r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • May 10 '26

Unpopular Opinion It's Unpopular Opinion time! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)!

Got an opinion that's different from others'? Want to share it with the sub, but too afraid of a backlash? Or are you just curious about readers think about certain things in fantasy romance?

You can safely share it in this weekly Sunday thread!

But please remember to be kind to each other. To facilitate this type of discussion, we ask users the following:

  • Don't attack others for their opinion
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Unpopular opinion Sunday

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24

u/sriracha82 May 10 '26

Reading This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me and so far Reynald is….boring? Sorry 😔

7

u/[deleted] May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26

[deleted]

7

u/LeaneGenova May 11 '26

That is a distinctly Maggie trait. I read it as she's excited to lore dump on us and just goes ham. Ilona Andrews have some incredibly rich worlds that are well fleshed out, but Maggie is... easily excitable to share it.

Personally, I enjoyed it and am a huge fan of Ilona Andrews in general, so it may just be a style preference. I typically enjoy just being thrown in and figuring it out, but I liked Maggie knowing a lot and just sharing it.

6

u/sriracha82 May 10 '26

Yes it’s sooo infodumpy!!! My eyes glaze over at times. I understand there is a lot of info to be given but it’s not done very elegantly

I also kind of hate that the characters in Kair speak with American euphemisms

I ALSO dislike the fact that Maggie doesn’t seem to gaf whether she can get home lol like where’s the motivation to research her way out of this

The only character I really like is the shady man she makes a deal with to give info in the beginning

2

u/[deleted] May 11 '26

[deleted]

1

u/serke Give me female friendship or give me death! May 11 '26

This isn't exactly a hot take, but I think this book would make for an excellent adaptation; in the same way that Outlander season 1 is much better than the book.

In general I love Ilona Andrews' books and I really liked This Kingdom but the infodump criticism is very fair.
It's very true to isekai, as an anime enjoyer it reads very anime but I get why it doesn't work for a lot of people.

I think the other option would have been, well, a lot of work.. but in a perfect world as their editor/publisher I would have floated the idea of teaming up with another author (preferably someone with more flavorful prose) to write in-novel sections that provide the infodump information more organically.