Book: Rook & Rebel by Kate Crew
Reviewed by Weird | weird.reads.books
This is one of those books that was everywhere on my feed. The cover is cute, the premise screamed dark romcom, and I figured if it got a trad deal, it had to be doing something right.
Unfortunately, this one just didn’t work for me.
Our FMC, Regan, felt frustratingly shallow and oddly directionless. We’re told she went to business school to eventually take over her father’s empire, but we never really see that ambition on the page. There’s no real drive, no spark—just a heroine going through the motions and letting everyone around her walk all over her. She doesn’t read like an heiress-in-training so much as a doormat with good hair.
The MMC had so much potential on paper. “I’m going to destroy the man who ruined my life by using his daughter” is such a juicy revenge setup. Give me the morally gray obsessive with a laser-focused grudge, and I’m in. But here, the execution felt oddly tame. He talks a big game about stalking and obsession, and while he does fixate on her, it never lands with the intensity or menace the premise promises. It’s like being told you’re getting a wolf and being handed an undercaffeinated golden retriever with a sad backstory.
I think some of this was meant to play as light-hearted and funny, but the humor didn’t click for me. The “comical” moments mostly landed as cringey, and the romance didn’t have the chemistry needed to sell either the angst or the banter. For a book marketed as a dark romcom, it missed both the “dark” and the “rom” for me.
All that said, there are clearly plenty of readers who adored this story, but it just wasn’t a match for my taste. This reader is firmly in the “not for me” camp.