Dark Oppression by Brooke Reed

3 Stars

This novel was fairly cleanly written and edited, with only the occasional typo in the ARC version of this manuscript. The world building, giving us more of a glimpse of the Ancients and their appearance and ruins, was really interesting. The characterization was well done, with both hero and heroine being wise, sympathetic, well grounded individuals it was a pleasure to read about. The development of the romantic relationship happened organically and naturally, enabling me to buy into these protagonists' Happy Ever After at the end. The plot was terrible, and the pacing was exciting, moving along at a good clip. The one big negative to this novel was that a large portion of the plot would not have been able to happen if the characters had not made the really TSTL decision to not immediately kill the cannibalistic, psychopathic bad guy the first chance they got. They chose to imprison him instead. That was incredibly irritating to read. This novel had low levels of angst and very high stakes, with the fate of the civilized universe at stake. This romance used the Cyborg trope, and the Friends to Lovers trope, even though the hero and heroine did not know each other super well at the beginning of this novel, they liked what the knew of the other person. The world building and pacing of this novel rated four stars. The characterization and the development of the romantic relationship also rated four stars. The plot rated one star. Therefore, the combined score for this novel was three stars. This novel had a Happy Ever After ending instead of a cliffhanger, so that is a big plus to this novel. I recommend this story to readers who have read and enjoyed the previous books in this series. I would not recommend a reader new to this series start with this book. I will not be buying myself a keeper copy of this novel, though I quite enjoyed most of it. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

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