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mintiemarie 's review for:
The Lady and the Orc
by Finley Fenn
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The The Lady and the Orc introduced readers to the Orc Sworn series, by Finle Fenn. We follow Lady Jule Norr, and Grimarr, an orc of high status as they meet and fall in love, providing a HEA. However, all's not well that ends well in this case. The backstory we're shown that kicks off the world-building of this series (10-ish works within it thus far) is incredibly intriguing although simple at its core: the orcs simply wish to live yet war between orcs and men is commonplace and thus humans are only aware of the worst of the worst where the orcs are concerned.
For Jule, the FMC, we're initially shown that she's a benevolent Lady, and Grimarr, our MMC, affirms that he believes her to be a competent match for him, however, the two seem to suffer from the trope of miscommunication (IE: no one asks genuine questions, everyone makes assumptions and chaos ensues.) I wanted to like Jule and believe in their romance but more often than not, Grimarr's withholding of facts and truth which he stupidly justified, coupled with Jule swinging from incompetent bystander to seemingly all-in on helping the plight of Grimmarr and the orcs was jarring.
The world-building and the various orcs we meet as this book sets up the premise for the series was what kept me reading most of the time. The home and culture that the orcs have built for themselves is fascinating and rich; it has a lot of depth and potential to create great stories of love, community, and thriving growth. However, the author's overuse of phrases like 'woman' instead of addressing Jule by name, or terming anything anatomically connected to an orc as 'orc body', orc face', etc. was incredibly frustrating (we know, he's an orc, thus his parts are all 'orc parts', you do not need to keep telling us this.) This overuse of certain phrases and the use em dashes which were - everywhere - kept me frustrated.
Meanwhile, constant statements from Jule's perspective about how scary and horrid the orcs are, even while she engages in copious sexual acts with one (and although waffles about it, indeed falls in love with one) constantly pulled me out of the story and had me wanting to chuck my Kindle across the room. Finally, its cheap ending of betrayal in the last moments, the FMC needing to be saved even if she does also sort of save herself was a letdown. The fact that over and over, Grimarr was expected to apologize, must beat himself up, grovel, and beg while reading Jule's mind, and forsake his own culture and people (literally all of the orcs) while the reader and Grimmarr should just ignore Jule's poor behavior (classism, racism, lies and attempts to manipulate the MMC) in a shallow tit for tat game.
I do want to check out the next work in this series - a short available via the author's website, as the premise and worldbuilding, along with the orcs themselves, are captivating enough for me to give these moderately quick reads further chances to draw me it.
CW: This book contains explicit adult themes, open-door 3-5 chili-pepper spice, and overarching talk of war and violence as well as misogyny and emotional manipulation.
For Jule, the FMC, we're initially shown that she's a benevolent Lady, and Grimarr, our MMC, affirms that he believes her to be a competent match for him, however, the two seem to suffer from the trope of miscommunication (IE: no one asks genuine questions, everyone makes assumptions and chaos ensues.) I wanted to like Jule and believe in their romance but more often than not, Grimarr's withholding of facts and truth which he stupidly justified, coupled with Jule swinging from incompetent bystander to seemingly all-in on helping the plight of Grimmarr and the orcs was jarring.
The world-building and the various orcs we meet as this book sets up the premise for the series was what kept me reading most of the time. The home and culture that the orcs have built for themselves is fascinating and rich; it has a lot of depth and potential to create great stories of love, community, and thriving growth. However, the author's overuse of phrases like 'woman' instead of addressing Jule by name, or terming anything anatomically connected to an orc as 'orc body', orc face', etc. was incredibly frustrating (we know, he's an orc, thus his parts are all 'orc parts', you do not need to keep telling us this.) This overuse of certain phrases and the use em dashes which were - everywhere - kept me frustrated.
Meanwhile, constant statements from Jule's perspective about how scary and horrid the orcs are, even while she engages in copious sexual acts with one (and although waffles about it, indeed falls in love with one) constantly pulled me out of the story and had me wanting to chuck my Kindle across the room. Finally, its cheap ending of
I do want to check out the next work in this series - a short available via the author's website, as the premise and worldbuilding, along with the orcs themselves, are captivating enough for me to give these moderately quick reads further chances to draw me it.
CW: This book contains explicit adult themes, open-door 3-5 chili-pepper spice, and overarching talk of war and violence as well as misogyny and emotional manipulation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Kidnapping
Minor: Body shaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Violence, Gaslighting, War