Review by r_a_bookcorner - The Scottish Boy

r_a_bookcorner 's review for:

The Scottish Boy by Alex de Campi

3.75

emotional sad slow-paced

“I loved you before and I love you now and I’m going to lose you.’"

Before I get stuck into this review, I did want to preface that overall I did enjoy this book and it had some beautiful lines in it (like the one above). But I did have some issues with it.

One of these issues with The Scottish Boy was its length. I believe that the story would have benefited from being spread across two books instead of one. Something that frustrates me is when books are marketed as ‘enemies to lovers’, but they’re a ‘dislike or rivals to lovers’ or aren’t committing wholeheartedly on the ‘enemies’ aspect. The Scottish Boy does fall into the ‘enemies to lovers’ category, but the pacing of the romance felt a bit rushed in relation to the trope and the overall length of the book, creating more of a soft take. Despite this, I did enjoy the relationship dynamic between the characters; it had its moments of beauty and pain, hope and despair. If the story had been presented as a duology rather than a standalone, the ‘enemies to lovers’ aspect could have been given more time to develop, with more attention given to the intricacies of their attraction. Additionally, the political plot could have been explored in more depth, adding more nuance and mystery to key players. Of course, this slower pacing may not be to every reader's taste and is probably more my personal preference as I love slow-burn romances (though I doubt fans of the book would protest spending more time with these characters). But I still can’t help feeling that they went from ‘enemies’ to ‘lovers’ too quickly based on how the English viewed the Scottish at the time.

"And if this is the act that will send him to Hell, then he is willing to burn."

My second issue with the story has spoilers.

I found the title to be misleading. I believe that The French Boy would have been a more appropriate title, as it more accurately reflects the subject matter of the story. However, this would have given away the reveal of Iain’s identity, spoiling it before readers could connect the dots themselves. I also had anticipated that the story would be set more in Scotland and would explore how the main characters' love for each other helped them to overcome their prejudices towards the Scottish and the English. Although I recognise that this may have been too idealistic given the historical setting of the story (though the story isn’t historically accurate to begin with), it could have been interesting to see this explored further. Instead, the book primarily focused on international political secrets and the dangers surrounding the legitimate claim to the French throne. Furthermore, as the book had spent a considerable amount of time building up theories and speculating about who would claim the throne, I had expected that we would spend more time in France than we did to gain a deeper understanding of the political machinations taking place there. However, even though the book only briefly touched on France towards the end, it's worth noting that we spent more time in France than we did in Scotland, despite 'Scottish' being in the title of the book.

I also found that the book included an almost excessive amount of sex scenes at times, which I believe distracted readers from the overall plot and pacing. This was particularly true in the early parts of the book, where I felt that more attention should have been given to establishing and developing the important political background that was later introduced. Perhaps their sex scenes could have been less distracting if the story had been spread across two books, allowing for more pacing and development to facilitate in rectifying the issue. However, as I mentioned above, there was some beautifully written lines in regards to their relationship throughout the book. And despite my want for a little less sex scenes, their scenes were the best part of the book for me.

"I will always come back to you. Always. Even if I have to drag myself out of the grave to do it."

So to sum up: I just wanted this to be two books and have more time with the ambitions of the authors work. I would also deter people away if they’re looking for a more historically accurate book to read. This one might infuriate you. But if you don’t have any issues with that or don’t read too heavily in the ‘historical fiction’ genre – like myself – there is a lot to enjoy in Campi’s M/M romance.

Content Warnings