A review by rouge_red
A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay

adventurous tense slow-paced

4.25

Well paced, good writing and filled with interesting characters who are complicated. The prologue threw me a little because I finished it thinking this was going to be a really basic story (in terms of plot). What it turned out to be was very enjoyable in all the things I look for in my books. Maybe one fault is the world building, but what we know of the world- the politics and a bit of recent history- is enough to craft a story that deals with a lot of personal motivations pushed onto a grand scale with war. I don't have much bad to say because even the songs/poetry didn't (surprisingly) annoy me! I really got into this story the more I read. I appreciate all the flaws Blaise had, his utter badassness when announcing his claim to the throne of Gorhaut (haven't felt that thrilled at a mic drop in a book in a while) to the fact that he got followed by a regular ass person who then listened in on a deeply personal conversation. In essence, I loved how human he was. And he kept the rose yellow rose for love to himself. I also like that there wasn't a thing with him and Rosala in the end, that the author didn't feel the need to shoehorn in a romance where there clearly weren't romantic feelings. The repeat of the cycle of cheating, pregnancy, etc and how it worked out this time around was also a nice way to bring this story full circle. 

All in all, I am very curious to see what else Guy Gavriel Kay has written. This one was a great success.