Review by readingratboy - The Highwayman

readingratboy 's review for:

The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne

3.5

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

this was a reread for me. in my first read, i didn't pay attention to the author's writing style... in this read, i couldn't ignore it as much as i tried. this author writes her male leads with such extreme hyperboles as to how 'dangerous' and 'feared' they are without really showing you much of that at all. it's just a lot of "no one would dare blahblahblah" and "everyone knows ABC is the most dangerous XYZ," meanwhile there are a few people who would in fact dare, and also everyone else talks to the most dangerous XYZ like he's a normal dude.

objectively, this is more of a 3.5... but there's something about the genuine angst and torment of male lead that stuck with me. his backstory and how it impacts him is pretty devastating, and it stuck in my mind enough for me to want to reread this.

the female lead is fairly boring. she's not unlikable, but the male lead's perspective of her as a perfect angel who could never do anything wrong is never challenged.

rather, her 'perfection' is his ticket to salvation and the means by which he is ultimately able to purge his self-loathing. this feels like a missed opportunity because the female lead, although morally upstanding, is definitely shown to be more human in her solo scenes.

(also i think it’s ridiculous that she doesn’t recognize this guy, the love of her life, but she recognizes a judge that she met one time twenty years ago just by looking at his eyes from far away.)

Content Warnings