The Fae Artifactor

I will admit, it's been a long time since I read the first three books in the series (like five years) but...they were a lot better, I think. No, that's not right. I preferred them. I liked Sevana more in them because she was sharper, more acerbic and much more capable. She didn't get kidnapped as much, could take care of herself and had people worrying over her much less. It honestly feels like she's been diluted down so she's more ‘typical' and less unique.

The other characters... I loved Sevana in the first three books, which is why I loved the series. The other reason I loved the series was because she didn't have a love interest, was disinterested in romance, and had absolutely no hints of attraction to anyone.

Look, I like her love interest so keep that in mind as I pick the romance apart. The romance starts when Sevana isn't paying a lick of attention to him. He obviously said something, asked her out, confessed his love, something. But we don't actually get to know what it was until much, much later. I like romance, but what I like the most is the verbal aspect of it. I like the gradual building of trust, the vulnerability being offered, the slow build, the moment when one of them can no longer take it and offers their heart on a platter - basically saying here, it's yours to protect or trample - and then the relief when, yes, they feel the same way. ... We don't get those last two because Sevana wasn't paying attention and that scene is told from her perspective instead of her love interest who had been pining after her for ages.

Now I actually loved the first three books, in part, because Sevana wasn't interested in romance, so I could relate. It took me the better part of 25 years before I could even recognize romance without it being a 2x4 to the head. (Let's just say, many shows and movies surprised me in the romance department.) So it was nice to have a woman that I could relate to. In fact, I often read Sevana as aro and ace. Now, with this romance...She admits to never being kissed, to never thinking about her love interest in that way until he kisses her, to never even thinking about romance until he kisses her.

‘Sevana's long-dormant interest in things outside academia suddenly reared its head.'

I have come to expect the ‘virginal' woman in straight romances, where the heroine has never felt these feelings until she meets the hero and he awakens something in her. (Part of the reason I have become very choosy when reading straight romances.) I thought I'd escaped that in this series, not just because it's fantasy, but because Sevana literally doesn't care a bit about romance in the first three (four, really) books. And it's not as though she's naturally that way - we find out that teenage Sevana decided that friendships were difficult enough to maintain, much less romance, so she just decided not to do the whole romance thing. For me personally, this whole romance addition causes me problems. Major, major problems both on a personal level where I am heartbroken that this is another book whose main character's life isn't complete without a romantic happy ending, where the previous books seemed to happily follow the ‘friendship is more important' route, and a book level where Sevana doesn't even really feel like Sevana anymore because she's getting distracted from her work by trying to figure out how she can make this guy want to date her.

I just... ... I know how disappointed I would have been had I read books four and five closer to the first one, and this is only a fraction of that. So, yeah.