By Rochelle L. Wilcox
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.
I don’t know what drew me to select this novel as a ARC, other than I enjoy a dark fantasy romance. For the most part, I’m impervious to dark themes in fiction, there is very little that will disgust me between two adults – consenting or otherwise. I don’t bother with trigger warnings. If I don’t like something I will simply stop reading. For the most part it’s the poor writing that will have me avoid dark romance. Unfortunately there are many writers that get away with bad writing by choosing to highlight taboo and titillating subject matter at the expense of plot, real tension and any hint of writercraft. All that being said, if you are sensitive to dark themes proceed with care in reading this book, if you decide to read it at all. But, if you thought Feather So Vicious held back in their portrayal of a morally grey MMC, this book is for you.
And should you read it? Well, surprisingly yes, with caveats of course. This is book 1 of a duology, however it takes place in a world and following two series, where there is a lot of world building and history established already. The world takes place within the Norse mythological pantheon and multiple worlds, so it does help to understand the source material, and by source material I’m talking about the Eddas, and not the Marvel verse or various romantasy variations on the theme. But the two series: Tales of the Vanir and The Road to Ragnorok adds to the mythology so by the time we get to the Wretched Wrath there are many deviations to the original series. Wilcox provides a detailed primer to both the mythology and an overview to where this novel begins. If you struggle with starting a series without knowing all the details, it may be best to start with her first series, however I did not want to read eight novels and took my chances. Overall I did not have any difficulty following the narrative, but outside of the overview, Wilcox doesn’t waste a lot of time describing the magic or worlds. I appreciate this, as I don’t like to be tied down to a long explanation on magic systems, I’ll figure it out through the subtext of the story.
However, the story begins by dumping the reader right into Helheim into the point of view of the MMC, we don’t even find out his name before we are introduced to his depravity. He is literally getting off on the violence and torture inflicted on others. He has no empathy for others and we learn that he, Wregen, is an elf and the goddess Hel’s second in command. He is also obsessed with an female elf, Finaan, who was, until recently, the leader of a group of elves that had been imprisoned by Hel. In the previous series, she and her fellow captives had been freed from Helheim, but without their bonded dragons, still imprisoned somewhere by Hel, in a trap designed by Wregen Wregen is morally black.
Wregen is sent by Hel to retrieve Finaan and the rest of the escaped elves. He is really only interested in Finaan, so his plan is to take her, and then use her to lure the rest of the elves back into Hel’s grasp. Finaan is disgusted with his attentions, and even more so with his insistence that he is bonded to her, and that she will submit to him. This is, again, not unusual in a dark romance where the female protagonist is uninterested in the attention of the male protagonist, who has stalked her, chased her, obsessed by her and wants to claim her. The fantasy romance brings in the fated mates trope, which is one of my favourite tropes. Again, readers that do not want to read about fated mates and issues like body betrayal and dubious consent will struggle with the story. Finaan knows about Wregen’s history of evil and depravity and is disgusted by them, but also drawn to him, emotionally and sexually even if it’s against her will, at least initially.
The thing about obsessive fated mate storylines is that it can fall apart so easily. Either the MMC turns out to have a heart of gold and never did a bad thing in their life, it was all lies, it was what their enemies wanted the FMC (and reader) to believe, or that the bad acts are swept under the table or don’t count because the victims were even worse. So, the FMC feels conflicted but then it’s clear that they were mistaken, and their body was correct this whole time. In this book, the MMC is a terrible horrible very bad elf. Horrendous physical and psychological abuse will do that to a creature. But the Gods have decided that this a mate bond and maybe they did not see what sort of creature our MMC has become, or maybe they see even further down the line, but that’s the fated mate dilemma. Finaan and Wregen are connected. The bond plays on Finaan’s feelings and actions but it also plays on Wregen’s feelings and actions He starts out thinking its a boon to allow him to own Finaan, but it twists his own resolve and he acts against Hel and towards the greater good, even as he fights it.
This book feels more like a ‘grimdark’ novel than a romantasy. I would not be surprised to hear criticisms from a large chunk of romantasy readers as this may be just one step too far. But I also know that there is a fair amount of fantasy romance readers that want to see the darkest characters as the MMC and the attraction to truly morally bereft characters. This is a book for us.
