Champion of Her Heart by Juniper Kerry

3 Stars

The writing and editing of the ARC version of this manuscript was clean, with no typos that I caught. The world building was minimal, but this is also the fifth or sixth novel in this series, so that is not super surprising. The characterization was competent, though I could not stand the heroine and her stubborn refusal to go after what she really wanted. She was a bit of an emotional coward. I find emotional cowardice an intensely unattractive quality in real life, much less in a romance novel protagonist. This poor hero deserved so much better, in my opinion. He was strong and emotionally brave, and deserved someone much better. The development of the romantic relationship was okay, but was marred by the fact that this wonderful hero ended up with this heroine. The plot and pacing was exciting and fast-paced. There was quite a lot of angst on the heroine's part that I REALLY did not enjoy, and made her REALLY unattractive. However, there were also fairly high stakes which somewhat redeemed this novel. This novel used the Mars Needs Women trope, the Imported Bride trope, and the Fated Mates trope. The world building was three stars. The plot and pacing was four stars. The characterization and development of the romantic relationship was three stars. This heroine was one star. This book ends on a Happy Ever After ending instead of a cliffhanger, so that is a plus. I recommend this story to fans of sci-fi romance novels which use the Mars Needs Women trope and enjoy heroines who are too afraid to go after what they really want. I have really enjoyed the previous novels in this series, so I will definitely read the next installment, even though this novel was by far my least favorite in the series so far. I do not plan to buy 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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