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ARC provided by NetGalley
Oh man, this was a book with so much potential. Russian folklore, a decreed marriage between a brooding prince and a supernatural thief, adventure and witchcraft. But ultimately it fell short for me, excepting a handful of delightful but intermittent moments.
I think this book mostly suffered from a lack of focus. I love books that are layered and more than one thing at a time, but I spent a good portion of this book trying to decide if it was a romance disguised as a fantasy, a fantasy disguised as a romance, a hodgepodge of fairytale retellings, or a political what-not-to-do handbook. The world-building was intriguing, and I especially appreciated that the author created a culture where people had more freedom in their sexuality and gender roles, which is too rare within the fantasy genre. But I found myself very confused about the world itself–the borders and the rulers and the interplay between the dukes and the nations. Names and places and historical events were thrown around as if I were supposed to know their importance, without ever hearing them mentioned before. A map at the beginning of the book would have helped immensely with that, I think.
The main strength and most enjoyable part of this book for me was the relationship between the two main characters, Nazar and Aleksei. Forced to marry all because Nazar accidentally made the sullen prince smile, they form a hesitant but friendly alliance. My favorite scenes of the whole book were the ones where they were alone together, pushing each other to question their beliefs and the meaning of their lives.
But the pacing of their relationship and the story in general was...really off. I'm usually all for a book jumping into the story at the start with little to no exposition, but this book really could've used some. The book starts immediately AFTER the Big Thing happens that puts all the rest of the story into motion: Nazar stealing from the Tsar and making Aleksei–the apparently never-smiling Tsesarevich–smile. Or smirk. Whatever. I don't really know how it went down because we only get to read about it in retrospect. Then within 35 pages they are married (yes okay that's fine, because the plot requires it), but also getting physically and emotionally intimate. That's a little much for a book that isn't erotica. Over time they do form a more meaningful bond, but it all felt a little artificial after their speedy beginning. So then they're on this quest, which, after the extremely fast-paced opening, I expected to be full of action and adventure. Instead, there is some sitting on horses, and then there's some sitting in buildings, and then there's some sitting on horses again, and then back to the buildings. Most of the middle half of this book was So. Slow. The last 1/4 picked up again, but like the first 1/4, so much happened in so little time that it just felt like an avalanche of plot and information.
Overall this book had some sweet and thought-provoking scenes, and really interesting and unique ideas, but the unbalanced pace and the sporadic world-building left me feeling disappointed with the execution.
