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The Pedlar And The Bandit King (2006)

by Kirby Crow(Favorite Author)

3.81 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

193338980X (ISBN13: 9781933389806)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Torquere Press

series

Scarlet and the White Wolf

review 1: The Pedlar and the Bandit KingORPut On Your Red Coat We're Going DancingI'll be honest, I was expecting this book to be a lot better than it was. It's showed up on a lot of recommendations for me and I really hoped for a hidden gem. And what I got was.... okay. The writing quality isn't that great. The intro especially suffers from an uncertainty of how to introduce a lot of elements, places, and characters in a short amount of time. The plot is clean, at least, but the writing wasn't as tight as I normally like.Now, there's still some really good stuff in here. The romance is where this book shines, traveling down the well walked tropes of bandit king and innocent waif without crossing into squicky non-con country. There's a lot of fun interplay between Scarlet and L... moreiall in the pass that I really enjoyed, the head butting between the two is sometimes outright hilarious. I liked the characters, the main two as well as the secondaries! I can't tell you the number of times where secondaries have been more interesting to me than primaries, but this was not the case here. I liked both, a lot.But I'll be honest, the thing that disappointed me most? The lack of fantasy, honestly. Yes, fantasy world, yes, there is definitely magic in this world. But it's used very sparingly and functions more as a plot device than anything else. I like my magic a bit better integrated, either into the plot or the world itself. There's hints of more magic to come in the series, but I'm not sure if it will pay out in a way that satisfies me. The magic in this book definitely disappointed me.SO, if you're looking for a certain kind of male/male romance, something with headbutting that ultimately resolves into a rather sweet romance with little sex but plenty of tension, pick up this book! You will like it!If you're looking for a good fantasy read, skip this. If you're looking for a lot of smut, you will also be disappointed. Maybe other books in the series have more smut, this one doesn't. I don't personally find this a flaw, but I know expectations are everything and if you go in looking for smut, and it's not there, there will be sadness in your heart.So come for the romance. It's really the best part.
review 2: Overall, I really enjoyed this story. But there were segments of it where I got really bored, and that was during long expositions where the author kind of rambled about things that didn't matter that much. I kind of skimmed those sections, which might come back to bite me in the butt if those things turn out to be important in later books.I liked the world the author has built, though, and despite Scarlet's tendency to make a lot of the same mistakes (seriously did he seriously think he could cross the mountain with those half assed attempts, or was that his thinly veiled excuse to see Liall again? Just own up, Boy!) I did like his character, and Liall seems interesting. I'm anxious to see their relationship develop. less

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