r/bookreviewers

A med student here...

Have really less time reading books other than my own textbooks

But have been an avid reader for as long as I can remember although lost touch

Kind of in between some rude comments from a friend of not being interesting enough to talk to...

So would really like someone who can suggest books,read with me,not make me feel inferior for not knowing enough

It should be a way that we can both figure out together, straightening each other throughout the process

And not something rubbish like you slow my progress down...

I am once again mourning a book that had an absolutely fantastic premise and then proceeded to trip over its own feet for 400 pages.

Plot: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
Continuity: ?????
Cultural sensitivity: 🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️🗑️

I WANTED to love this book.

The setup is SO GOOD. Two warring countries try to broker peace, one side immediately breaks the agreement, and the FMC gets tricked into becoming a troll bride instead of the princess she was supposed to accompany. Then she has to navigate an entirely different culture while trying to salvage peace after the deception is discovered.

Amazing. No notes. Inject that premise directly into my veins.

But the execution?

Sigh.

By chapter six we're told that the FMC/MMC pairing is supposedly the first time a troll has ever mated with a human. Cool. Except the book then proceeds to describe >!what sounds suspiciously like generations of trolls abducting human women and forcibly impregnating them. So... first time where? First consensual time? First documented time? First time the author remembered what they wrote?!<

Then we get the >!bloodline purification plotline.!<

I'm sorry, the WHAT?

Every time it came up I physically recoiled. >!The entire thing felt like fantasy eugenics wrapped in a decorative bow. It was giving blanqueamiento. It was giving anti-Blackness. It was giving "why did nobody stop and think about the implications of this?"!<

And then the continuity issues.

The trolls are apparently obsessive neat freaks but somebody has carpet in their entryway.

The MMC lives in a centuries-old family estate that housed multiple generations and somehow there's only one bed.

The FMC says the trolls have never given her reason to fear them despite the fact that a few chapters earlier she was convinced they were going to literally rip her apart. Which, honestly, was not an unreasonable concern because they almost did.

At one point we're told she's the type of person who lets things roll off her back, despite the fact that her childhood abuse trauma is actively shaping nearly every decision she makes for the first half of the book.

And can someone explain why we're suddenly talking about whalers in chapter 38? Did I black out? Did the author?

There are also random spelling and editing issues everywhere. Creek becomes "creak." Sentences appear to have escaped from entirely different books.

The spice was... fine. Perfectly serviceable. I actually enjoyed a lot of the troll culture-building. The jewelry traditions, the community focus, the emphasis on protecting and honoring your partner? Great stuff.

You know.

When we're not doing >!eugenics!<.

Or >!rape!<.

The villain is aggressively one-dimensional. Every scene feels like the author spinning a wheel labeled "What New Trauma Can I Inflict Today?"

And OH MY GOD can we talk about the MMC constantly describing the FMC as tiny and "the size of our children"? Then drooling over how he wants to stick it in

Sir.

Jail.

I enjoy size differences as much as the next romantasy reader, but I do NOT need the comparison point to be your hypothetical offspring. Every time it came up I aged five years.

The worst part is that I'm probably going to read the sequel because the underlying story is genuinely interesting.

Unfortunately, I'm struggling to figure out who I'm supposed to root for.

The >!genocidal maniac!<?

Or the >!eugenicist rapists!<?

Choices. Choices.