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F/F Friday: Moontangled
Jun. 26th, 2020 06:10 pmStephanie Burgis’s Moontangled is a sequel to two earlier books in a trilogy about the first female magical college in the country of Angland (which is England, but… not), and I probably should have read those first instead of jumping right in with the novella. I could follow the story, but I think it would have had more emotional impact if I knew in more detail about the events that happened in earlier books, on which Moontangled is clearly building.
I’m on the fence about whether to read those earlier books. On the one hand, I enjoyed the worldbuilding; I generally enjoy magical school settings, and it sounds like the magical college might play a yet more prominent role in the earlier books.
On the other hand, the book features one of those scenes where the characters are in Deadly Peril and instead of focusing on the Deadly Peril they decide that this is a good time to have a discussion about their relationship. Their relationship is indeed in a bad way at that moment, but that’s not going to matter if they can’t keep up their end of the bargain they made with the fae and Caroline has to stay in the woods forever, so… maybe they should focus?
Of course, as readers of a romance novella, we all know that Caroline’s going to be fine, but it sort of feels like the characters know that too, and I think it would be more effective if they seemed at least a little nervous.
I’m on the fence about whether to read those earlier books. On the one hand, I enjoyed the worldbuilding; I generally enjoy magical school settings, and it sounds like the magical college might play a yet more prominent role in the earlier books.
On the other hand, the book features one of those scenes where the characters are in Deadly Peril and instead of focusing on the Deadly Peril they decide that this is a good time to have a discussion about their relationship. Their relationship is indeed in a bad way at that moment, but that’s not going to matter if they can’t keep up their end of the bargain they made with the fae and Caroline has to stay in the woods forever, so… maybe they should focus?
Of course, as readers of a romance novella, we all know that Caroline’s going to be fine, but it sort of feels like the characters know that too, and I think it would be more effective if they seemed at least a little nervous.
