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loveletterenthusiast's review
fun concept but a little too heavy handed on the. everything. and the quippy fourth-wall-breaking insincerity in the name of “subversion” is not comedic or interesting it’s just annoying
lezreadalot's review
3.0
This was a lot of good, light-hearted fun. I can't say I'm that big on parody books, but this was cute and made fun of other books and itself without getting too mean or heavy about it. And it had lesbians and adventure and fantasy in it! Some of my favourite things.
I really loved:
- Drusilla (dispossessed princess of an oppressed people). A few of her bits made me laugh out loud (though I am admittedly easy to amuse). I loved her and that stupid paring knife and I LOVED that she got her girl too!
- All the realism within the fantasy, making fun of tropes and the genre. I cackled when they skipped over the whole marsh journey and came to the Land of the Unicorns. Or whatever. Like, it was meta enough to be amusing, but not so much that it was obnoxious.
- The romance. Yeah, it was pretty obvious from the start that Sandy and Ruth would get together, but the book leaned unto the obviousness instead of pretending that we would be surprised by it, and it was altogether cute as fuck. Dimples~
I should note that I started listening to the audiobook as read by Kitty Hendrix and I had to stop. I hated it. I can firmly say if I'd continued all the way through with her reading, I'd have not liked this book half as much. I didn't like her voice, her voices for the characters, and there was so much background noise and swallowing and breathing and gasping, weird pauses and no section breaks and mangled pronunciations that I couldn't tell whether she was doing on purpose or not... skjdhfkjsdf I couldn't do it. Very glad I just read it myself instead.
Anyway. Cute book! 3.5 stars.
I really loved:
- Drusilla (dispossessed princess of an oppressed people). A few of her bits made me laugh out loud (though I am admittedly easy to amuse). I loved her and that stupid paring knife and I LOVED that she got her girl too!
- All the realism within the fantasy, making fun of tropes and the genre. I cackled when they skipped over the whole marsh journey and came to the Land of the Unicorns. Or whatever. Like, it was meta enough to be amusing, but not so much that it was obnoxious.
- The romance. Yeah, it was pretty obvious from the start that Sandy and Ruth would get together, but the book leaned unto the obviousness instead of pretending that we would be surprised by it, and it was altogether cute as fuck. Dimples~
I should note that I started listening to the audiobook as read by Kitty Hendrix and I had to stop. I hated it. I can firmly say if I'd continued all the way through with her reading, I'd have not liked this book half as much. I didn't like her voice, her voices for the characters, and there was so much background noise and swallowing and breathing and gasping, weird pauses and no section breaks and mangled pronunciations that I couldn't tell whether she was doing on purpose or not... skjdhfkjsdf I couldn't do it. Very glad I just read it myself instead.
Anyway. Cute book! 3.5 stars.
bluejayreads's review
I'm not much for comedy at the best of times - most of it just comes off as unfunny at best and cringeworthy at worst. And that's exactly what happened with this book. I very nearly gave up on page 11 because the protagonist insisted on making a fool of herself while both literally and metaphorically shoving away another character trying to help her avoid doing so. But sometimes the inciting incident is a little rough and then it gets better, so I pushed on. And admittedly after that one scene, I no longer felt like cringing out of my skin. But it didn't improve by much. The characters were caricatures with little depth whose main purpose seemed to be subverting tropes. The humor ranged from just not funny to awkward and forced. And the plot was far too straightforward and unexciting to hold my interest on its own. I appreciate that the book was trying to subvert all of the fantasy quest novel tropes - I am absolutely here for trope subversion. But Promises, Promises took the concept of subverting tropes and just kinda forgot to build an actually enjoyable story around it. I will admit, though,, comedies aren't my jam generally. The problem here may be me and not the book. But regardless of where the fault lies, I couldn't find the desire to continue.
thereadingbel's review
5.0
This book laid bare all the tropes in fantasy video games. It pokes fun at them as you take off to adventure in a video game. Sandy Blunt makes improbable promises to a princess, and telling the fortunes of princesses is illegal, so she has a year and a day to make them all come true or be she and her friends will be beheaded. Sandy is a wizard, but she’s terrible at being a wizard. Tyrone is a palace guard, but he’s a terrible fighter and more concerned with keeping his armor rust-free. The ogre is a horticulturalist who is more likely to tear you limb from limb for treading on his Heliotropium arborescens than to eat you. The unicorn is the size of a small goat. Sandy thinks Drusilla is crazy because she claims to be a disposed princess of a far-off land who must fend off assassins at every turn. Which she is telling the truth. The task ie adventure quest is ridiculous and pokes fun at how adventures in games are such as do the quest with what the quest task ask for with metal armor on in water which you know should rust if you are wearing it in water. This story makes fun of all that is fantasy and how people who love fantasy understand some of the things portrayed in fantasy is inaccurate but the adventurer needs to do it anyways.
Anyways this book is so funny you have to have some understanding of what exactly the author is making fun of and way. The author does it in a great way with so much humor that you get how crazy some of the adventure quests are. I assume that L. J. Baker is a gamer and spun this tale off of adventuring in fantasy games.
Anyways this book is so funny you have to have some understanding of what exactly the author is making fun of and way. The author does it in a great way with so much humor that you get how crazy some of the adventure quests are. I assume that L. J. Baker is a gamer and spun this tale off of adventuring in fantasy games.
nnecatrix's review
4.0
Book #17 for 2017; #1 for Humor Challenge; #7 for Mt TBR Challenge
PopSugar Challenge Prompts (3 max):
- A book involving travel
- A book involving a mythical creature
- A book with an eccentric character
Read Harder Challenge Prompts:
- A fantasy novel
- An LGBTQ+ romance novel
Possible Book Bingo Squares:
- A Book with an LGBTQA Character
- A Book with a Female Heroine
No Book Left Behind Challenge Task: A book club selection
Better World Books Challenge Prompts:
- A romance that takes place during travel
- A fantasy novel
- A book by a female writer
Personal Challenge Prompts:
- A book with a woman on the cover
- A book about a road trip
Habitica Challenge Task: A book involving a mythical creature
I did have a hard time getting into this book at first. It's very tongue-in-cheek humor, extremely self-aware, much like in [b:Heroics for Beginners|569201|Heroics for Beginners|John Moore|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1309204506s/569201.jpg|556255], which requires a certain reading mindset to appreciate. Based on some other reviews, I think the first few chapters were also a little rougher than the rest of the book, perhaps due to the cramped introduction of so many characters. I had to force myself through the first 50 pages, and then I put it down for a long while.
But during that break from the book, I joined an all-female D&D group, and when I picked it back up, it was suddenly friggin' hilarious. There may or may not be a connection between those two things. The humor was still reminiscent of Heroics, but Baker's approach was far more consistent, even going so far as to poke fun at her own continuity notes, and her feminist slant provided a nice focus.
You do still need to approach this with a silly sense of humor, and if you aren't familiar with fantasy and gaming tropes, you aren't likely to get most of the jokes. But if that doesn't faze you, I'd encourage you to give this book a try. There is no explicit sex, so this is a great read for somebody who wants to explore lesbian fiction without going straight to erotica.
My only real gripe is the font. All the way through the book, the characters were all lisping in my head, all due to that silly font.
PopSugar Challenge Prompts (3 max):
- A book involving travel
- A book involving a mythical creature
- A book with an eccentric character
Read Harder Challenge Prompts:
- A fantasy novel
- An LGBTQ+ romance novel
Possible Book Bingo Squares:
- A Book with an LGBTQA Character
- A Book with a Female Heroine
No Book Left Behind Challenge Task: A book club selection
Better World Books Challenge Prompts:
- A romance that takes place during travel
- A fantasy novel
- A book by a female writer
Personal Challenge Prompts:
- A book with a woman on the cover
- A book about a road trip
Habitica Challenge Task: A book involving a mythical creature
I did have a hard time getting into this book at first. It's very tongue-in-cheek humor, extremely self-aware, much like in [b:Heroics for Beginners|569201|Heroics for Beginners|John Moore|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1309204506s/569201.jpg|556255], which requires a certain reading mindset to appreciate. Based on some other reviews, I think the first few chapters were also a little rougher than the rest of the book, perhaps due to the cramped introduction of so many characters. I had to force myself through the first 50 pages, and then I put it down for a long while.
But during that break from the book, I joined an all-female D&D group, and when I picked it back up, it was suddenly friggin' hilarious. There may or may not be a connection between those two things. The humor was still reminiscent of Heroics, but Baker's approach was far more consistent, even going so far as to poke fun at her own continuity notes, and her feminist slant provided a nice focus.
You do still need to approach this with a silly sense of humor, and if you aren't familiar with fantasy and gaming tropes, you aren't likely to get most of the jokes. But if that doesn't faze you, I'd encourage you to give this book a try. There is no explicit sex, so this is a great read for somebody who wants to explore lesbian fiction without going straight to erotica.
My only real gripe is the font. All the way through the book, the characters were all lisping in my head, all due to that silly font.
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