Review of The Art of Professing: MM Fae Romance Love by Olivia Day
The Art of Professing Love: MM Fae Romance by Olivia Day My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Fae Romance
The Art of Professing Love is cute and a quick fae romance. Not a lot of deep emotions here, it’s fairly surface level. And that has a charm, there’s not any real conflict beyond some light enemies to lovers plot with a bit of a few more tropes thrown in for good measure. Overall I recommend this book especially if you have read the other two in the series. I enjoyed Irving and Sylvan together, and wanted to know more of their inner thoughts to provide some insight into their feelings and motivations.
Character Motivations
One aspect of the story I struggled with was understanding character motivations and getting a sense of how they felt about the other. They would say things like ‘never contact me again’ and then admit to loving the other without much inner dialogue to help the reader along with understanding where the character was in terms of feelings.
I didn’t understand why Irving would feel so vehemently about Sylvan that he would never want to see him again in the first place, because nothing ever had happened to make him hate him. That I feel could have been clearer by delving into the minds of the characters more to examine their feelings and reactions to the other. Maybe in a longer novel this would have been considered.
World Building?
This is the third book in a series and I haven’t read the others, so maybe the world was built in previous installments and I am missing out but the world itself was a bit confusing. Humans exist with mythical creatures like fae and seem to have modern lives with cars and phones and such. But Sylvan seems to live in a woodland cottage out of a fantasy novel. I think some more world building could have helped the reader to understand the larger setting.
Are Faes Monsters?
Irving even says it, once a blast from the past comes to question him on his relationship choices. Are fae monsters? In some folklore for sure, but the definition of what makes a monster seemed murky. In the construct of the series are all paranormal beings monsters? If this is just about monster fucking okay, but I felt that a fae romance should not call them monsters. Maybe that’s just me and I have a negative perception of the word monster.
The Return
As an aside, the part of the ex coming back to town was the part of the plot I was least fond of. I didn’t feel it was necessary. It just injected a bit of drama into the nearly bow-tie ending, maybe as a way to prolong the story a bit? I digress, it wasn’t needed.
Spicy Fae and Human
The spice was decent, the best part of the story by far. The author had a good way with words during the sex scenes. We got more insight into the character’s thoughts during the intimate scenes. I felt like the characters were on the same page when they were horizontal. There was some noticeable lack of prep at times, which was concerning. I also found some scenes a bit unrealistic, like when they fully disrobed for a quickie in the woods.
Overall Enjoyable Story
Overall this is a cute, quick read that doesn’t take much thought and is easy to enjoy. Is it the most compelling novel I’ve read this year? No, but it is a sweet story of people who are the definition of opposites attract and I was rooting for Sylvan and Irving to get themselves together and live happily ever after!.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
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