A Court This Cruel & Lovely by Stacia Stark
Series: Kingdom of Lies #1
Narrator: Tim Paige, Meg Sylvan
Published by Dreamscape Media on October 24, 2023
Genres: Fantasy, Fantasy Romance, Romantasy
Pages: 562
Format: Audiobook ARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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For years, when I fell asleep, I dreamed of a man with blazing green eyes and a cruel smile.

The day I meet him, the ruthless mercenary leaves me for dead.

Just hours after humans are born, the gods take what little power we have. In return, they protect our borders from the vicious, merciless fae.

The humans who manage to keep their power are known as the corrupt.
And they are burned.

When my forbidden power is discovered, I’m forced to flee my tiny village and the life I adore.

To survive, I make a desperate bargain with the mercenary who abandoned me at my weakest.

Our deal is simple: I’ll help him and his mysterious friends sneak into the city. And he’ll help me learn to wield the strange, dark power I’ve always kept hidden. The power that may just be the key to my survival.

But the ruthless mercenary is hiding secrets of his own. Secrets that threaten the safety of everyone I love. Secrets that could tear this kingdom—and perhaps even this world—apart.

Please note: A Court This Cruel and Lovely is an NA/adult romantasy book with steam. While this series is slow burn, the chili pepper rating will increase for each book.

Last year I was needing something to quench my thirst for a Fourth Wing kind of story while waiting (a long time) for Onyx Storm to come out, so I explored many romantasy books looking for that feeling of being completely entranced by a book and unable to think about anything else. I also love ACOTAR, and I’d read that this gave off similar vibes so I gave it a go. Long story short, this is no ACOTAR. And can I sidebar for a second and talk about how much I hate how many books have given in to the “a court of whatever and whatever” trend? I feel like it tricks readers into thinking they’ve found THE book everyone is talking about. “What’s that ‘a court of…’ book my friend likes so much? Oh, it’s this one!” And then it’s not. lol. Similar title… also about fae… you get the picture. Anyway, I listened to this one because I love dual narration. I was crocheting, the narrators did a great job, and it was a thing to listen to that helped distract me during a hard thing I was going through personally. But it left many things to be desired, and I’m struggling to articulate my feelings in a way that makes sense. This is also one of my more negative reviews and the guilt is setting in a bit as I re-read this before scheduling it to go live soon. I hate writing negative reviews, but I feel obligated to do so since I received this for review from the publisher. So here are my honest thoughts.

To sum it up, this book didn’t feel unique to me. You’ve got the over-used tropes like fae versus human, enemies to lovers, found family, a feisty heroine who doesn’t know she’s magic, etc. These story elements cannot stand on their own existence, though. I feel like they were just there because that’s what people look for. I can tell that this book set out to check off a lot of boxes to please readers, but there was no strong framework, no intricate worldbuilding, and no details given that immersed me in the story. I can’t tell you what anyone looked like, what the world looked like, or anyone’s backstory or defining characteristics. The cookie cutter main characters were unremarkable and flat. The secondary characters were background props. I couldn’t help but feel like the desire to write a unique cast of memorable characters and a rich world… wasn’t there. It seemed more like the goal was to give me enough to remind me of characters I loved from another book and then fill in the blanks on my own with their traits and their personalities. I felt like I was supposed to patch the plot holes and supplement the information I was given with information from someone else’s fully developed world. That’s just, for lack of a softer word, lazy writing.

The spicy moments were uncomfortable for me, and the romance didn’t feel believable and all-consuming. The pacing was off, with a lot happening all at once and then nothing happening at all. The story really dragged in places, and the same things kept happening. There was a lot of telling and very little showing. The more I think about this book, the more confused I am as to why I finished it. I tend to abandon books when I’m feeling like this, especially when they’re this long. I was clearly engrossed in my crocheting and needed a distraction during a difficult time when I didn’t have the brain power to absorb something deeper. I was able to drift in and out and not miss anything, and I think that’s a big part of why I finished it. I also liked the soothing voices of the narrators. It was very easy to keep listening to it, and sometimes that’s what you need in a book. I wanted to love this so, so much, but I will unfortunately not be continuing with the series.