ARC Review: What Comes of Attending the Commoners Ball by Elisabeth Aimee Brown
Cozy Fantasy Romance
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RELEASE DATE: September 27, 2024
What Comes of Attending the Commoners Ball by Elizabeth Aimee Brown
5 STARS, Cozy Fantasy Romance, My format: ARC e-book
Goodreads Synopsis | Buy on Amazon
Hester attends the Commoners Ball just for the food, and finds herself the center of attention of Prince Hugh and avoiding becoming indebted to the niceties of Prince Lucas.
Personal Review:
I have been thinking about how to rate this book for the last day. I'm a little conflicted.
On one hand, the writing style in this book was absolutely my favorite. There was so much humor and sarcasm that really hit the spot for me and I laughed MANY times. I love a clean romance that can truly make me laugh. The little magical elements to the story I think allowed the humor to come through, especially when misunderstandings and prejudices were still a part of the story.
On the other hand, I am a character-driven reader. And I was not overly fond of the characters. I really detested Hugh (which I think was intended) but his ridiculousness was on a whole other level. Even after finding out the reason why, I still didn't like his character at all and felt his boundary-crossing ways may have been a bit overdone.
The main characters Hester (and her friend Chemmy) and Lucas were good and solid but in some ways kind of stale. There was growth, sure, but that was definitely not the purpose of the story.
So while this book was excellent for a light interlude with comic relief, I felt a little underwhelmed...and I think the characters lacked a depth I like to see. But I really found it SO funny, so maybe I can't have it all in one book.
Content Warnings:
unhealthy relationship dynamics