A review by yourbookishbff
Savannah Royals by Lindsay Barrett

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thank you to the author for an advanced reader's copy of Savannah Royals! This is a historical romance for fantasy romance lovers, heist aficionados, and fans of a messy stressy love triangle! This is a darker romance (I don't read true "dark romance" so I wouldn't have a clue where it ranks in that spectrum, to be very clear, but a whole lot of people die on page and everyone is morally murky so take that for what it is!). It's written in first person from the perspective of our female main character, an orphan of the Savannah catacombs who has risen within her found-family-turned-street-gang. Now, though, she's fallen for a target, a rich, golden retriever physician who could not live further from her reality. I really appreciated that while these characters feel very new-adult the narrative feels more mature. While Kat might not know the ways in which her primary relationships are toxic and codependent, the narrative definitely does, and the slow unwinding of what she knows is well done, leading us to a conclusion that feels both surprising and not, for how it reveals the psyche of power-hungry men. I loved our (multiple!) explicit declarations of fidelity, the navigation of a new relationship and equal partnership, the layers of reveals and the steady communication between our main couple. I felt like I lost some of the romance's momentum in the third act, and I'm not entirely sure why, so this could be a me problem. I also wish the narrative more explicitly addressed the intentional violence of generational white wealth in the South during this time period (particularly with Abe's depiction as the gang's sole Black member).
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