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A review by books_ergo_sum
Her Baseborn Bridegroom by Alice Coldbreath
emotional
2.0
I should have loved this ðŸ˜
I've been enjoying this author. And I love all of this:
✨ A marriage of convenience that turned into inconvenient feelings
✨ A fictional medieval setting
✨ A "I want you for myself" selfishly passionate guy who was possessive, unhinged, angry, and prone to intense staring
✨ A Rapunzel-esque, sheltered but stronger than she looks, heroine
But I kinda hated it?
So I went down a bit of a rabbit hole with reviews and here's my conclusion: Assuming we all like this kind of deranged hero, the jury is still out on whether he has a character arc or not.
And I'm on Team Not. Yes, there was a grand gesture. And he definitely tortured himself.
But... I wanted way more grovel. I wanted a moment when he (self-awarely) did something unselfish, for her. Also, a moment when he showed he could successfully check his violent behaviour (kinda scared for her, ngl).
And the plot structure wasn't helping. Most of the book had nothing going on (except some of the most mediocre sex scenes of all time—she was 💦-ing through shere book-magic alone because this man had no game). And then there was a third act plot thing we saw coming a mile away that annoyed me because the scenes had a literal elephant in the room (a person responsible for all the drama was literally in the room but we never addressed it for some reason?)
So it all ended up being a slog. And yet, I can see why some people love this book (because this hero was a nut 😆)
I've been enjoying this author. And I love all of this:
✨ A marriage of convenience that turned into inconvenient feelings
✨ A fictional medieval setting
✨ A "I want you for myself" selfishly passionate guy who was possessive, unhinged, angry, and prone to intense staring
✨ A Rapunzel-esque, sheltered but stronger than she looks, heroine
But I kinda hated it?
So I went down a bit of a rabbit hole with reviews and here's my conclusion: Assuming we all like this kind of deranged hero, the jury is still out on whether he has a character arc or not.
And I'm on Team Not. Yes, there was a grand gesture. And he definitely tortured himself.
But... I wanted way more grovel. I wanted a moment when he (self-awarely) did something unselfish, for her. Also, a moment when he showed he could successfully check his violent behaviour (kinda scared for her, ngl).
And the plot structure wasn't helping. Most of the book had nothing going on (except some of the most mediocre sex scenes of all time—she was 💦-ing through shere book-magic alone because this man had no game). And then there was a third act plot thing we saw coming a mile away that annoyed me because the scenes had a literal elephant in the room (a person responsible for all the drama was literally in the room but we never addressed it for some reason?)
So it all ended up being a slog. And yet, I can see why some people love this book (because this hero was a nut 😆)