Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Slightly Tempted by Mary Balogh

2 reviews

andra_mihaela_s's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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solacelight's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I truly do not know where to start with this book. It's such a disappointment, as I have enjoyed the rest of series thus far. Frankly, there's so much to dislike about this. Morgan is unlikable as a character. Gervase is unlikable on moral grounds. And let's not get started on some of the other characters. The plot simultaneously drags and is rushed, characters take inexplicable decisions, and one never feels that Gervase has quite redeemed himself because frankly? He never tries. The age gap is so very evident and pointed out so often in incredibly uncomfortable terms. And Gervase's backstory feels undeniably harmful and misogynistic. However, +1.5 stars solely for more Wulfric. I love Wulfric. And also I am excited about the setup for Alleyne's story so I'm hoping that's not a letdown.

Now to go on to some specifics:
Morgan was incredibly inconsistent as a character. She made idiotic, selfish decisions motivated by her own distorted sense of self including: 
  1. SpoilerGoing to a soon-to-be war zone while leading someone on;
  2. SpoilerRefusing to leave said war zone despite that war looms as an imminent threat as in the next day simply to attend a BALL;
  3. SpoilerAnd actively choosing to put herself into situations she KNOWS are compromising simply because she feels the need to prove she's Smart and Mature and Knows Everything. The shame is that she does know in this instance and instead of choosing to exercise this knowledge, she acts like a fourteen year old who's just been issued a dare.
  4. SpoilerAlso why does the family seem to SO quickly move on from Alleyne's death?? We get like maybe twenty pages in total of reflection on this.
  5. SpoilerIn grand summary, the difference between Morgan and previous FMCs is that they have some modicum of life experience behind them that isn't being a spoiled brat. Her being 'so wise' is so obviously untrue because if she was wise she would have used that brain of hers (which I KNOW WORKS) to not continue to do idiotic things for literally no reason (at least Freyja had her reasons for her dumb decisions).

Gervase was just a horrible human being who did absolutely nothing to redeem himself.
  1. SpoilerHe sees an eighteen year old girl, innocent, and then decides to enact revenge upon her brother for not defending him after he was accused of rape.
  2. SpoilerHis first thought after he is intimate with Morgan for the first time is of how he has finally enacted revenge upon Wulfric. I don't need his thoughts to be particularly loving, but THIS???
  3. SpoilerAfter feeling small pangs of guilt and realizing she is shockingly a person who deserves to be treated as thus, does he attempt to appropriately extricate himself from the situation and make amends? No. He chooses to actively ruin her with an audience simply to further inconvenience Wulfric.
  4. SpoilerMorgan has the excuse of being eighteen years old and being in the literal first blush of youth, but Gervase just goes 'I love Morgan!' There is no moment, no thought prior to it that indicates he loves her. I read somewhere that romantic love in the European Christian world has twisted into an attempt to reconcile lust and 'morality'. It feels like this is Gervase's attempt to reconcile his guilt, his attraction, and her personhood. 
  5. SpoilerHE DOESN'T DO ANYTHING TO REDEEM HIMSELF BEYOND HANDING OUT APOLOGIES OUT OF NOWHERE. Balogh is usually wonderful at emotional development. Gervase seems to simply go superficially from anger to forgiveness. His words of plea and love mean nothing because the reader has insight into his thoughts, and his thoughts seem to have no substance.
  6. SpoilerAnd also he just seemed indistinguishable from Josh who I liked more and who seemed to have more substance.

And his backstory...there is nothing I hate more than a
Spoiler'I was falsely accused of rape!'
plotline, and this is no exception.
  1. SpoilerMust I go into how damaging and misogynistic it is to make your MMC's big point of trauma a false accusation from a woman?
  2. SpoilerThe fact that the accusation was a collaboration between two young lesbians somehow makes it worse because yes let's make the only canon gay representation in this entire series thus far two women who have conspired to accuse a childhood friend and cousin respectively of a heinous crime he did not commit, resulting in the fracturing of a family structure and the exile of an innocent man (at least of this crime).
  3. SpoilerIt's still baffling to me that the final straw was, wait for it, the fact that he stole a brooch. Not the rape, no, they would have just made him marry the woman who he supposedly raped, but the fact that he stole a broach? Well, that's just one step too far. I know it's, like, historically accurate, but damn it was just like another annoyance on top of a plotpoint I already despise.
  4. SpoilerWhy does Morgan blindly believe that Gervase didn't assault someone? Why does she think it cruel for a father to have believed the 'victim' (I HATE THAT I HAVE TO PUT IT IN QUOTATION MARKS)? Why does she think Wulfric petty for not defending an accused rapist? At least Gervase feels a certain way because he knows he's innocent. Morgan had no such assurance before she spoke to Marianne. (In reflection, why did Freyja similarly believe that Josh's intentions towards the maid were not to force a kiss upon her when he did much the same to her? Dear God, what is it with the Bedwyn women?)
  5. SpoilerJust to be clear again, I ABHOR this entire plotpoint.

There was so much to dislike about this and so little to like. What a shame. On to the next one, I suppose.
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