A review by amy_in_the_city
Bitterburn by Ann Aguirre

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

What a delightful Beauty and the Beast retelling! This had one of my favorite tropes. I'm not sure of the official name for it, but I'll call it "love is blind." It's where a character falls in love with someone without ever seeing them first. The sexual tension in this book was off the charts, and I was here for these two touch-starved MMCs falling for each other.

I loved how much focus there was on consent in this book. They both checked in to see if it was OK before they did anything, and I liked that Amarrah respected Njal's boundaries regarding not looking at him or visiting the forbidden wing of the keep.

I did feel like they fell in love too quickly and I would have liked to see them get to know each other better before they declared their love. It kind of felt like their love was mostly based on shared loneliness, pity (on Amarrah's part), and gratitude (on Njal's part). Some of the dialogue felt clunky too.
I still really enjoyed this book though and was rooting for the main characters. I really liked Amarrah as a main character and how she took initiative to figure out how to save Njal.
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