This is a spoiler-free review!
I thought this would be a fun dark romance with a solid comedic element to ease myself out of the more wilder dark romance books I've been dabbling in, so when my Libby hold finally came through, I was excited to see where this book would take me. The premise of the Dark Lord kidnapping a girl to become his wife certainly grabbed my attention, and considering my track record of devouring kidnapped mafia romances, I knew this would be up my alley.
While this book is definitely on the more mature side of romance, the writing still reads as though we are in a young adult novel - maybe it's the fact that there are chapter titles and the length of the chapters are short, but the stylistic choices somewhat took me out of my element. That being said, this was not necessarily a bad thing - it makes the pacing go quickly and adds some humor to the story - but rather something I just simply was not anticipating for this book.
I found myself wishing that the Dark Lord - Kazimir - was a touch more dark. While he certainly knew how to handle spies, bandits, and others who crossed his path, it felt as though the author could have made him a little more ruthless. Considering he has this notorious presence about him where he is truly to be feared, I expected him to be more cutthroat. Perhaps I was just looking for the descriptions to be more adult rather than glossing over some of his actions. I did love how devoted he became to Arabella as they spent more time together, especially when it came to magic lessons and some other more lucrative activities.
Arabella really held her ground throughout this entire book, which is more than I can say for some other fantasy female leads. Sure, she was kidnapped and basically forced to wed Kazimir - honestly, it was a better option than the life that she was currently living and the life that waited ahead for her. She is stubborn and hot-headed, but is extremely well-adjusted, all things considered. I found myself enjoying her perspective chapters just as much as I enjoyed her through the eyes of Kazimir in his chapters. Kazimir was no different, and he very much exuded the same amount of energy that Arabella gave, not only towards him, but towards others in the book.
The pacing moved so quickly - the chapters and short and with perspective changes, the reader remains engaged in the story. I appreciated that the perspectives were not constantly going back and forth; having multiple chapters in a row with the same perspective before switching over allowed us to actually stay in either Kazimir or Arabella's minds for long enough to actually see internal thoughts and development without getting whiplash. The plot could have had a touch of improvement, as I felt as though the first half of the book lacked a bit of momentum when it came to pushing the story further - it definitely picked up and once the ball started rolling, we really went through the ringer with these two. I am interested to see where the author takes us next, especially with the way we were left with an underlying feeling that something was amiss.
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