expected there to be some sort of courting between Tyghan and Bristol, but it took a sharp turn halfway into the book and suddenly the two of them are in love with each other? How. Just. How.
Sigh. I did wish I liked this book more than I did. Alas.
Some good parts first lest we think I'm completely negative: I'd actually liked where this started. I liked that Bristol had the audacity to defy the fae she'd encountered from the beginning. I liked the meeting between the two main characters, and I definitely saw great potential in their hate to love relationship. Especially knowing what Tyghan knows about Bristol and her family. I like that there was this aspect of a competition looming in the world, and the politics was interesting at the very least. I liked that there's a lot of call back to fae lore, and there were little homages to fairy tales that littered the pages in a subtle way. I also kind of liked Eris I guess. He's like the Uncle Iroh of the entire book.
But the entire story kind of gets mired by the fact that this whole plot hinged on the miscommunication trope. I don't know how many times I've said this in previous reviews, and on most of my socials, but I f****** hate the miscommunication trope. On a good day, and in the right situation, it works for what it is. I'm not often please buy it, but I Barrel through because sometimes it just works for the characters. The story did not need the miscommunication group to be a story. The plot could have been plotting, and all Tyghan really needed to do was to actually tell Bristol the f****** truth and trust that she will react accordingly. This has a host of problems already, and everybody lying to her could have been resolved from the get-go and shortened this book tremendously.
Unfortunately my grievances did not stop there. I also took a lot of issue with the fact that there were so many random povs that got thrown in the storyline that didn't make sense to me. I get that certain parts of a story cannot be told in the main characters' eyes, so a new, brief perspective is understandable. But they were not needed here! Tyghan has suffered trauma, we could have seen this through his reminiscence, and this would not have detracted from the air of mystery surrounding his past. Bristol has this idea of her parents that are different from Tyghan's--which was great to see tbh--but instead of letting that play out naturally, we get bludgeoned constantly with the dad storyline THAT WE DID NOT ASK FOR. Logan Keats and his six foot four self could stay missing for all I care (Side note: Why the hell was it necessary to constantly bring up this man's height at the beginning of the book? It had no bearing on him as a person, and for his DAUGHTER to be cotemplating this about her dad is just ODD).
And don't get me started on the slow burn that wasn't actually a slow burn. As I said before, I expected there to be some sort of courting between Tyghan and Bristol, but it took a sharp turn halfway into the book and suddenly the two of them are in love with each other? How. Just. How.
Sigh. I did wish I liked this book more than I did. Alas.