Take a photo of a barcode or cover
inkandplasma 's review for:
Moontangled
by Stephanie Burgis
Thanks to Stephanie Burgis for an Advanced Reader's Copy of this lovely novella.
Full review available on my blog: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2020/01/10/moontangled-by-stephanie-burgis-review/
I really enjoyed this. I read it curled up on the sofa on a chilly afternoon and it was the perfect short, romantic read. I'm usually pretty fussy about my romances, I'm aro and personally I find I'm easy made uncomfortable by over-the-top romance. I didn't get that in this novella, and it meant I could get invested in their relationship.
I think I would have enjoyed this novella more if I'd read the other books. I think technically this can stand-alone, I haven't read either of the Harwood Spell Book series yet and I enjoyed this plenty, but there were definitely parts that would have been clearer if I'd read the rest of the series. I think the ending would have had more impact, and I would have been even more invested in the relationship between Juliana and Caroline. It felt a little bit like reading a fanfiction about characters I didn't recognise (which is something I do more often than you'd expect). That's only a comment on this as a stand-alone though, and I have a feeling that revisiting this once I've read the other stories will have me emotional.
This novella is a snapshot of a troubled moment in their established relationship. I think that added to the fanficcy vibe, but in a good way. Considering this is a novella, it still succinctly introduced the reader to the characters in a way that made me understand their dynamic and their backstories in enough detail to enjoy the story. I also had a grasp on the over-arching world and the way that 19th Century Angland's society worked. Magicians, traditionally male, and politicians, traditionally female, are your typical couple. But our couple flout all their rules. Juliana is in the first class of female magicians, and she and Caroline have been betrothed for three years. Their relationship has been kept secret until now (I love that trope) because of the societal expectations that oppose relationships like theirs, but they're at boiling point now.
This is a romance novella and I'm under the impression that they're together in the later stories, so we're guaranteed our HEA in a way that made me enjoy their miscommunications and misunderstandings an awful lot. I hate that stuff when I don't know how it's going to end, but here I was just enjoying wanting to lovingly knock some sense into both of them.
Full review available on my blog: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2020/01/10/moontangled-by-stephanie-burgis-review/
I really enjoyed this. I read it curled up on the sofa on a chilly afternoon and it was the perfect short, romantic read. I'm usually pretty fussy about my romances, I'm aro and personally I find I'm easy made uncomfortable by over-the-top romance. I didn't get that in this novella, and it meant I could get invested in their relationship.
I think I would have enjoyed this novella more if I'd read the other books. I think technically this can stand-alone, I haven't read either of the Harwood Spell Book series yet and I enjoyed this plenty, but there were definitely parts that would have been clearer if I'd read the rest of the series. I think the ending would have had more impact, and I would have been even more invested in the relationship between Juliana and Caroline. It felt a little bit like reading a fanfiction about characters I didn't recognise (which is something I do more often than you'd expect). That's only a comment on this as a stand-alone though, and I have a feeling that revisiting this once I've read the other stories will have me emotional.
This novella is a snapshot of a troubled moment in their established relationship. I think that added to the fanficcy vibe, but in a good way. Considering this is a novella, it still succinctly introduced the reader to the characters in a way that made me understand their dynamic and their backstories in enough detail to enjoy the story. I also had a grasp on the over-arching world and the way that 19th Century Angland's society worked. Magicians, traditionally male, and politicians, traditionally female, are your typical couple. But our couple flout all their rules. Juliana is in the first class of female magicians, and she and Caroline have been betrothed for three years. Their relationship has been kept secret until now (I love that trope) because of the societal expectations that oppose relationships like theirs, but they're at boiling point now.
This is a romance novella and I'm under the impression that they're together in the later stories, so we're guaranteed our HEA in a way that made me enjoy their miscommunications and misunderstandings an awful lot. I hate that stuff when I don't know how it's going to end, but here I was just enjoying wanting to lovingly knock some sense into both of them.