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A review by elenajohansen
Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I love the book this wanted to be, but I'm disappointed with the execution of a few key elements.
The pacing in this is bizarre, and resulted in the story feeling split in two. From a romance-structure standpoint, it's not uncommon for the midpoint climax to be the characters getting together, and the rest of the story dealing with the obstacles trying to keep them apart; and I think this holds true here to a certain extent. Only, the second half of this book is such a wildly different story from the first half that it feels like two different stories.
This effect is exacerbated by the rush to accomplish the romance. I'm all for friends-to-lovers, but despite both main characters calling each other "friends" at the start of the story, they're not. Not really. And the tension between "is this guy a friend, a client, or my unrequited crush" muddies the waters of their relationship. I feel the progression would have been more satisfying if they were friends, and had to wonder if being lovers was the right next step, rather than spending most of the early story wondering if they were really friends or not, then jumping into bed together. It felt inorganic, unauthentic.
And the world-building was based on an incredibly promising concept that was interesting to me, but ultimately it was thin. There was a lot about Elle's powers and their derivation from her heritage, which was solid. But there was little similar information about Luc, whose backstory was "he's a half-elf with an abusive boss/father figure," which is fine in terms of character but does nothing to explain his powers. He's magical because he has elven blood, end of story, apparently. And this shadowy international organization they both worked for could have used a lot more development.
With all those gripes out of the way, I did still enjoy it--this mid-level rating is very much "I liked enough about it to be disappointed it wasn't better," rather than "meh, there was nothing special about it." And I would read something else by this author in the future, in the hopes that it does get better.
The pacing in this is bizarre, and resulted in the story feeling split in two. From a romance-structure standpoint, it's not uncommon for the midpoint climax to be the characters getting together, and the rest of the story dealing with the obstacles trying to keep them apart; and I think this holds true here to a certain extent. Only, the second half of this book is such a wildly different story from the first half that it feels like two different stories.
This effect is exacerbated by the rush to accomplish the romance. I'm all for friends-to-lovers, but despite both main characters calling each other "friends" at the start of the story, they're not. Not really. And the tension between "is this guy a friend, a client, or my unrequited crush" muddies the waters of their relationship. I feel the progression would have been more satisfying if they were friends, and had to wonder if being lovers was the right next step, rather than spending most of the early story wondering if they were really friends or not, then jumping into bed together. It felt inorganic, unauthentic.
And the world-building was based on an incredibly promising concept that was interesting to me, but ultimately it was thin. There was a lot about Elle's powers and their derivation from her heritage, which was solid. But there was little similar information about Luc, whose backstory was "he's a half-elf with an abusive boss/father figure," which is fine in terms of character but does nothing to explain his powers. He's magical because he has elven blood, end of story, apparently. And this shadowy international organization they both worked for could have used a lot more development.
With all those gripes out of the way, I did still enjoy it--this mid-level rating is very much "I liked enough about it to be disappointed it wasn't better," rather than "meh, there was nothing special about it." And I would read something else by this author in the future, in the hopes that it does get better.