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A review by abookgoblin
Prince of the Sorrows by Kellen Graves
3.0
For me, this book is 50/50.
Coming out of a Cruel Prince/The Stolen Heir slump, craving other fae romances, I decided to pick up this book that's been on my shelf for a little bit. Apparently, it's supposed to be 'for the fans of the Cruel Prince (look at that) and A Court of Thorns and Roses (my favorite series)'. I'm usually very cautious with promises like that since it's 100% a marketing stunt (I work in Publishing), but this time it described the vibe of this story pretty well.
The environment in which this story takes place--the woods and the magical school setting, plus the human/fae dynamic--did remind me of those two well-known books but there's something, just something, that made me sort of excited to pick this book up if apparently, it is for the fan of those books: absolute shitty fae characters.
I'm not a fan of bully romances, unless they're fae bully romances. The beginning of this book really set me up for a good time because in no way did I think those fae characters would end up being redeemable characters. Alas, that's where I made a mistake. That should've been my red flag if you will. Because the jump from 'get your peasant hands off me filthy human' to 'uwu I would do anything for you my sweet' happened in like a page. The whole Cylvan character arc of him being disgusted and annoyed/bored whenever a human was around evaporated after a particular scene with our MC and continued on as if it never was a problem between the two anyway. Where is my Cardan "I hate you because I think of you. Often. It's disgusting, and I can't stop."? The chemistry between them felt unbelievable to me.
Other than that the myth in this book is all real and existing myth that I know nothing about and when the author simply chooses not to explain anything about it but instead decides to continue throwing names around and making those names and scenes be important to a character, you don't do me any favors. It borders on pretentiousness for me.
I did like the vibe, I did like how it helped me not to fall into a reading slump. The writing style was pleasant, but this felt like a classic case of a self-published book that needed another round of editing.
Coming out of a Cruel Prince/The Stolen Heir slump, craving other fae romances, I decided to pick up this book that's been on my shelf for a little bit. Apparently, it's supposed to be 'for the fans of the Cruel Prince (look at that) and A Court of Thorns and Roses (my favorite series)'. I'm usually very cautious with promises like that since it's 100% a marketing stunt (I work in Publishing), but this time it described the vibe of this story pretty well.
The environment in which this story takes place--the woods and the magical school setting, plus the human/fae dynamic--did remind me of those two well-known books but there's something, just something, that made me sort of excited to pick this book up if apparently, it is for the fan of those books: absolute shitty fae characters.
I'm not a fan of bully romances, unless they're fae bully romances. The beginning of this book really set me up for a good time because in no way did I think those fae characters would end up being redeemable characters. Alas, that's where I made a mistake. That should've been my red flag if you will. Because the jump from 'get your peasant hands off me filthy human' to 'uwu I would do anything for you my sweet' happened in like a page. The whole Cylvan character arc of him being disgusted and annoyed/bored whenever a human was around evaporated after a particular scene with our MC and continued on as if it never was a problem between the two anyway. Where is my Cardan "I hate you because I think of you. Often. It's disgusting, and I can't stop."? The chemistry between them felt unbelievable to me.
Other than that the myth in this book is all real and existing myth that I know nothing about and when the author simply chooses not to explain anything about it but instead decides to continue throwing names around and making those names and scenes be important to a character, you don't do me any favors. It borders on pretentiousness for me.
I did like the vibe, I did like how it helped me not to fall into a reading slump. The writing style was pleasant, but this felt like a classic case of a self-published book that needed another round of editing.