[Book Review] Love Potions
Love Potions / Michelle M. Pillow
Confession time - I'm totally into men wearing kilts (fortunately my soon-to-be spouse is obliging on this as he's discovered quite how comfortable they are). Combine this with my penchant for reading fantasy and the occasional naughty book, I figured why not take a gamble on Love Potions. I went in with the assumption that I would encounter a number of romance novel tropes, and worse comes to worse, it wasn't a very long book (under 300 pages).
What I can say about this book is that it has a plot, and it's not simply the quest for putting Tab A into Slot B. There is magical insta-love, but since magic literally is part of their pairing, it is at least in theme.
Erik is a bit of an idiot at times. For all that he's a few centuries old, he (and his siblings) have the social graces and impulse control of teenagers, but with the added twist of near immortality and magic thrown in. It almost goes without saying that there's some level of alpha-male posturing, though it's more a complete lack of realization that anyone would object to his decision (regardless of how much the siblings fight).
Lydia pushes back at Erik, and makes him work for her. Perhaps she lets him off too easy. Personally, I'd probably want to inflict bodily harm on him for how he basically fails to listen to anything she says.
There are some good family and friend dynamics. There is no slut-shaming. I do appreciate that.
For how much time Erik and Lydia spend ogling and lusting over each other in explicit detail, there's not much sex and it's not very graphic. Then again, the book is "romance" and therefore not really promising more, it just seemed like there would be.
Advanced Reader Copy copy courtesy of NetGalley; differences may exist between uncorrected galley text and the final edition.
Confession time - I'm totally into men wearing kilts (fortunately my soon-to-be spouse is obliging on this as he's discovered quite how comfortable they are). Combine this with my penchant for reading fantasy and the occasional naughty book, I figured why not take a gamble on Love Potions. I went in with the assumption that I would encounter a number of romance novel tropes, and worse comes to worse, it wasn't a very long book (under 300 pages).
What I can say about this book is that it has a plot, and it's not simply the quest for putting Tab A into Slot B. There is magical insta-love, but since magic literally is part of their pairing, it is at least in theme.
Erik is a bit of an idiot at times. For all that he's a few centuries old, he (and his siblings) have the social graces and impulse control of teenagers, but with the added twist of near immortality and magic thrown in. It almost goes without saying that there's some level of alpha-male posturing, though it's more a complete lack of realization that anyone would object to his decision (regardless of how much the siblings fight).
Lydia pushes back at Erik, and makes him work for her. Perhaps she lets him off too easy. Personally, I'd probably want to inflict bodily harm on him for how he basically fails to listen to anything she says.
There are some good family and friend dynamics. There is no slut-shaming. I do appreciate that.
For how much time Erik and Lydia spend ogling and lusting over each other in explicit detail, there's not much sex and it's not very graphic. Then again, the book is "romance" and therefore not really promising more, it just seemed like there would be.
Advanced Reader Copy copy courtesy of NetGalley; differences may exist between uncorrected galley text and the final edition.
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