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A review by courtneydoss
Her Knight at the Museum by Bryn Donovan
2.0
Unfortunately, this was a case of a good premise executed poorly.
The story was good enough, for a fluffy romance book. It isn't going to win any awards for historical accuracy, but I don't think that anyone is necessarily looking for that in their smutty romance choices. Whatever suspension of disbelief is required for the plot, I think most readers are willing to give and that should make this book likable. Where this book fails spectacularly, in my opinion, is in its characters, and less so, in its writing.
I don't know if I've ever found a romance heroine as unlikable as Emily Porter, and she is not helped by the cheesy dialogue and frankly bonkers decisions the writer makes in her characterization. I'm not a fan of insta-love, but I can understand how a knight imprisoned inside a statue for six hundred years could fall in love with the first woman he meets. What I don't understand is how Emily can become sexually aroused by a statue with no signs of sentience on the very first page of the novel. Is this something adult women are doing that I've just been oblivious to?
The out of place sexual arousal isn't what made me dislike Emily. I could even get behind her frankly ludicrous reactions to a statue becoming flesh and blood, all in the name of a story. Alas, I hated Emily because she was a jealous asshole.
Here's an example of Emily's insane jealousy.
1) She becomes jealous, in a dream, the first time they meet that he might visit dreams of another woman.
1) She becomes jealous when the knight speaks to her coworker and friend, Rose.
2) She becomes jealous when the knight says hello to a woman that is talking to him.
3) She becomes jealous when he says that the bride at a royal wedding, 600 years ago, was beautiful.
I was a fat kid in the 90s so I understand insecurity, but come on! Apparently Emily's unwillingness for her knight boyfriend to make eye contact with another woman comes from having been cheated on by her former spouse, but I just found the instances that made her jealous to be beyond petty and unreasonable.
The dialogue, too, was laughably bad. To conclude this review, I will leave you with an example.
For context, the central couple is about to engage in sexy-times during a dream sequence, wherein the female character mentions the hero visiting another woman that the heroine works with. This is the knight's reply.
We must speak of her ill-tempered ways no more, or my king will no longer be ready to enter the court.
And yes, he is saying the conversation will kill his boner.
The story was good enough, for a fluffy romance book. It isn't going to win any awards for historical accuracy, but I don't think that anyone is necessarily looking for that in their smutty romance choices. Whatever suspension of disbelief is required for the plot, I think most readers are willing to give and that should make this book likable. Where this book fails spectacularly, in my opinion, is in its characters, and less so, in its writing.
I don't know if I've ever found a romance heroine as unlikable as Emily Porter, and she is not helped by the cheesy dialogue and frankly bonkers decisions the writer makes in her characterization. I'm not a fan of insta-love, but I can understand how a knight imprisoned inside a statue for six hundred years could fall in love with the first woman he meets. What I don't understand is how Emily can become sexually aroused by a statue with no signs of sentience on the very first page of the novel. Is this something adult women are doing that I've just been oblivious to?
The out of place sexual arousal isn't what made me dislike Emily. I could even get behind her frankly ludicrous reactions to a statue becoming flesh and blood, all in the name of a story. Alas, I hated Emily because she was a jealous asshole.
Here's an example of Emily's insane jealousy.
1) She becomes jealous, in a dream, the first time they meet that he might visit dreams of another woman.
1) She becomes jealous when the knight speaks to her coworker and friend, Rose.
2) She becomes jealous when the knight says hello to a woman that is talking to him.
3) She becomes jealous when he says that the bride at a royal wedding, 600 years ago, was beautiful.
I was a fat kid in the 90s so I understand insecurity, but come on! Apparently Emily's unwillingness for her knight boyfriend to make eye contact with another woman comes from having been cheated on by her former spouse, but I just found the instances that made her jealous to be beyond petty and unreasonable.
The dialogue, too, was laughably bad. To conclude this review, I will leave you with an example.
For context, the central couple is about to engage in sexy-times during a dream sequence, wherein the female character mentions the hero visiting another woman that the heroine works with. This is the knight's reply.
We must speak of her ill-tempered ways no more, or my king will no longer be ready to enter the court.
And yes, he is saying the conversation will kill his boner.