A review by whatthefridge
Championship by Alethea Faust

adventurous emotional hopeful tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Third book. Expectations are high going in. And we finally get Olbric’s POV!

The development of romantic love between Dominai and Olbric is something inevitable to the story, having been building for some time now. While I can’t say I’m surprised, I was really liking the nonromantic queerplatonic feels. Alas. 

Olbric’s arc is very compelling in its own right.
While it’s frustrating that his home country is based on stereotypical conservative Middle East and that his childhood involves the cliche of being beaten for putting on a dress, all of that does add up to Olbric gender journey making sense. I do appreciate that it didn’t go full trans woman. Olbric being non-binary works for him.

I’m disappointed that Galiva has been sidelined and relegated to plot driver. I have nothing against Cancassi, but I do feel like they took Galiva’s place in the story due to their more phallic anatomy. 

Since this is the third book, there’s more riding on the plot, which makes many of the sex scenes feel like fluff. There’s also the matter of me constantly waiting for the shoe to drop.
As soon as we learn about the stacked casting and hidden triggers, I was constantly on edge with Garrett potentially going off. Then there’s the ramp up with Olbric’s family background. At 97%, a chapter called Neutered in Olbric’s POV, and I’m over here like “oh no.” If it wasn’t for the lack of content warning in an otherwise overly-cautious series, I’d be far more freaked. However, the lack of any shoe dropping leaves me frustrated. Nothing comes from Thaddeus’s reveal and there’s no new insight into who’s feeding Faisel information about Olbric. I wish at the very least there was something gained from Thaddeus, but nope.
With the lack of closure in every direction, I feel like a conjuration spell is on me instead. As it stands, I totally expected there to be a cliffhanger.

It’s unfortunate that this book stagnated, but I still look forward to the eventual release of the next one. 
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