Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC. It hasn’t affected the content of my review.
This was SO DISAPPOINTING. I CANNOT CAPSLOCK THIS ENOUGH. I suppose it’s my own fault. A great, enticing premise does not a good book make. Okay, actually, the author has some share of this, also. She wrote the thing. But your own expectations are never a good thing to put on a book, regardless of the book’s quality. Still, I went and did that. HOWEVER. Even without those expectations, this book would still have been Not Great. I just wouldn’t have been so butthurt about it.
The premise here that I was so drawn to was an arranged marriage between two people, but the man turns into a horse on their wedding night, whoopsie. Aside from this being an extremely whimsical idea that just tickled my fancy, the reason I was so excited for this is that I have already read a book with this exact same premise, plus or minus Lady Jane Grey and some historical anachronisms (My Lady Jane, read if you haven’t already). So my Expectations here (beyond just that the book be coherent in form and plot, sadly also too much to ask for the most part) were largely created by how delighted that book made me. I wanted an adult version of it. I wanted that very badly. But what I got was . . . this. Thing.
Aside from the writing itself being just kind of lackluster, and not really connecting to the characters (see: lackluster writing), the worldbuilding and plotting was A MESS. That premise I loved so much? The reason given for it in the story? Asinine. (I feel bad for being this harsh, but I cannot fathom how it got past editors, plural, or an agent, or anyone. It makes no sense.) This book honestly reads like a shitty first draft.
I read an article somewhere on the internet recently that talked about how traditional publishers have changed how they edit works in the last handful of years, cutting out significant pieces of the editing process, and that article totally makes sense to me in the context of this book, because there was something here, or there could have been with a lot more work. On character, on worldbuilding, on the structure of the story, on the dialogue between any of the characters, but especially between our two lovebirds. (Lovehorses?)
Anyway, I’m salty about it, sorry if this like your favorite book or whatever. I might read another book from this author, but it’s going to need heavy vetting first. Sad 🙁
CBR BINGO: ‘B’
