2024 READING - COMPLETED BOOK 14/12
Gosh, it's been a while since I last posted!
My reading has slowed down drastically, mainly because I've been becoming more engrossed in video games again. I got quite burned out on them last year, which was why I switched to reading more.
I've been picking quite a few back up recently, which obviously cuts into reading time. I'll show off the games I've been playing in another post!
On to the most recent book I've completed, The Princess (294 pages).
This is a weird one. I picked it up because the cover felt very secret garden fantastical, and the premise of a royalty-slow-burn-arranged-marriage plot always intrigues me. I naturally assumed the book was a period piece.
The book actually takes place in like, the 90s/"present day". It is a fantasy (sort of?) because the characters live in a country that...doesn't exist. But the country does exist in our normal world, because they reference the USA and one of the side characters is from France.
But there are no other fantastical elements, just that they live in a place that doesn't exist. Oh, and they have a monarchy, and there's an arbitrary (but heavily enforced/always followed) rule that the king successor needs to be married by like, 26 years old, and also everyone is...turbo Christian?
Yeah, so going into this book I had no idea the author was a Christian author, or that this book was SO heavy on Christianity in terms of how the characters think and talk to each other. Like prayer, being a good Christian, Jesus, converting others to Christ, etc are constantly being talked or thought about by everyone.
I'm not religious at all by the way, and I don't typically enjoy reading religious books/characters. It's not a deal breaker for me, however, and I was still interested in the romance of the story that I kept chugging through.
Honestly, the romance story wasn't too bad. It definitely was a slow burn, and there were many sweet moments. I felt there was a lot to dig into with how the main characters (Shelby & Nicholai) were set up, and overall it was a sweet story.
Unfortunately, I felt the whole Christianity aspect of it all kind of took away from the love story. Like, if they spent less time praying a talking about God to others...maybe we could've had even more romance and emotional beat moments with the main couple. Oh well.
Weirdly enough, I felt blindsided towards the end because I did NOT process the part where the characters had sex for the first time.
I interpreted the scene of them sleeping in the same bed the first time as an act of evolved trust/taking the next step towards intimacy. Like yes, I know Shelby went and bought lingerie because she was feeling ready to take that next step, but I felt like it was not clear at all that they actually did take the step.
It was a typical they kissed while holding each other in bed and the scene "faded to black". We didn't even get a scene of her wearing the lingerie and them having a nice intimate moment!! The characters did not allude to sex or act any different right after the fact, which didn't strike me considering sex was a big weight on Shelby's shoulders regarding the marriage. The couple having sex was also a big deal for both sets of in-laws....like they talked about it constantly.
So when they had sex, y'know, I figured it would be a very big moment.
But apparently it was not big enough for me to catch, and Shelby got pregnant. I also did not pick up on her being pregnant, because I hadn't had thought they had sex yet!!! I was shocked and confused to say the least lol
Overall, this was a cute slow burn, but the religious stuff really threw me off in some places.
I was really skeeved out when Shelby was asking her mother how sex would look like in a married relationship, in terms of like...what to do if your husbands wants sex and you're maybe not ready or wanting it in that moment. And sheeeeeesh, the mom basically gave her the "well, our duty as wives is to always be there for our husband and his needs"....biiiiig yikes.
It's sad, because I know purity culture is so damaging and puts so much societal, emotional, and sexual pressure on women. Marital rape is a real issue in these communities, for this exact sentiment that the wife "belongs to her husband" and "can't say no". Ugh.
Thankfully in the book, nothing of the sort happens and it is all consensual, but still.
There was also a weird line where I think Nickolai (or one of the fathers) is praying, and he thinks something along the lines of "hoping Shelby will become a perfectly submissive wife" or something. Ick!!!
The epilogue also was a bit of the shock, in that in the future the main couple has like...literally 5 or 6 kids. It's a lot. I couldn't help but think it was alluding to the "quiverfull" sentiment.
Which fine, if you want that whatever, but it felt a little disingenuine to Shelby as a character. We watch her struggle with falling in love with Nickolai, and figuring out her place as a wife. And then she had a horribly traumatic end to her first pregnancy, and I think at some points in the book it mentions how Shelby was the last in her family to really come to faith.
To me, I felt Shelby would maybe have a couple children, but 5+ seems outrageous. But idk, she's a fictional character and none of this matters haha. Moving on! x
Total books read: 14
Total pages read: 3,870
