I considered not finishing the book so many times, but some morbid curiosity to see the ending kept me going.
There was basically zero world building. I mean, sure, there was some culture within the direct environment of the war camp (some cool stuff about dancing), but beyond that, there was nothing. Absolutely zero sense of what this world was, what it was like, how shit worked... nothing. I had no idea where the hell we were. Just some incredibly vague medieval-ish world.
The romance was disappointing. There was no sexual tension and honestly, no love there either. Just some form of weird ownership/courtship. But at the end of the day, this was a romance/"follow your heart" book, which was unsatisfying when you consider the romance wasn't exactly developed. I was hoping for a passionate, all-consuming romance, and Warprize is soooo far from that.
And finally, I thought the whole idea of the 'warprize' was so... weird. And specific.
(show spoiler)[
"A warprize must be discovered during the course of a battle, on or near a battlefield. A warprize must render aid to the warlord or his men. Most important, a warprize must be attractive to a warlord, must spark feelings of desire. It is said that the attraction between warlord and a warprize is as the heat of the sun that shines in the height of summer."
Who the hell comes up with this shit? You need to find a woman during the course of a battle, she must give aid to the warlord or his men, and the warlord must be insanely attracted to her. Who came up with this? Where did these totally arbitrary and specific requirements come from? I'm amazed any warprizes could be claimed at all with that level of specificity.
And we certainly never saw an attraction like "the heat of the sun that shines in the height of summer". There was barely any attraction at all.]
And I got so sick of the characters just being referred to as 'Warlord' and 'Warprize'. Sure, a guy can be a warlord. But who goes around calling him, "Warlord"?
The only reason I'm giving this book even two stars is because something wouldn't let me DNF. My stupid fucking curiosity had to see the ending. That tells me that despite my lack of love for the book, it could have been worse.
