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A review by jackiehorne
Forged by Desire by Bec McMaster
4.0
3.5 This latest installment in Bec McMaster's Victorian Steampunk series has a lot that appeals, and a lot that annoys.
The appealing: a friends-to-lovers romance storyline (although perhaps unrequited love-to-lovers on the part of the heroine would be a better description); escalating stakes in the larger world of the Blue Bloods/Humanists conflict; slow-burn sexual tension; a heroine with backstory trauma, rather than the typical hero; and a tomboy/private investigator heroine who gets to physically fight her nemesis herself at the book's climax.
The annoying: "Oh, she puts on a dress and NOW I realize this girl is sexy!" trope; secrets kept for too long for no reason (except for plot needs); gruesomeness based on mutilation of female bodies; "oh, I must hide, I must hide, I must hide... Oh, now that I've been discovered I must totally cave/self-sacrifice" rather than come up with any real plan to defeat my enemy; villain whose presence isn't felt until nearly the end of the book.
The appealing: a friends-to-lovers romance storyline (although perhaps unrequited love-to-lovers on the part of the heroine would be a better description); escalating stakes in the larger world of the Blue Bloods/Humanists conflict; slow-burn sexual tension; a heroine with backstory trauma, rather than the typical hero; and a tomboy/private investigator heroine who gets to physically fight her nemesis herself at the book's climax.
The annoying: "Oh, she puts on a dress and NOW I realize this girl is sexy!" trope; secrets kept for too long for no reason (except for plot needs); gruesomeness based on mutilation of female bodies; "oh, I must hide, I must hide, I must hide... Oh, now that I've been discovered I must totally cave/self-sacrifice" rather than come up with any real plan to defeat my enemy; villain whose presence isn't felt until nearly the end of the book.