This is the first book I read after having several strokes in mid-January. I needed to read something to see what my new reading level and speed was going to be. Turned out that I chose some very, very, very dull reading.

NOTHING EVER HAPPENS. Things almost happen, or are about to happen, but they turn out to be non-events, and I was grateful on one hand that there was not a welter of names and of concepts to track...but soon felt DEEPLY bored.

So why give it three stars?

Because the world created had lots of promise, because the weather descrptions were fabulous, because I needed this experience at that time. I don't recommend it to you unless you're in the parlous state that I was. It's just not a great reading experience, and nothing could make me sadder than to say that.

This book had a lot of potential. When Ainsley is rescued by Rue and whisked off to the Otherworld (the land of fae) sparks fly. What follows is a journey overcoming trauma, cultural differences and a battle for the love they share.

I struggled to get through this book. Although Ainsley's quests early on are intriguing, once they (very quickly) land in the Otherworld, the plot loses a lot of its pace and stakes. It drags on through changes of venue and relationship drama, and I struggled to relate to the plot of the story. It also does not help that the book has no chapters, so feels more like on ongoing epic than like a novel.

The last quarter of the book introduces my favourite character, and really does pick up the pace. The dynamics shift and the book ends on a solid note.

Overall, not quite my style of book, and it felt longer than it needed to be.

Highs:
- Nailed the style of an Arthurian tale, with rich prose and description while still being light enough to be skimmed
- Central romance of the book developed in a non contrived way -Ainsley and Rue actually had to overcome conflict and change as characters to resolve grow
- Thoughtful mapping on modern understandings of gender and sexuality onto a medieval setting

Lows:
- Dialogue and description sometimes became repetitive, effecting pace
- Initial development of Rue and Ainsley as people before acting as a unit or in conflict with one another wasn't very developed. I wish they had met each other farther into the story to better establish their goals and background

DNF at 15%

The blurb sounded really neat, but unfortunately all of that was pretty much done with in the first 5%. Why this is 500 pages, I do not know.

• Pretty much everything is glossed over. Things just sort of happen to parsley knight, he rarely seems to have any agency. There's a lot of telling about things, without showing them happening. The scenes are short since nothing is expanded on, which leaves the book feeling very choppy.

• The world building leaves much to be desired - what on earth is going on? There's the fae Otherworld, some sort of semi-fantasy "real" world(?) where Christianity is still a thing....uhhh. There's magic, a couple different kinds, but that's not explored. Lots of lore dumping, but without context it's all just noise. Even their constant jaunts around fae world are just a list of places, because we only see like one in five.

• Which also leads me to the point where I dislike when fantasy books add homophobia in. You've made up an entire world, why did you add this back in? It also doesn't seem to matter ultimately, because parlsey man is like "but gay will make me burn in hell....but hes hot tho so i guess i dont care"

...right.

• There's no depth to the characters or their emotions or their thought processes. Parlsey man has a strong response to killing a dude (idk how you become a knight without seeing bloodshed) and the solution is to just groom a horse. Yay?

• The romance.....uh no. The lack of emotional depth, or honestly any characterization, means they have instalove. I don't understand why they're attracted to each other, why they're together, why I should buy into it, anything. It's just another thing that happens. We gloss over all sorts of scenes where we could see them getting to know each other, but it's just a few sentences in retrospect.

<b>Overall,</b> basically everything happens passively off page. The characters are flat, their connection is unbelievable, and the world is a confusing pile of words. I do not know why parsley, I even word searched it and I still do not know.