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theaudioauditor 's review for:
The Gender Game
by Bella Forrest
Audio book review.
An action-packed YA spy novel with a focus on a budding forbidden romance. Our main character, Violet, is a troublemaking orphan. After killing a third girl in self-defense, she is recruited by royalty to go to the neighboring kingdom, marry their man on the inside, Lee, and retrieve a stolen biological artifact without arousing suspicion that her home kingdom is to blame. That's a simplified version. Let me just say, this setup sucks. I'm fine with the spy story unravelling as it did, but the way the author chose to get her character into that role makes no sense to me.
While planning this mission with her fake husband, the two agree the best way to shift blame is to place it squarely on another's shoulders, Viggo. Violet suggests getting to be friends with Viggo will give them inside information, so the two end up spending a lot of time together. They fall in love, big surprise. That bit was predictable.
I did NOT think the world building was convincing. Doesn't make sense to have neighboring kingdoms, one ruled by women, the other by men, and to have them hate each other so much that the opposite gender is treated like absolute garbage. Men and women become property, disposable, utterly defenseless. I could get more into that, but let's just say it's not fun to read, and if it weren't for Violet and Viggo, I'd have put the book down.
The saving grace for me was the awkward interactions, the conversations edging closer to friendship, the building of a tenuous understanding of each other. These two characters just work for me, regardless of how the rest of the story works. I just HAD to keep reading to find out what happens to them. I will read on in book 2, so hopefully my characters retain their integrity and intensity.
An action-packed YA spy novel with a focus on a budding forbidden romance. Our main character, Violet, is a troublemaking orphan. After killing a third girl in self-defense, she is recruited by royalty to go to the neighboring kingdom, marry their man on the inside, Lee, and retrieve a stolen biological artifact without arousing suspicion that her home kingdom is to blame. That's a simplified version. Let me just say, this setup sucks. I'm fine with the spy story unravelling as it did, but the way the author chose to get her character into that role makes no sense to me.
While planning this mission with her fake husband, the two agree the best way to shift blame is to place it squarely on another's shoulders, Viggo. Violet suggests getting to be friends with Viggo will give them inside information, so the two end up spending a lot of time together. They fall in love, big surprise. That bit was predictable.
I did NOT think the world building was convincing. Doesn't make sense to have neighboring kingdoms, one ruled by women, the other by men, and to have them hate each other so much that the opposite gender is treated like absolute garbage. Men and women become property, disposable, utterly defenseless. I could get more into that, but let's just say it's not fun to read, and if it weren't for Violet and Viggo, I'd have put the book down.
The saving grace for me was the awkward interactions, the conversations edging closer to friendship, the building of a tenuous understanding of each other. These two characters just work for me, regardless of how the rest of the story works. I just HAD to keep reading to find out what happens to them. I will read on in book 2, so hopefully my characters retain their integrity and intensity.