Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This was a DNF at 40% for me.
I really tried to finish this book but I struggled with multiple aspects.
A POC character being written by a non POC author. A major character arc dealing with him being a POC and feeling like an outsider. Issues of slavery in his home country, including how women were treated and not truly dealing with them. Veiled hints about his poor views about women. Little was said about how he changed his name to be accepted.
I'll be honest i did not like the male MC in this one. While he seemed redeeming when he stepped up to marry the female MC, there was no hidden attraction moments. He was more concerned about his mistresses and how she was wealthier than him. It was too mysoginistic for me. Where there are so many historical romances today that are grappling with feminism and having male MC who maybe need education, this was frustrating to read. The choices almost seemed to go for shock value rather than dealing with the implications of the choices. His own mother was a slave, and he seems to not deal with that or gloss over it.
I could not keep going once he kept making not so veiled hints of his place at the head of the marriage and linking it to slavery.
This was a DNF at 40% for me.
I really tried to finish this book but I struggled with multiple aspects.
A POC character being written by a non POC author. A major character arc dealing with him being a POC and feeling like an outsider. Issues of slavery in his home country, including how women were treated and not truly dealing with them. Veiled hints about his poor views about women. Little was said about how he changed his name to be accepted.
I'll be honest i did not like the male MC in this one. While he seemed redeeming when he stepped up to marry the female MC, there was no hidden attraction moments. He was more concerned about his mistresses and how she was wealthier than him. It was too mysoginistic for me. Where there are so many historical romances today that are grappling with feminism and having male MC who maybe need education, this was frustrating to read. The choices almost seemed to go for shock value rather than dealing with the implications of the choices. His own mother was a slave, and he seems to not deal with that or gloss over it.
I could not keep going once he kept making not so veiled hints of his place at the head of the marriage and linking it to slavery.