Review: A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet

So, first of all, the blurb of this book does not fully reveal what trope it uses.

It's 2019, and I'm still reading "Hunky hero abducts heroine and she inevitably falls in love with him."

Now, I get it. Some women really like that particular fantasy. Sadly, I don't, and I find it rather overdone.

However! Bouchet does it really, really well. Writing in first person present, she pulled me so into the story that I stayed up thirty minutes later than planned to finish it. And most of that was her voice. I love snarky MCs, and her Cat has snark to spare. It's just so well written I had to finish it despite its flaws.

Which were several.

On top of the overused Stockholm-syndrome-turns-into-true-love trope, the book has two major flaws:

1. Cat is Mary Sue-ish. Yes, MCs should be exceptional, but why is she the most powerful magic user in the story other than a villain we never see on screen (but who is clearly going to be the big boss Cat fights in the last book) and competent with a sword, really good with throwing knives, apparently an excellent rider. The only thing she's not good at is wrestling.
2. There are some issues with the worldbuilding. For some reason we're in a secondary world...but the gods are the Greek pantheon. I'd definitely give Bouchet this one...she's obviously a Greek mythology nerd, and wanted to use them. The larger issue is that the heroine is from the cold north by the icy plains. The hero is from the overly hot south. The heroine is swarthy with black hair. The hero is big, fair, and blonde. Now, no, I don't expect science in my fantasy, but going utterly opposite to science will throw me right out of the story. I managed to get back in, but...

That said, I recommend this book to readers who do enjoy the central trope. I know you're out there. It's a shameless bodice ripper, but a very good example of its type.

As one final note: This book is not "clean." It doesn't have enough sex to be called an erotic romance, but what sex there is takes place with the bedroom door wide open. This either perked you up or it didn't ;).

To cover my butt: This book was from the World Fantasy book bag. Which I finally got around to reading. Some of the books in it are samplers, but I do plan on reviewing the others.