Butterfly Swords

Grade: C+



Summary: During China's infamous Tang Dynasty, a time awash with luxury yet littered with deadly intrigues and fallen royalty, betrayed Princess Ai Li flees before her wedding.
Miles from home, with only her delicate butterfly swords for defense, she enlists the reluctant protection of a blue-eyed warrior..
Battle-scarred, embittered Ryam has always held his own life at cheap value. Ai Li's innocent trust in him and honorable, stubborn nature make him desperate to protect her - which means not seducing the first woman he has ever truly wanted.




Review: Oh how I wanted to love this story, but I didn't. To be honest this was all I wanted to type for my review, and really there is nothing else that needs to be said. However, I will list what is becoming the very usual and oh so common issues with romance books I have been reading lately. (Someone get quality control stat!!!)
At the beginning of the story I felt really thrust into it, felt like I was playing catch up in the first couple chapters. While the backstory was interesting it took too long to for the author to get to important details. Then it started to feel like backstory details were being dragged out for too long because the info wasn't really crucial to the characters. By the time I am more than halfway through the book I should know why the characters are acting they way they are, otherwise I don't think people can really connect to them.
I could never picture what Ryam and Ai Li the lead characters looked like, which is so strange! Yes, Ryam was blonde and blued eyed and Ai Li had almond eyes and dark hair but the author didn't give them any depth and I always felt like I was reading through a veil. I couldn't get a grasp on the characters and because of this I never connected with them. The reader never gets to spend much time in their heads or reading their private thoughts so maybe this was the problem.
Onto a common complaint: Strong feelings for each other very fast. I never understood why Ryam was willing to give his life for Ai Li or why she was willing to go against her family, mind you when all she talks about it honoring your family, for Ryam. Love so fast when no reasoning was shown or given (not even the ole reliable lust at first sight!).
I don't want to ruffle any feathers but I feel like maybe this book could have been better if it wasn't a Harlequin series. I'm not usually a fan of their books. It seems to me they always kind of sorta dumb down and condense their books. The writing quality from the author seems to be there but maybe she was just handcuffed by Harlequin?
Anyway, there was a lot of walking from Ai Li and Ryam as they either were trying to get to her father or away. Then a little bit of "I could never be good enough for you" and a is he or isn't he violent/crazy honorable/strong villain. I was incredibly excited when I read about this book coming out. It seemed like a fresh story about a land and time period grossly ignored. But really it could have just been another duke/shy miss regency for all the enjoyment I got out of reading it.
The story was slow and frankly wasn't satisfactory. I could never even picture the hero and heroine which is so important. The C+ rating is due to the promise and quality I see in the author's writing and the freshness of the basis of the story. Like I said at the beginning I really wanted to like this book but my final words on it are lack of depth of character, slow, and disappointing.


Oh and I think the author needs to write a prequel to this involving Adrian and Miya's story. Their story sounds fascinating!


Next to be read: "The Irish Warrior" by Kris Kennedy