Book: Emmaline: A Story of Love In the Vale by Kristen Coar
Reviewed by Weird | weird.reads.books
Rating: 4/5
Imagine a main character in your favorite romantasy has a terrible idea, and instead of her friends talking sense into her, they support her endeavors. That’s Emmaline. She’s a delulu character who is convinced a lord son of her employer is her fated mate, even though there hasn’t been one in centuries.
I went into this book with the mindset that Emmaline would be a character that would make you uncomfortable with her decisions, and you’d be annoyed with her tactics. She is absolutely obsessed with Lord Caelith, tracking everything down to his personal daily schedule. Her hyper-fixation was highly entertaining and kept me enwrapped.
Everyone’s mileage may vary when it comes to characters coded as morally black. While Emmaline is definitely unhinged when it comes to Lord Caelith, I personally expected a few more extreme actions from her. This might just be my skewed viewpoint speaking (I've read some truly disturbing novels lately) so this felt a bit lighter on the pitch-black scale. If you want a taste of a dark FMC without getting into anything genuinely upsetting, this is a perfect sweet spot.
The love story with Emmaline’s actual mate was a nice twist. (I’m not saying this is a spoiler since it’s in the book summary.) Their connection was electric from the moment they met, though I did find myself wanting more of their actual development. That portion felt a little rushed, and I'm still craving more of their romance.
This is overall a quick read with moments of feminine rage, ride-or-die girl squads, and a love story. The book sets things up nicely for an interconnected standalone series following the rest of the squad, and I’m definitely looking forward to reading the next one.
Thank you to Kristen Coar for the eARC. All opinions are my own.