The new ‘best’ romantasy? Not even close
If you like this book, I will never trust your recommendations again. It’s advertised in the same way as Quicksilver, touted as the new best romantasy of the year, and I am so tired of this nonsense.
Let’s not normalize phrases like “smut clown” and “you slay” in fantasy books.
1. NO SLOW BURN—be real, it’s insta-lust. He literally sees her for the first time while she’s taking a bath (?????) and immediately thinks of her like this: “the face of a fucking goddess…”; “…those fucking lips.” Eeeeeewww. Get out of here, pervert. If this is what goes on in the minds of these so-called “cool, hot book boyfriends,” I don’t want to know what goes on in their heads. Reading chapters from the MMC’s perspective was unbearable.
2. Cheesy and repetitive writing. “The guards are the size of guards.” Seriously? And then there was “I’m-going-to-punch-you-in-the-jaw” and “I-fucking-burn-for-you-look.” Honestly, I have nothing more to say about it.
He called her “cruel little beast” 30 times. I will never recover. It’s almost as bad as “darling,” “vicious little thing,” and “stubborn” from Powerless.
3. “Fine. Then, I’ll give you a nickname you hate.” “Like Shadow Daddy? I would absolutely hate that one.” As if it weren’t enough for us to have hundreds (thousands?) of these identical men with these nicknames, now they even call themselves that on the pages of the book. Cringe.
4. Confusing world-building. To be honest, I didn’t expect anything special or brilliant from this book, but even with my low expectations, it turned out bad. Stop comparing debut books to those that have already become fantasy classics. This is nothing like Brandon Sanderson’s or Patrick Rothfuss’s works. Such comparisons raise expectations, which does not benefit the book.
5. Too much italics! I felt like I was drowning in the bottom of AO3.
The main character was almost raped (and in this scene, she experienced her first kiss), but our “perfect” knight saved her. Then, just a couple of hours later, she has her second kiss with the MMC. The scene was pretty hot, and I even thought he might take advantage of her vulnerable, traumatized state, but they were interrupted, so nothing happened. Now, we will never know whether the author and her characters believe that such a traumatic event as rape requires any kind of reflection.
If you liked Powerless and want something similar but with smut, and you’ve already read Quicksilver, you might enjoy this book :)
This version keeps the tone and content intact while making the language a bit more polished and serious.
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