A review by nolemdaer
The Mourning Dove and His Snow Sparrow by Eve Healy

tense fast-paced

1.75

A bite-sized story! The novella was pleasant enough, but for its size, the scenarios seemed over-dramatic (three near-death experiences in about 150 pages is a little much for me). The writing was very repetitive, as if the character’s thoughts had to be explained and made clear three times over before the story could move on. The book took “tell not show” and turned it into “tell several times not show,” which gave a more unpolished quality to the writing. The romance was nice enough for something of this length but nothing revelatory. Ultimately, this is more of a pick-me-up than a high-quality, fleshed-out narrative, and there’s nothing wrong with that per se—just not really my speed.

Also, I knew the other reviews said this was explicit, but I don’t think I was prepared for just how explicit it really was—definitely not what I usually expect from published pieces! Nothing about it was improperly advertised, so it’s totally all my bad, but I was definitely surprised.