Kam
So this was a delightful little read! Reminded me of the paranormal romances that came out during that genre’s heyday in the 2010s, in the best way possible.
I really enjoyed the characters and the worldbuilding - or at least, what there is of them in the novel. I keep wanting to learn more about how this version of the world works, given the dynamics between Heaven, Hell, and humanity that’s implied in the story, but there’s not enough information to learn more about how it all works beyond what’s implied in the plot. I feel like this novel could have at least been a duology, just so that both the world and the characters can be developed fully. Again, I keep thinking of this novel in the context of the 2010s paranormal romance boom, and if it had come out during that time I think this would have been developed into a multi-part series a la Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series.
The themes are also pretty interesting, even if they’ve also been explored in other paranormal romances. The whole “loving the monster” theme is a common one, but I liked how it was handled in this novel to include the protagonist herself. I also really liked the way this reframes the Chosen One as both salvation and apocalypse - but again, there’s other books out there that tackle this same theme, both in the context of romance and outside of it. The main problem is that the lack of development for both the characters and the setting precludes any deeper, more nuanced exploration of those themes, so what the reader gets in this book isn’t all that different from what’s already out there.
This lack of development also affects the romance itself: it has immense potential to be a wildly thrilling, “Oh my gods I need to put this down and walk a little bit because the kilig is getting to me” levels of enjoyable, but doesn’t quite get there. It’s a cut above the majority of romantasy I’ve encountered recently (not that that’s too hard, since the bar for what gets published and becomes popular seems to be somewhere in one of the lower circles of Hell right now), but it falls just a little short of becoming a true favorite.
Overall, this is a fine read for what it is: a one-shot paranormal romance. Taken as it is, it works fine - in fact, it’s a lot better than many of the romantasy offerings currently out there, held up by the beauty and quality of the author’s prose. Unfortunately, the author has created such an interesting world, and such wonderful characters, but does not get to expand them beyond the bounds of this single novel. There is enough potential material here for at least a duology, potentially even a long-running series like what was popular for the paranormal romances of the 2010s, and I hope the author does that in the future.
Originally posted at kamreadsandrecs.tumblr.com.
So this was a delightful little read! Reminded me of the paranormal romances that came out during that genre’s heyday in the 2010s, in the best way possible.
I really enjoyed the characters and the worldbuilding - or at least, what there is of them in the novel. I keep wanting to learn more about how this version of the world works, given the dynamics between Heaven, Hell, and humanity that’s implied in the story, but there’s not enough information to learn more about how it all works beyond what’s implied in the plot. I feel like this novel could have at least been a duology, just so that both the world and the characters can be developed fully. Again, I keep thinking of this novel in the context of the 2010s paranormal romance boom, and if it had come out during that time I think this would have been developed into a multi-part series a la Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series.
The themes are also pretty interesting, even if they’ve also been explored in other paranormal romances. The whole “loving the monster” theme is a common one, but I liked how it was handled in this novel to include the protagonist herself. I also really liked the way this reframes the Chosen One as both salvation and apocalypse - but again, there’s other books out there that tackle this same theme, both in the context of romance and outside of it. The main problem is that the lack of development for both the characters and the setting precludes any deeper, more nuanced exploration of those themes, so what the reader gets in this book isn’t all that different from what’s already out there.
This lack of development also affects the romance itself: it has immense potential to be a wildly thrilling, “Oh my gods I need to put this down and walk a little bit because the kilig is getting to me” levels of enjoyable, but doesn’t quite get there. It’s a cut above the majority of romantasy I’ve encountered recently (not that that’s too hard, since the bar for what gets published and becomes popular seems to be somewhere in one of the lower circles of Hell right now), but it falls just a little short of becoming a true favorite.
Overall, this is a fine read for what it is: a one-shot paranormal romance. Taken as it is, it works fine - in fact, it’s a lot better than many of the romantasy offerings currently out there, held up by the beauty and quality of the author’s prose. Unfortunately, the author has created such an interesting world, and such wonderful characters, but does not get to expand them beyond the bounds of this single novel. There is enough potential material here for at least a duology, potentially even a long-running series like what was popular for the paranormal romances of the 2010s, and I hope the author does that in the future.
Originally posted at kamreadsandrecs.tumblr.com.