This Wicked Gift by Courtney MilanMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I loathed the main male character from beginning to end. LOATHED. He was described in such a way that in any other book he’d be a villain or a source of . . . satiric humor. Satire-ic. Bah.
The woman? The main quality about her that I disliked was . . . that she was interested in this jackass. Otherwise she was a great character. That’s a massive thing to overcome, though, liking this miserable piece of shit – that male lead character.
Right, so, this is a 100 something prequel to a series I’ve not read yet. It stars people that made me add a shelf – though I’d thought I already had that one. Instead of the normal ‘rich-rich’ that most English historical fiction feature (or, at least, ‘titled-titled’), this book actually featured two people who can be called poor (or working class; technically the lead male character talked about himself in such a way that he sounded like he had the worst lowest of the low jobs on earth and was in hell – except the job in actuality was more middle class – professional class, but whatever, didn’t pay a lot and didn’t require an advanced degree. Jackass McJackass (his name is not in the book description; it’s not, but it is something like ‘Jonathan Q. Smith’) works as a finance guy for a titled person – one of whom will feature in the series proper (Carhart).
Jackass fancies a particular woman – that woman is the female lead in this book. Figuring he’s a piece of shit, working a hell job, and has no future, he mostly ignores her when he’s in her store (she runs a bookstore/lending library for her ailing father). Also because of the aforementioned believe that he, himself, is shit, he decided to ‘take advantage’ of the woman because obviously she’d not want anything to do with him otherwise. So he blackmails her/coerces her. She . . . has lusted after him for a long time, finds his methods and actions pathetic, in a sad way, and . . . fucks him (not because of being blackmailed, but because she’s horny – this is part of what I meant in my status updates that the man was melodramatically doom and gloom and had a virgin fetish (more in the ‘oh god I’ve ruined her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ way, than in a ‘must fuck all virgins’ way); while she’s all ‘I was horny, I wanted to fuck, fuck you and your virgin fetish/ruined what’s-so-call-it, I’m no lady looking to land a titled man; nor am I servant whose reputation can be blackened to the point of being unable to secure work; etc. etc.etc.’).
I fear I’ve gone too far down a particular path. I just found the lead male character so loathsome that he is overwhelming my ability to think in a rational and coherent manner. Not loathsome in a ‘bad boys are hot’ way, but loathsome in ‘I’m a shit, a large turd, I know this, my life will always be like this, so I’ll act like it . . . poorly’* way.
‘*’ – even when he tries to act poorly, he is loathsomely rotten at it. The guy is a massive loser . . . who is handsome . . . enough for the lead female character to become tongue tied around him. At least until he opened his mouth and revealed he’s a jackass mcjackass. Whereupon she handily handled him. Handily.
Right, so, horrible loathsome book.
Rating: oh. I did not remember I rated this 1.75 stars until just now. So, apparently that’s the rating I gave. 1.75 stars.
June 10 2018
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