DNF-ed at 50%

First, I think more trigger warnings needed to be added. Like drugging, murder, and the literal genocide of a town. The only trigger warning (at least on the audio book) is for domestic violence, which yeah. Fair enough. But they needed more. I think this is meant to be a cozy fantasy, so excluding trigger warnings felt intentional to keep the label of 'cozy' when this was not a cozy fantasy at all.

I really wanted to like this. It felt like it was exactly up my alley. I love older gay couples, I love grumpy/sunshine, I love necromancy. But I am not exactly sure what vibes I'm supposed to get from this. Is it a low stakes cozy fantasy about a man searching for his missing husband? Or is it a high stakes adventure fantasy trying to stop the king from banning all magic to instead use for his own gain? By the time I got to the town of people who had been murdered, this was not a cozy fantasy. It has all the vibes and prose of one, but it is not.

There was also a vibe I got from the MC and his husband that I couldn't quite place. Somber, mean monster fighter and his chipper, sunshine bard husband felt really familiar, and then I saw the other reviews say they're just Geralt and Dandelion from the Witcher and it all clicked into place for me. It's Geralt and Dandelion fanfic... Even down to the bard being called Magpie.

I did not like any of the characters, Logan is the worst. I appreciated the moments where the countess was like 'lol. you suck for that one' and he has like one paragraph of self reflection. But it isn't 'oh, i hurt that person' or 'what I did was wrong' it was 'I don't like feeling like a bad person'... Which is certainly a start, but not the take away I would have wanted him to take.

The countess is a sex pest and I haaaaaaaaate that. The countess started as a really interesting character, and so well described I could full envision in my minds eyes, and I really liked her vibes...Until she said she was going with him and I knew I was in for a bad ride. And I was. She makes me uncomfortable. She at some point just crawls into bed and cuddles Logan. Which is insanely weird.

Don't get me started on the divorcees bickering. If I wanted to listen to a heterosexual couple fight, I'd call my dad and put him on speaker phone with my mom. That's all I'll say about how enjoyable Ophelia is as a character.

I stopped where I did because I ran out of spotify audiobook hours. Now that they refreshed I wanted to restart but I found myself dreading it and putting it off. So I decided to DNF, and move on. Hopefully to a much better book. I don't think this accomplishes what it wants to do, because it's torn between being cozy and low stakes but wanting the grand adventure at the same time. I am personally not sure it's possible to pull off both, and if it is, then it's probably incredibly hard to get right.