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A review by elenajohansen
Our Bloody Pearl by D.N. Bryn
4.0
I was provided a free copy by the author in exchange for an honest review.
A queer pirate + siren love story that manages to cover a lot of ground for disabled representation, too. I loved the steampunk vibe, the determined iteration of Murielle in making aids for Perle, Perle's own struggles to adapt to their new situation, and Dejean's quiet affection and understanding. Hell, I'm a little in love with Dejean myself at this point, which is one mark of a good romance.
What I'm not as in love with is the pace. In terms of speed, this has clearly been ruthlessly edited, right down to the bone, to ensure the story never stalls; but writing even the quiet moments with the same style, one of high intensity focused on and around Perle as the narrator, means I felt like I never got to take a moment to breathe, to rest.
At times, I also found the action sequences choppy and hard to follow.
My last (minor) complaint is that Kian didn't mean much as a villain to me, because we start the story with Perle's rescue and only hear about her cruelty secondhand. I think the pace of the story might be to blame here too, because Perle seems to feel overwhelming dread at every thought of her, yet there's never any time to explore that before another action sequence steals the focus away.
Still, it's an impressive debut novel with a lot of great things going for it.
A queer pirate + siren love story that manages to cover a lot of ground for disabled representation, too. I loved the steampunk vibe, the determined iteration of Murielle in making aids for Perle, Perle's own struggles to adapt to their new situation, and Dejean's quiet affection and understanding. Hell, I'm a little in love with Dejean myself at this point, which is one mark of a good romance.
What I'm not as in love with is the pace. In terms of speed, this has clearly been ruthlessly edited, right down to the bone, to ensure the story never stalls; but writing even the quiet moments with the same style, one of high intensity focused on and around Perle as the narrator, means I felt like I never got to take a moment to breathe, to rest.
At times, I also found the action sequences choppy and hard to follow.
My last (minor) complaint is that Kian didn't mean much as a villain to me, because we start the story with Perle's rescue and only hear about her cruelty secondhand. I think the pace of the story might be to blame here too, because Perle seems to feel overwhelming dread at every thought of her, yet there's never any time to explore that before another action sequence steals the focus away.
Still, it's an impressive debut novel with a lot of great things going for it.