Alexandra Rowland is one of my favorite authors, and I adore romances, so this book was an easy choice to pick up. I will say Rowland’s past romance (A Taste of Gold and Iron) was a great book, but probably my least favorite thing they’ve put out. Considering that their worst book is one that I’d happily reread, Alexandra Rowland is definitely an author who is right up my alley.
Read If Looking For: trope-filled Romances, meddling gods, melodramatic descriptions of penises
Avoid if Looking For: healthy relationship dynamics, sophistication in any sense of the word
Elevator Pitch:
Tam knows how to hold a grudge. He’s had a grudge against Lyford for ages, despite that fact that he keeps sleeping with the man. When Tam agrees to volunteer for the town’s yearly festival, mostly out of spite, he ends up paired up Lyford in the matchmaking tent of all places. Tam is forced to confront his own character flaws, his repressed feelings for Lyford, and his habit of sabotaging anything good that enters his life.
What Worked for Me
This book was wonderfully self-indulgent. It doesn’t hold anything back, and revels in an overly-sexual character. Tam himself is an abrasive lead, likably unlikeable in a way that many romances try for. Where other authors end up nose-diving into annoying leads, I found Tam funny and endearing. He’s dramatic, prickly, and unable to let go of things. He was a lot of fun to follow, especially since the book actually forced him to confront his own issues instead of just having the power of Lyford’s love fix everything.
In fact, I’d like to give a great many laurels for how delightfully communicative our main duo is. They share their feelings (eventually) and work through issues (slowly, and with many false starts), instead of just letting miscommunications drive the conflict of the book. To be clear, this is not a book with healthy relationships in any sense of the word, but at least this Romance acknowledges it instead of sweeping that inconvenient fact under the proverbial rug.
Religion and gods form a major part of this setting, with a goddess of home and growth being the central figure. However, the god of temptation also serves a moderately important role. I enjoyed how nosy and intrusive they were; no sense in boundaries. In particular, there was a few monologues from the priest of the lord of temptation (not either of our leads) that I really enjoyed. It was a philosophical position that ran counter to a lot of narratives around selfishness and indulgence. I don’t know that I agree with everything he had to say, but lots of interesting things to chew on.
What Didn’t Work for Me
Having relatively recently come off the author’s comedic fantasy book Running Close to the Wind, I thought the two books had a bit too much overlap in the narrative style for my tastes. Rowland is normally a master of shifting the style of the story to match the lead, and while this book isn’t a comedy (and Running Close to the Wind isn’t a full Romance) there were enough similarities to be worth noting. I think Rowland’s narration was a bit so similar between these for my tastes. I’m not mad at it, but definitely hoping Rowland goes in a different direction next (and maybe back into the more political and grounded side of things? Tales of the Chants is an all time favorite).
Otherwise, most criticisms of Romance books can be leveled at this story. If you don’t like Romance books, stay far, far away.
In Conclusion: a fun, if not particularly deep, Romance with a melodramatic lead character and meddling gods
- Characters – 4
- Worldbuilding – 3
- Craft – 3
- Themes – 3
- Enjoyment – 5
Marked for Plot 