A Daring Pursuit

Read this because I wanted to read a book where the FMC wasn't a virgin and inexperienced. However while the FMC in this has had sex before it was just once and then annoyingly a lot of the focus was on how innocent and inexperienced she still is despite that, so it ended up being almost the opposite of what I was after. A lot of the dialogue is quite tired and cringey as well.

Read my whole review at https://novelsalive.com/2022/05/24/4-star-review-a-daring-pursuit-by-kate-bateman/

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

2.5 to 3 stars. Rounding up to a 3 because I did really enjoy the characters.

I'm feeling very conflicted about this historical romance.

I really enjoyed the couple's interactions. Carys and Tristan have known each other all their lives. They pretend to dislike each other to hide the fact that they are actually very much pining for the other person. Their banter is fun and they are concerned about the other's well-being. I enjoyed spending my time with them, even if I never found them to be quite squee-worthy. They are interesting characters! And there were some very fun moments involving the two!

That said, at no point did this read like an enemies to lovers romance! Their pretence was not convincing at all and their pining was almost annoyingly over-the-top in some sections.

But my main issues were with the structure and the very modern writing style. While I enjoyed the humorous tone of the writing a lot, the language and a lot of the characters' behaviour felt way too contemporary, for my liking. I found it jarring and it pulled me out of the story.

The structure was very bitty. Lots of little moments strung together. It never flowed very well and didn't allow for great immersion. It made the story very dull and meant that I was even somewhat bored of the relationship after the first half.

It took more than 30% for the story to pick up and for the promised affair plot - described in the blurb - to come into play. The rest of the description, involving the “treasonous plot”, took even longer to properly get going.

The plot was very thin and kept going round in circles. There was also a lot of repetition of facts. Carys was ruined... Tristan went on a Grand Tour...over and over. By the time the plot and the relationship started to move forward, I didn't really care a lot anymore.

Overall, a very mixed bag with characters that were enjoyable to read about.