Review: Lion Heart by A. C. Gaughen

It’s hard to articulate what exactly my problem is with Lion Heart partially because spoilers but mostly because I don’t fully know. I can’t call it a bad book for any particular reason but nonetheless I really didn’t like it.

If you’re a fan of this series, especially the ship, you’re probably not going to have my problem. Scarlet and co are back and fighting injustice, the ship gets some shiptacular moments and, all things considered, the story is tied up pretty neatly (although I was distinctly underwhelmed by the ending).

I think most of my problem can be summed up as Lion Heart felt too much like the previous two books and nowhere near enough like a trilogy conclusion. It felt like the characters were still doing the same thing over and over and reacting in the same way they always have. While you can argue that’s consistent characterization, to me it felt more like a rut.

Scarlet and Rob both try to out noble sacrifice for each other, Scarlet has a hard time wrapping her head around the idea that anyone could genuinely like her, Rob has a fit of self-centered assholedom, Prince John throws random, brutal temper tantrums like an oversized child with waaaaaay too much authority, Much is too good for this world, etc, etc. In growth terms, looking back at where the characters started compared where they ended up, I didn’t feel like they’d done all that much, you know, growing.

The plot was similarly un-epic conclusion-y. Even if this weren’t the culminating book where all the things that’re going to happen have to happen, I’d still say a lot of it felt like treading water. There were plot events scattered (keyword scattered) throughout but I didn’t feel like any action truly kicked in until the second to last chapter and then basically wrapped up within that (short) chapter. Taking into account that this was, again, THE FINAL BOOK IN AN ADVENTURE TRILOGY, I was fairly unimpressed with the amount of plot and tension.

On the ship front, I was downright pissed off. I’m not going to lie, I shipped the shit out of the ship (that is a super fun sentence to say 5 times fast while drinking) in Scarlet. There were some things I deeply did not love about it but it was the first book, (and at the time I read it, the rest of the trilogy had been announced) so I was willing to reserve judgement. Given how hard I shipped Scarlet and Rob, I held out hope that the characters would grow together and learn to communicate and work out their issues and everything would be rainbows and kittens and joy. In Lady Thief I was still on board but growing tired of a number of things about their dynamic and by Lion Heart I’d had enough.

While they did learn to open up and communicate (a bit) (FINALLY) the magic had worn off and, combined with an infuriating bit of ret-conning on Rob’s part [spoiler] (so, they get married, right? At the ceremony, Rob is like ‘so you’ll finally marry me?’ and ‘I always knew we’d end up together’ and I actually banshee screamed out loud because THE ENTIRE TRILOGY UP TO 10 FUCKING PAGES AGO THIS FUCKER CONSTANTLY FOUND STUPID “NOBLE” REASONS FOR THEM NOT TO BE TOGETHER, INCLUDING HER BEING TAINTED OR SOME BULLSHIT BECAUSE SHE WAS ALREADY MARRIED, AGAINST HER WILL TO A MURDEROUS ASSHOLE I MIGHT ADD, AND NOW HE’S ACTING LIKE SCARLET’S JUST BEEN FINICKY OR SOMETHING? I WISH HE WERE REAL SO I COULD FUCKING STAB HIM IN THE FACE) (Also he’s a fucking dick about her becoming Lady Huntingdon because of course he is. Tbf, he gets over it quickly, but too fucking late)[/spoiler], I was more willing to smash their heads into rocks to get them to shut up than smash them together so they could make out.

Other disappointments include a sprawling cast of interesting but never all that fleshed out supporting characters, a complete red herring of a sideship and a general overall feeling of boredom which is not something I saw coming based on the previous two books.

I’m sad guys, I really am. I loved Scarlet and Lady Thief (though I wonder how much that would still be true if I reread knowing how it all turns out). I hope you guys like it more than I did and the almost unanimous 5 star ratings among my Goodreads friends indicate you probably will, but it didn’t work for me.