Reading with teafortiffany

Hello friends!!!

It’s a Saturday post today! I am happy to say I have officially gone through the ARC copies that I had wanted to read (hence this ARC review here). I am sad to say that one of those ARCs was a DNF, and I won’t be reporting on it at all. It happens sometimes, but we move on!

Anyways, let’s get into the review for this ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for providing me with a copy of this novel in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Sometimes, being a Dark Lord just isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You might get tired of the beheadings, the pillaging, the fear. So what do you do? Naturally, you run away and become a goat farmer. At least, that’s what Morfran decides to do when he becomes tired of the cruelty his Queen and his men have subjected the people of this land to. Morfran is a Dark Lord, for sure, but he’s not evil.

This book has a tone to it that reminds me a lot of Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis. There is sarcasm and some cheeky banter and occasionally a bit of silly comedy here and there. In this book, Morfran the goat farmer gets kidnapped by rebels attempting to murder his (as of now) ex-wife, the Queen, and also himself. Hiding under the name of Bernard, Morfran has no choice but to travel with these rebels and help them take back the kingdom from, well, him. Along the way, he learns more about himself and understands that maybe Dark Lord is a little too close to evil.

I really enjoyed the characters in this book, including the super annoying knight and his pretentious honor (reminds me a little of Prince Charming from Shrek). The rebels are an interesting bunch for sure, complete with a wise old sage man and a gang of meddlesome (and absolutely adorable) children. You combine that with a female goat named Benjamin and her two goat babies, and you’ve got a full cast ripe with possibilities.

This is definitely a novel more about character development than the story, I would say. The plot is still there, don’t get me wrong, but I cared more about the people and how they were interacting and evolving throughout. For this story, that was absolutely perfect. It fit the bill nicely, and I found myself perfectly hooked.

If you are a fan of Dreadful by Caitlin Roziack or How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler, you’ll definitely enjoy this novel. It’s just the right amount of sarcasm to humour and the characters are a delight to learn about (and in some cases, see die). I definitely think this a book worth checking out. I will be purchasing this to add to my trophy case…uh…I mean….my bookshelf….yup.

4.5 ★

---

And there we are! The end. Well, just from this review, don’t worry. I’ll be back next week with another book review, I hope. I’ve got one more I want to finish before the month is out, and then I have another ARC on the way. Busy busy. I am enjoying the amount of ARCs I’ve been reading this year, but I do need to focus on my own books pretty soon here. I’m running out of room!

Anyways, that’s it for this post!

Bye friends!!!