"I am the Master of the Maze. I am the Champion of the Blood Ring. I am the Commander of the Horde. I am the Duke of Darkness. I am the High Lord of the Moonlit Court."
The Unseelie Prince, Kathryn Ann Kingsley
☆☆☆
So this book was what I'd call uncomfortable. It came up in my recommendations and it looked perfect. Fae, enemies to lovers, smutty, all the good stuff but it was not that great. The premise is excellent, faerie lord wants a bride so he steals a human and she has to complete a maze and be free or become his wife. The problem is the characters. Abigal is naive and horny and Valroy is what I like to call if Cardan from "The Cruel Prince" had no redeemable qualities.
I typically hate bashing on books because it is an author's work of art but my problem with this book is that it tries to make rape sexy. If this one thing was changed I would have no problem with this book but I found it so uncomfortable that it deserves a review.
Minor spoilers following ->
So the book starts off with an innocent girl who's all alone because her husband left her. A fae tricks her and she offends him, her options are either to return to the Otherworld with him or he will rape her as a boar in front of the whole village. This becomes a joke for her throughout the book, when things go wrong in the Otherworld she thinks, "Haha should have chosen the boar." Valroy threatens to rape Abigal multiple times and she's just like "It's okay 'cause he's hot." Even when he is forcing himself on her she justifies it because he is attractive.
Valroy is evil, evil like killing babies for entertainment evil, and the problem is he has no redeemable qualities about him. I'm a sucker for villains and bad boys but there's always some redeemable quality or reason for their behaviour that makes it okay. The only thing he has is that he's hot. Yeah sure he's niceish to Abigal but he wants to kill an entire race because... he just wants to.
Again I will repeat I liked the plot, the world-building was great and the magic system was very unique. But the problems were in these characters and their actions. It could be justified that Valroy is fae and doesn't have the same morals as a person, sure I can get that but make him have some redeemable quality. Or have the girl not fallen in love with him after he threatened to rape her?
To each their own, to the people who love this book I can see why, to the people who hate this book I can also see why. I'm going to keep reading this series to see if Valroy and Abigal are redeemed at all or get a healthy relationship but my hopes aren't high.
Ending on a good note, like I said the plot was great. It reminded me of "Married to Magic" and if you like fae and fantasy it is a good book for you. The magic system was unique with fae are all kinds, from more humanoid to people made of glass. The book isn't too long so it's quite easy to binge and has multiple perspectives throughout it. It's a great read for fantasy lovers just check the trigger warnings before you read it.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Rape, sexual assault, drugging, fantasy violence, death, blood and gore
RATING: 18+ mature readers
SPICE: 1/5
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