Bound to the Dark Prince by Aria Lovely

3 Stars

This novel was well written and edited, with few typos that I caught in the ARC version of the manuscript. The world building of Fearie was excellent, with both the overwhelming beauty and deadliness of Fearie really coming alive in this novel. The characterization of the hero, heroine, and some of the minor characters was also top-notch in this novel. Where this novel really fails is in the development of the romantic relationship between the hero and heroine of this novel. The heroine and hero were only on page together at the beginning of this novel and the end, which really detracted from my enjoyment of this novel. In order to have a satisfying romance novel, most of the time the hero and heroine need to be together and interacting with each other for the majority of the novel. The heroine acknowledges to herself that she is in love with the hero near the very end of the novel, but I the reader never really got to see them fall in love naturally and organically. That made me not really buy the fact that the heroine loved the hero. The plot and pacing were quite good and exciting, though I was impatient that the hero and heroine were separate for most of this novel, which negatively impacted my enjoyment of the plot and pacing. The angst in this novel was fairly low, and the stakes were very high, which tends to be one of my preferred narrative structures for romance novels. I did not notice any common romance novel tropes in this novel. The world building and characterization of this novel rated five stars, the plot and pacing rated three stars, and the development of the romantic relationship and cliffhanger ending rated one star, for a combined score of three stars. This novel ends on a cliffhanger, which is a big con for this series. I recommend this novel to readers who are looking for a fantasy novel with romantic elements, because if you are expecting a fantasy romance novel, you will be disappointed. I will not be buying myself a keeper copy of this novel.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

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