Read Powerless, was bad
One more book that got a bunch of hate reviews and therefore made me really want to know what's going on there. Spoilers included.
So I've read this in bad faith; I knew this was one of the 'controversial' romantasies and I had to see it with my own eyes but I also knew that this has no tropes that I like. Also I did a buddy read with a friend and that was great :D The romance fundamentally. So, the love interest is actively committing a genocide in Ilya against the Ordinaries. This is not me being dramatic, this is very explicit, the king believes (or pretends to believe) that for the good of Ilya the Ordinaries must all be killed, and the spare prince is in fact very much involved in it. He was very much groomed into this roll but he is an adult and also very aware of his role. I understand the concept of enemies to lovers but I would like my man to not be actively facilitating a genocide on my people. I just couldn't really get over that throughout the book. Tell not show + Repetition. Roberts has very little trust in her audience to understand the significance of the moment. At the end when Kai says 'What have you done to me' as he has once before in the novel, Paedyn thinks to herself: 'How can a single moment mirror another in such a morbid way?' which is such a lame way to point out parallelism. That's the job of the reader not the author. Earlier there was a moment where 'a wicked smile [is] curving her lips when she repeats the exact phrase I told her after throwing a knife in her direction.' That scene happened a chapter earlier. I was there. I read it. You do not have to tell me. Unreliable Narrator. Chapter 18 starts with the sentence: 'I'm almost certain I'm not an Ordinary. My power may actually be the ability to lie effortlessly. Lie about what I am, who I trust, and how happy am to be here.' She then proceeds to not be able to shut her bloody mouth one fucking time. She even points out that she is bad at keeping her mouth shut. Which is it, girlie? Are you good at deception or not? Because you say you are and then you tell the crown prince to his face that his reign is unjust. The banter also keeps referencing Paedyn stabbing people or holding a knife to Kai's throat and I understand that banter doesn't need to be truthful but she has held a knife to Kai's throat once (twice?) and has not shown any tendency to quick-stabbing, and that drove me crazy. They pretended like she is randomly violent and she just isn't? Tropes. This book most of the time read like the author watched someone cook and then without any recipe tries to replicate the meal. She randomly puzzles together tropy scenes, like knife to the throat but mutually? Him caring for her wounds then immediately her caring for his wounds, a lot of their banter, three (THREE) (THREE(3)) balls. The author does not understand how to use tropes and common scenes in an effective way, it just feels jumbled together and so forced. Violence?? In my revolution against an authoritarian regime??? At the very end the resistance breaks into the last trial and threatens the lives of the princes. Paedyn's reaction to that is "They are gambling with the future of Ilya. Gambling with lives. They didn't tell me that. No, no, no." Listen, we can have a conversation about the necessity of violence in a revolution but the actual leader and his direct kin are usually the first to go. What did you think would happen? You joined a revolution against a GENOCIDAL DICTATORSHIP and are surprised by potential VIOLENCE??? That caught me so off guard, i actually laughed out loud.
I was also very frustrated by the world-building as a whole but I don't have the energy to formulate that all out. I just dislike that romantasy is a genre where revolutions against authoritarian regimes are a staple but I rarely get the feeling that the author knows anything about how revolutions work. Not that I do but Roberts for sure doesn't either.
Miscellaneous complaints
she taps her left foot when she lies?? That's not how that works. That's a lot of muscle work for a subconscious tell.
vicious little thing
introducing blair with "oh look, it's bitchy blair", her character was so one-dimensional (as were all side characters).
the pacing of the trails was so bad, wow. I should elaborate but I'm so tired.
Okay :) In conclusion, not a great entry into the romantasy canon.
Reckless by Lauren Roberts
In this one Kai follows Paedyn to the neighbouring city across the SCORCHES (the desert), and he chains them together and then it's shenanigans and bad flirting until they get back to Ilya.
Switching to audio for this one was one of the better decisions of my life. I'm not sure if this actually was less annoying than the first one but the narrators actually made me believe their dramatic ramblings. Of course, the most glaring issue: Girl had the damn journal and then never read it. She was in Dor for a while before Kai found her, no? Why didn't she read the journal of her dead father?? Whatever, the rest, I didn't mind the travel, I actually liked that it was just Paedyn and Kai having moments together, and then of course Kitt being insane on main. It was still very dumb but at least it was mostly entertaining without being rage inducing.
Fearless has a 22 week waitlist at the libary, keep me in your thoughts………
