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adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
<i>"Explosions have style."</i>
I'll preface this review by saying that every Sarah MacLean book is a 5/5. The woman does! not! miss! She's absolutely one of the best writers working right now -- not just in romance, but in fiction writ large. Thus, the adjusted for Sarah MacLean rating is 3.5 stars.
My primary issue with this book is also my primary issue with her last book, Daring and the Duke: if you are going to tease a couple for several books (in Sesily and Caleb's case, across four books and two series!!), I want them to be on the page together IMMEDIATELY. Sesily and Caleb don't get together until about the halfway mark, and spend more time apart from each other than together for that chunk. It's frustrating because 1 - I would like them to kiss, but also 2 - we've spent several books clearly getting the picture that Sesily likes Caleb and Caleb likes Sesily but can't be with her for Reasons. This issue is repeatedly hashed and rehashed in the front half, I think unnecessarily.
We don't learn the Reason until literally three-quarters of the way through, and I think that's a big pacing flaw. If, as Sarah's podcast partner Jen has noted in reviews of other books, the big question is "why can't this couple be together right now?" and the answer seems to be "literally no good reason," then this book initially misses the mark by a wide mile. And to be fair, the Reason is a good one! But it's introduced too late.
Sarah has said (in interviews? online? on the podcast? somewhere) that her goal is to set up heroines that would be just fine if they didn't end up with the hero at the end, and there's no doubt that Sesily has been getting along well without Caleb and would continue to do so if he hadn't pulled his head out of his ass. Spending the first half of the book establishing this, though, left me wondering at points if this was becoming more of a historical fiction novel with a strong romantic subplot rather than a true romance novel. Contrast it with Brazen and the Beast, in which I think it's equally clear that Hattie would be perfectly alright without Beast but we get much more romantic content.
Once we hit that Reason, the book absolutely sings. It's classic MacLean throughout -- gorgeous prose, eminently quotable, fiercely feminist, and wryly funny. It's not until the last quarter of the book that it becomes so characteristically achingly, achingly, achingly romantic, though.
It's worth it to push through what I found a very frustrating first half to hit the true romantic arc. I'm sure a lot of the worldbuilding that I found fascinating but a detraction from the kissing is going to ensure more time for romance in books to come in this series, and I cannot wait to meet the rest of the Belles.
Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the ARC!
I'll preface this review by saying that every Sarah MacLean book is a 5/5. The woman does! not! miss! She's absolutely one of the best writers working right now -- not just in romance, but in fiction writ large. Thus, the adjusted for Sarah MacLean rating is 3.5 stars.
My primary issue with this book is also my primary issue with her last book, Daring and the Duke: if you are going to tease a couple for several books (in Sesily and Caleb's case, across four books and two series!!), I want them to be on the page together IMMEDIATELY. Sesily and Caleb don't get together until about the halfway mark, and spend more time apart from each other than together for that chunk. It's frustrating because 1 - I would like them to kiss, but also 2 - we've spent several books clearly getting the picture that Sesily likes Caleb and Caleb likes Sesily but can't be with her for Reasons. This issue is repeatedly hashed and rehashed in the front half, I think unnecessarily.
We don't learn the Reason until literally three-quarters of the way through, and I think that's a big pacing flaw. If, as Sarah's podcast partner Jen has noted in reviews of other books, the big question is "why can't this couple be together right now?" and the answer seems to be "literally no good reason," then this book initially misses the mark by a wide mile. And to be fair, the Reason is a good one! But it's introduced too late.
Sarah has said (in interviews? online? on the podcast? somewhere) that her goal is to set up heroines that would be just fine if they didn't end up with the hero at the end, and there's no doubt that Sesily has been getting along well without Caleb and would continue to do so if he hadn't pulled his head out of his ass. Spending the first half of the book establishing this, though, left me wondering at points if this was becoming more of a historical fiction novel with a strong romantic subplot rather than a true romance novel. Contrast it with Brazen and the Beast, in which I think it's equally clear that Hattie would be perfectly alright without Beast but we get much more romantic content.
Once we hit that Reason, the book absolutely sings. It's classic MacLean throughout -- gorgeous prose, eminently quotable, fiercely feminist, and wryly funny. It's not until the last quarter of the book that it becomes so characteristically achingly, achingly, achingly romantic, though.
It's worth it to push through what I found a very frustrating first half to hit the true romantic arc. I'm sure a lot of the worldbuilding that I found fascinating but a detraction from the kissing is going to ensure more time for romance in books to come in this series, and I cannot wait to meet the rest of the Belles.
Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the ARC!