Penumbra by Cara Wylde

3 Stars

This very short story, Penumbra, is cleanly written and edited, with few if any typos that I caught in the ARC version. The world building was fairly minimal, just barely sketched out. However, that could be a function of how short the story is. The characterization is very well done, with the heroine being vibrantly drawn. This story was not a romance, being scenes of the heroine being subject to various forms of torture. The plot and pacing was very exciting and well done, with me rapidly turning pages because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. The angst and stakes were both very high in this story, which is one of my preferred narrative structures in a story. I didn't notice any particular romance novel tropes in this story, but again, it is not a romance. This story ends on a cliffhanger, and no plot threads are resolved in this story, they are all left dangling. The plot, pacing, and characterization rated four stars, but the world building, lack of romance, and cliffhanger ending rated two stars, for a combined score of three stars. I recommend this story to readers who download this intro to the upcoming series on Kindle Unlimited, but it is probably just as well if they skip this short intro. I originally downloaded this story because I am a big fan of m/f omegaverse, but I did not enjoy it because it was not a complete story. I will not be buying myself a keeper copy of this story.

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

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