Queen's Kestrel 1: A Harem Fantasy Adventure

This was a good story for the first 50% of the book, and then the author realized he wanted a harem and smut, so the events and characters took a backseat to meaningless fan service and very odd behavior from all the people involved.

The story stopped making sense, the decisions made were nonsensical, and the overall tone shifted to something resembling a softcore porn film plot, where the events are manipulated to create the next sex scene.

To delve a bit deeper:

There is a conspiracy afoot. The king is trying to get rid of his daughter, the legitimate ruler, just before her coronation, with the only one who can stop it is the protagonist, who, in this magical world, possesses a power of premonition in the form of a repeated dreams -- and during the first half of the book, it was interesting, believable (for the most part) and created the ground for a very compelling story.

The MC manages to save the princess by staying behind, killing the ones who chase after her, and then is arrested and brought in to be tortured by those who think he killed the princess, apart from the very top officials, who seek to make him a scapegoat to hide their treachery; the beginning of a thrilling story.

However, since around the 50% mark, the characters started making silly decisions, like the MC going to his childhood home, where the authorities, who now believe he killed the princess, would be looking for him; he makes that decision for no conceivable reason apart from the need to "recruit" the first harem member.

Then, we get a long and tedious exposition about the traveling companion: the sword he received from the princess when he chose to stay behind, only to find that it's a magical sword that can turn into a young woman (because this is a harem story). That story is told in a very odd and lengthy way. Then some suggestive scenes take place, which fills the lore of this world with nonsense: the woman, while being a sword killed some tainted enemies, so she is now tainted herself, and the only way to remove that taint is for the MC to 'brush' that taint off of her skin. All of her skin. Why can't she do it herself? For very smutty reasons.

Jumping forward, they encounter the MC's love interest (the first one who he has been pining over for years) and the sex scene starts 30 seconds after their meeting after they were apart for a long time and her knowing he is being chased. Do they first go to a safe location, like their village? No. Do they talk about everything that has been going on? Don't be silly.

After the sex, we are greeted with a long exposition about tribal dogma and how the MC is expected to create the harem. He doesn't need to be the one who suggests it; he doesn't need to be the one to find the solution to establish his harem; he is forced into it.

On and on, the silliness continues. There are repetitions, the MC not getting what people are saying to him, for the benefit of them needing to expend on the same things over and over, so the most oblivious reader might understand -- but all they manage to do is make the MC look like a dribbling idiot.

The story has contrivances, deus ex machina, and every interaction goes for the benefit of the MC and what he wants to do. Most of it seems to be the result of poor planning and wasting time on smut instead of developing the story so that conversations and events make sense.