Reviewed by Leigha on
I enjoyed the novel. The author spent time developing the romance between the two main characters despite the "insta-love" story line. I greatly appreciate any time depth is given to characters despite their circumstances. However, this novel took me six months to read. It was really too easy to put down. My problem with it is threefold - the pacing, the world-building, and the plot. The pacing was really slow during the middle of the novel. Instead of building the political and social movements concurrently with the romance, the author spent time developing each separately during the middle of the book. While building the romance was important, reading about each day of their courtship became tedious fast.
My other big problem dealt with the world-building, particularly the magic system. Magic is literally the cure for everything. Need clothes? Magic. Did you get physically injured? No worries, magic. Want to have a private conversation in a crowded room? Magic the shit out of it. If the author is going to have a magic system that literally can accomplish anything, I need magic to cost the characters something. Magic should MEAN something to the characters, and not just be a convenient way to accomplish a task.
tl;dr A flawed, yet enjoyable, fantasy romance. First time fantasy romance readers should read Snyder's Healer series instead.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 25 January, 2017: Finished reading
- 25 January, 2017: Reviewed