Blade and Rose
I don't know... The elements of a book I'd really enjoy are there, but it feels like Blade and Rose was, perhaps, trying too hard.
We have a fantasy world where magic is real, but monsters mostly aren't (at present). Rielle makes a fine lead character - a battle-hardened elemental sorceress with a ton of background baggage. Jon, a mysteriously-discharged paladin (who seem well versed in anti-magical tactics and equipment) offers a fair enough counterpoint and romantic interest. Brennan, an often petty/abusive nobleman secretly cursed with werewolfism sets up the main "love triangle" by being Rielle's betrothed, even if there's a lot of animosity between them. There are a few more major characters, but that's the big core trio.
So that's pretty standard, but the book lays it on really thick. The teasing/tension between Rielle and Jon infuses just about every scene for the first half or two thirds of the book. Of course, they're bad about keeping secrets and such because where's the drama with excellent communication?
Outside the relationship, though, things feel too interwoven. A story will be about its main characters, certainly, but this story makes it feel like the entire setting is revolving around the core cast. Few RPG campaigns I've seen have even gone so far making everything tie back to the main characters (including each other). We often say things seem "too convenient" when unrelated event play out to make a narrative plot happen, but this feels too convenient in the other direction, where nearly everything that happens it because one of the main characters or someone connected to them caused it to happen directly. Instead of feeling ridiculously improbably, it rather feels like there are only about a dozen people in the setting with the means to make anything happen, and they're all interrelated already.
So that turned me off to the book a bit, making it really only average in my eyes. I'm not sure that's worth committing any further to what I think is supposed to be a six-book series.
We have a fantasy world where magic is real, but monsters mostly aren't (at present). Rielle makes a fine lead character - a battle-hardened elemental sorceress with a ton of background baggage. Jon, a mysteriously-discharged paladin (who seem well versed in anti-magical tactics and equipment) offers a fair enough counterpoint and romantic interest. Brennan, an often petty/abusive nobleman secretly cursed with werewolfism sets up the main "love triangle" by being Rielle's betrothed, even if there's a lot of animosity between them. There are a few more major characters, but that's the big core trio.
So that's pretty standard, but the book lays it on really thick. The teasing/tension between Rielle and Jon infuses just about every scene for the first half or two thirds of the book. Of course, they're bad about keeping secrets and such because where's the drama with excellent communication?
Outside the relationship, though, things feel too interwoven. A story will be about its main characters, certainly, but this story makes it feel like the entire setting is revolving around the core cast. Few RPG campaigns I've seen have even gone so far making everything tie back to the main characters (including each other). We often say things seem "too convenient" when unrelated event play out to make a narrative plot happen, but this feels too convenient in the other direction, where nearly everything that happens it because one of the main characters or someone connected to them caused it to happen directly. Instead of feeling ridiculously improbably, it rather feels like there are only about a dozen people in the setting with the means to make anything happen, and they're all interrelated already.
So that turned me off to the book a bit, making it really only average in my eyes. I'm not sure that's worth committing any further to what I think is supposed to be a six-book series.
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