Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by livvy_alipat
This Deceit of Ours by Shannon R. Lir
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
The world of this book is fun and new. Though for some reason, the world seems extremely small. It takes place in two cities- a small human town on one side of a bridge spanning a body of water, and an immortal city on the other side. The entire book takes place in these two spots, minus one scene of the book where the main characters spend a month in a snowy castle on an island.
The author did a great job creating the MMC. He is pretty developed and we get to see his good side and his flaws. We also get to see a good amount of his magic. The FMC is lacking, though. She's literally just an asshole to everyone and her personality really doesn't have any redeeming qualities. I see this a lot in first person POV female lead fantasy books now. The FMC is snarky and speaks out at the most idiotic times and has the rudest mouth, but it's never timed right. It's just ALL of the time.
70% of the book is listening to FMC's inner dialogue of how badly she wants the MMC but she shouldn't, so that means she can't. She just bitches about it and thinks about it constantly. I mean CONSTANTLY. I wish I were exaggerating, but 70% is truly close to accuracy.
The instigating events that lead to the climax really don't make sense- the MMC is royalty and makes major decisions throughout like the law doesn't apply to him, which, okay, that makes sense for royalty, and he doesn't get in trouble for any of it in the middle of the story. But then come the end of the book, he's saying now the rules apply and that means bad news for him and FMC, so he has to make "really tough decisions."
The FMC has magic that she has a tumultuous relationship with, but we honestly never get to see her use it but twice. I feel like the entire reason it was created for her to have it in the first place is just so she has a reason to be moody and lash out all of the time as an excuse for decision making based off of fear and anger. And for being raised from birth by her warrior/ chieftess mother and her warrior father who have trained her in the art of defending herself and combat, we never get to see that either. It's just a talking point.
I'm going to read the second book because I want to see how the MMC goes about remedying the situation he made a mess of in the end of this one. But I honestly don't have high hopes.
The author did a great job creating the MMC. He is pretty developed and we get to see his good side and his flaws. We also get to see a good amount of his magic. The FMC is lacking, though. She's literally just an asshole to everyone and her personality really doesn't have any redeeming qualities. I see this a lot in first person POV female lead fantasy books now. The FMC is snarky and speaks out at the most idiotic times and has the rudest mouth, but it's never timed right. It's just ALL of the time.
70% of the book is listening to FMC's inner dialogue of how badly she wants the MMC but she shouldn't, so that means she can't. She just bitches about it and thinks about it constantly. I mean CONSTANTLY. I wish I were exaggerating, but 70% is truly close to accuracy.
The instigating events that lead to the climax really don't make sense- the MMC is royalty and makes major decisions throughout like the law doesn't apply to him, which, okay, that makes sense for royalty, and he doesn't get in trouble for any of it in the middle of the story. But then come the end of the book, he's saying now the rules apply and that means bad news for him and FMC, so he has to make "really tough decisions."
The FMC has magic that she has a tumultuous relationship with, but we honestly never get to see her use it but twice. I feel like the entire reason it was created for her to have it in the first place is just so she has a reason to be moody and lash out all of the time as an excuse for decision making based off of fear and anger. And for being raised from birth by her warrior/ chieftess mother and her warrior father who have trained her in the art of defending herself and combat, we never get to see that either. It's just a talking point.
I'm going to read the second book because I want to see how the MMC goes about remedying the situation he made a mess of in the end of this one. But I honestly don't have high hopes.