Book: How to Seduce a Dark Lord by Bridgette Way
Reviewed by Anonymous
Rating: 4/5
Kieran Prentiss, one of the top gifted necromancers, has no desire to become a dark lord. Having just graduated, everyone is waiting to see what he'll do next. Being a people pleaser, he keeps dodging the question while trying to figure out how to have a non-violent career that won't disappoint his adoring fans. After a run in with Dark Lord du Maurier at Kieran's graduation ball, he realizes being a dark consort fits all his needs. Now he just has to convince LdM to marry him, but it's harder than he anticipates since LdM is convinced that Kieran is trying to usurp him.
What a delightfully absurd book. I loved this so much. The magic system was interesting even though not fully delved into, and the idea that villains take over cities either by conquering or competing, and competing comes with benefits from the villain council is so great and funny. The fact that the competition is basically expecting bribes and cheating while being a legitimate body is honestly kind of too close to how it works in real life if I'm honest. I love that even with conquering cities. there are some dark lords who Kieran hasn't heard of because he hasn't even heard of their cities.
Kieran is such a fun protagonist. In a sea of novels with dual POV, I was so happy we were only in his head the whole time. It makes the uncertainty he feels more real for the reader. Especially in the third act, to not know what LdM was feeling really added some tension to relationship. I adored how all his complimentary phrases all revolved around death and decay because he finds death so beautiful. It was fun to see what new grotesque phrase he was going to use that was meant to be a good thing.
Dark Lord du Maurier has the air of a comic book villain but believes a dark lord should take care of his constituents, even if they are worms. His dead pan responses to Kieran are a great balance to how animated Kieran is. I loved how every time Kieran did something unexpected, LdM was basically like DASTARDLY VILLAIN, YOU WILL NOT FOOL ME WITH YOUR PLOYS. Rinse and repeat but in a fun way. Watching him start to slowly trust Kieran was really satisfying, and his close relationships with some of his workers was really sweet.
Shoutout to the scene where they are breaking and entering and Kieran insists they take off their shoes before walking through the house because it's unfathomable to wear your outside shoes in someone's house - even someone you suspect is your enemy.
The competition was fun and allowed the relationship to progress and move along with a believable timeline. It felt like the characters were actually in situations that forced them to grow. I found LdM's backstory to not be as compelling as I think it was meant to be, and the reaction in the third act to be a bit overblown considering they are both villains (albeit, not as violent as others), but I had so much fun with the rest of the book that it didn't really bother me.
This was a solid 4.5 for me and I would recommend this in a heartbeat.
Thank you to NetGalley & Berkley Publishing Group | Berkley for the ARC!