Shadow and the rose - Heroine and the villain

[shadowroseheroine]

How the analysis will look

Here is what I will observe in the books I read:

FIT OR NOT: Does the book fit into my criteria or not? Usually people just put any enemies-to-lovers here, but there is a huge spectrum inside this trope, and most of those works don’t cut it out for me. 

WHAT DOESNT FIT: Let’s be real, teher are things that won’t fit, for sure. I somehow don’t think there is that one perfect book (unless I write it myself, that is). 

READ OR NOT: Is the series worth reading, or the stand alone book? 

[shadowroseheroine]

Rec No.1 - From Blood and Ash by Jennifer Armentrout

Here goes by first analysis 

Uf, this overall wasn’t a terribly bad book, but not a pretty good fit. Let’s see why and how. 

PLOT: (Taken from Goodreads): 

A Maiden… Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers. A Duty… The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden. A Kingdom… Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.

______________________________________________

WHY WAS IT RECCOMENDED: It’s a typical Enemies-to-lovers book, so it will always pop up in such kind of recs. And it is YA; which I prefer not to read too much, but so many books are written for this genre that it’s a shame to totally skip it! There are good books in here, make no mistake, but since it’s a mainstream genre right now, many of the books are 

HEORINE: Poppy, the chosen Maiden, sheltered from all in a white castle. No, really. 

HERO: Hawke. Her new guard. But guess again, this is not his REAL identity! 

FIT OR NOT: Not really. Let’s delve more deeply into this and why. Namely, the whole point of the main pairing is that it has a power imbalance, and that the male (usually how I prefer it) is more powerful, and can do various stuff to the heroine if he wishes so. I don’t mean sexual, but real life stuff, like land her in prison, disband her organization, wage war against her country . I don’t like it when the hero’s power is diminished or when he is too hands on, usually he has a dragon/somebody to do such tasks for him. And yes, THAT is what I don’t really like about the MH in this book. While not the worst hero ever (he even has a few good moments worth a chuckle), he is somehow softened and made more palatable for the usual vanilla taste. He’s not a ruthless leader or warlord, but a villainized good guy. And a reviewer wrote that he’s a sleazebag at moments - I don’t dislike it, but my ideal MH is a man of elegance and taste and would definitely not be a sleazebag. 

WHAT DOESNT FIT: The hero, while powerful, is too hands on, and not really the powerful, cunning type. He’s a brawler with brains, which is good but not my cup of tea. The heroine is a bit of a Mary Sue, somehow boring and predictable. They fall for each other a bit too soon for my taste. I have to have the heroine and hero in a interpersonal struggle where he wishes to bend her to his will, but fails. This is why I don’t like for the MH to be diminished - if you have too much outside interference, then it becomes a totally different piece of fiction with different goals. I like those books too (sometimes!), but it’s not quite what I’m looking for. 

READ OR NOT: Read the first book, but have no plans to read the others. 

[shadowroseheroine]

Pretty close!

Some time ago, I stumbled upon a thread on Reddit where the wonderful Nettarinia almost summed all of the stuff I wanted in a post! Almost! There are some differences, but the main points are more or less the same. Here is the post: this is the link: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/comments/jaqqbi/looking_for_fantasy_romance_with_a_particular/

[...]

Here's a list of my unreasonably specific criteria that I don't expect any one book to meet. However, if anyone has recommendations that even remotely line up with these, you'd have my eternal gratitude:

The plot...

Is high fantasy romance, though I'll settle for paranormal romance if need be

Involves sexual tension between the heroine and villain as a major conflict within a larger story

Doesn't have to end with the heroine and villain together, and if it does there needs to be some serious character development that makes it believable

Has sexually explicit scenes (the steamier the better)

Doesn't revolve around the heroine "fixing" the villain

The villain...

Is charismatic, dangerous, arrogant, relentless, and willing to do anything to get what he wants

Has an unhealthy obsession with the heroine that he believes is love

Desires an actual relationship with the heroine, not simply owning her as a sex slave

Can't keep his hands to himself around the heroine

Subscribes to the "maybe she'll love me if I make her orgasm enough" method of courtship by attempting to pleasure her into submission

Isn't secretly a good person who's the victim of brainwashing, emotional trauma, abuse, etc

The heroine...

Isn't an idiot

Can have love interests that aren't the villain

Might have considered the villain a love interest if they weren't in direct conflict with each other

Considers the villain a legitimate threat to be feared

Doesn't easily submit to the villain's advances

Doesn't make it her life's duty to redeem the villain or compromise her values for him

I will parse all the recommendation she got, and mention YES/NO/MAYBE in regards how it fits the criteria. 

[shadowroseheroine]

EXAMPLES: CDrama

- Princess Weiyoung (okay, not between the ML and FL but SML and FL) - King's woman (very good example) - Empress Ki - Siege in Fog (noit the best example, but you get the picture)

Thank you very much in advance!

[shadowroseheroine]

EXAMPLES: Manga

MANGA: - Threads of time - Set during the golden years of the Golden Horde. Sali Tayi, a fearsome, powerful warlord, and Atan Hadas, a brave female warrior. Interesting stuff! - Jewels - Gender bender, the lead is boy who can turn into a girl (called Lapis Lazuli). He is from a poor family but with special powers. The villain, Diamon, is a powerful ruler who lusts after his female form and wants her all for himself. Visually stunning. - Finder series - Great example! Akihito is a plucky photographer who becomes the point of intense obsession for a powerful crime lord, Asami Ryuichi. Ryuichi de fact rules Tokyo and has his hands everywhere, so Akihito is up to a large challenge trying to remain true to himself while Asami tries to rule over both his body and soul - Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang - Top example, FL is a brilliant strategist that becomes a housemaid and the ML is a prince and powerful general very much beloved in his land. Sadly the manga was discontinued way too early, the novel it was based on was exactly what I was looking for (and remains one of my favorites!)

[shadowroseheroine]

Big NOs

Before I know what I want, I have to know what I don’t want. Easy peasy! 

What I am not interested in: - Anything teen/high-school (I want mature stuff) - Run-of-the-mill enemies to lovers where they fall in love too soon - Opposite example - powerful protagonist and less powerful antagonist - A villain who is not a real villain but a misunderstood good guy - Doormat/boring leading character with little to no personality - Large scale works with thousands of characters where the romance is just a very minor sub plot. Good example is the manga Princess, where we have such a relationship (Lala and Skadei), but there is too much other stuff going on so no-go

[shadowroseheroine]

WHat is this all about!

Hello everybody! This is a blog where I will try and document my search for a very specific brand of fiction that I very much want to read. It ain’t easy to find, and you will find out why soon enough. 

Yes, I have quite a choosy request here. I am looking for manga within the usual enemies-to-lovers trope, but falling into a specific sub-trope. Namely, I am looking for a manga with a powerful villain/antagonist who becomes obsessed with a seemingly less-powerful protagonist, and tries to do everything to "enslave" and or break him/her. The important thing is that there is an external power imbalance between the pair but they are equals in terms of intelligence, willpower and other internal factors. The reason why I love these pairings is that they give wonderful opportunities for cat-and-mouse games and prove that even with greater resources, the more materially powerful character can't really break a mentally and spiritually strong person. Typical example is that one character is a aristocratic type like a ruler/king/president, and the other character a working type, like an agent/policeman/lawyer or whatever. 

Often they are on opposite sides of the ideological scales. Also, very important, this HAS TO BE A SLOW BURN! This scenario will not work if they have an insta-love moment. This has to be a long, arduous battle fought over every patch of the land with passion and intense emotions. Swoon!