Wren
I—the Dark Lord who had toppled three kingdoms by the time I was twenty-five—now had a new, far more daunting challenge than war. I had to woo my own wife.
This book helped me realize that even when it comes to lighthearted, humorous takes on the villain protagonist trope, I really need said villain to have reasons for doing villainous things with villainous magic from their villainous castle full of villainous underlings. Like, I had my issues with Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer, but I got the titular Villain’s motivations. Or in How I Stole the Princess’s White Knight... by A.J. Sherwood, Tan was mostly like, “well, the world’s going to designate me as a dark evil sorcerer anyway, so might as well own up to it,” and it worked well enough for the story. Here though, it’s like Kazimir is a villain because he wants to be a villain, and it’s all really circular, and I couldn’t help but get stuck on this every time I picked up the book, even though I realized the book was doing the opposite of asking me to take it seriously. Oops.
Another thing I’m now… not so much realizing as articulating: for me to agree to stop overthinking and just roll with the punches and not take anything too seriously in a humorous book, I need the humor to be on the same wavelength as my own. In other words, I need it to be kindly provided by India Holton 😂 Here, alas, there’s no such perfect match, and besides, while the beginning is quirky and humorous, the further you go, the more the book turns into just a regular romantasy with slightly snarkier characters than usual. (With the exception of chapter titles; those never stopped being quirky and funny.)
Also, I’m sorry to say it, but it also just plain drags. This book genuinely didn’t need to be over 500 pages. There was just too much fluff, too many repetitive scenes, and the external plot felt like an afterthought. Which is actually a pity, because whenever it peeked shyly out of all that fluff, I found myself quite hooked.
Despite all these complaints, the story’s definitely had its moments. I liked the scenes where Arabella asserted her desire to be her own person, and the ones where Kaz showed some vulnerability. Vex was a highlight among the secondary characters. The dragon was cute. The banter was occasionally snort-inducing. But overall, alas, not even that cliffhanger is going to lure me into book 2.
I—the Dark Lord who had toppled three kingdoms by the time I was twenty-five—now had a new, far more daunting challenge than war. I had to woo my own wife.
This book helped me realize that even when it comes to lighthearted, humorous takes on the villain protagonist trope, I really need said villain to have reasons for doing villainous things with villainous magic from their villainous castle full of villainous underlings. Like, I had my issues with Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer, but I got the titular Villain’s motivations. Or in How I Stole the Princess’s White Knight... by A.J. Sherwood, Tan was mostly like, “well, the world’s going to designate me as a dark evil sorcerer anyway, so might as well own up to it,” and it worked well enough for the story. Here though, it’s like Kazimir is a villain because he wants to be a villain, and it’s all really circular, and I couldn’t help but get stuck on this every time I picked up the book, even though I realized the book was doing the opposite of asking me to take it seriously. Oops.
Another thing I’m now… not so much realizing as articulating: for me to agree to stop overthinking and just roll with the punches and not take anything too seriously in a humorous book, I need the humor to be on the same wavelength as my own. In other words, I need it to be kindly provided by India Holton 😂 Here, alas, there’s no such perfect match, and besides, while the beginning is quirky and humorous, the further you go, the more the book turns into just a regular romantasy with slightly snarkier characters than usual. (With the exception of chapter titles; those never stopped being quirky and funny.)
Also, I’m sorry to say it, but it also just plain drags. This book genuinely didn’t need to be over 500 pages. There was just too much fluff, too many repetitive scenes, and the external plot felt like an afterthought. Which is actually a pity, because whenever it peeked shyly out of all that fluff, I found myself quite hooked.
Despite all these complaints, the story’s definitely had its moments. I liked the scenes where Arabella asserted her desire to be her own person, and the ones where Kaz showed some vulnerability. Vex was a highlight among the secondary characters. The dragon was cute. The banter was occasionally snort-inducing. But overall, alas, not even that cliffhanger is going to lure me into book 2.