Tighter pacing could have shorted the story a little bit and kept it more consistently interesting. It's strange to like a book but feel like it needs to be over at the same time. The plot was interesting and clever although the pacing was slow for me. I didn't dislike him, and I was cheering him on all the way, but he didn't inspire any great attachment from me either. He didn't work for me so much I prefer my heroes to have some alpha qualities. He is purely ethical and naive, but also intelligent and brave. He's a typical beta male, thrust into an alpha role with little hope of an escape that does not include his death. Zacharias is not, however, a typical Heyer hero. Prunella is a classic Heyer heroine: she goes along her way, creating her own reality, rather than waiting for anyone to create it for her. The back cover blurb comparing it to Georgette Heyer comes closer to the truth though in spite of the author's laser focus on the inequalities of race, gender and class in Great Britain during the time of the Napoleonic war, the story overall remains light and humorous. The two covers for this book, while both beautiful, would lend the impression that this is a story that takes itself seriously. So I'm not sure the disclaimer is necessary, but I did get a free copy of the book. I got a copy from Netgalley, but was unable to read it (format problems, PDF) - I slogged through (I thought) a good bit of the story, but when I got this copy I found I hadn't quite finished the second chapter. I might reread in a while, and I'll keep an eye out for the sequels. All of this has been going on for years, and it just happens to come together in these few.weeks? Is it that long? The ending was rather predictable - actually, my reaction was rather 'Oh good, they finally got around to it!' Good story, I enjoyed it, but it didn't really catch me. Prunella was.rather convenient, at least in timing, as was the arrival of the Sultan et al just then. Daubney would no doubt be seriously unhappy to know who she was acquainted with. I found the revelation about Rollo near the end rather ridiculous doesn't really fit the character, as previously revealed. Zacharias gets seriously dumped on, from all directions. The setting is kind of vaguely fantasy Regency, with heavy sexism and racism (and classism, which plays a lesser part), which is a large part of the point of the story.

Sorcerer to the crown by zen cho