A Court This Cruel and Lovely

3.5 stars

Despite this being both generic and predictable, I actually enjoyed the story overall.

The first half of the book was so generic it was like it was ‘How to Write Fantasy Romance - Lesson 1' - there's a teeny tiny girl with hidden powers and a big old manly man with callused hands and a chip on his shoulder, they have a contrived reason to hate each other but end up having to travel together. Add in forbidden magic, warring kingdoms, a despotic ruler and a handy dandy rebellion and you've got yourself a story.

Anyway, after the 50% mark things took a turn and got interesting. The characters got more personality, there was scheming and plotting and secrets to be revealed. A couple of good plot twists towards the end too.

The ending was predictable but as I say it actually was an enjoyable book and I'll be continuing soon.