I read this book as part of SPFBO10.

Dawn of the Darkest Day promised to deliver dark fantasy romance. And, yes, the 50% that I read has exactly all of that. Fantasy elements. Dark, dark emotions and events – triggering events. Romance. Romance? Well, aside from the little, innocent love story Ara, our main female character, has before her forced marriage, there is no romance at least until the 50% mark. It’s all non-consensual, forced upon, not really wanting it kind of sex, mixed with consensual dalliance, and very – VERY – conflicting character emotions.

A bit about the story. We have Vayne Savant – an immortal king – and he is in the process of eliminating a whole race of people, when a frantic father arrives in front of him, asking Savant to spare his wife and daughter, Ara. In exchange for their lives, the father promises the king his daughter’s hand in marriage, and thus also a union of 2 countries. 5 years pass from when this agreement is struck and during these 5 years, Ara is enjoying her puppy love with promises of a future together with artist Stedd. Just before Stedd has time to formally propose, time runs out on Ara and she has to appear in front of terrible king Savant. She doesn’t know that she is to be married until she is literally getting married.

Savant appears to be polite in the first few exchanges and Ara is a paralyzed deer in the headlights. Thus starts one of the most verbally and physically abusive and emotionally most confusing relationships of all times. Savant has political ambitions, a busy man indeed, and he does not fail to remind Ara that he thinks her to be naive, immature and dumb. Ara, however, only thinks of how to escape said marriage and then starts to, I don’t know, hate-shag her way to a solution. The solution? Give the king an heir and in exchange, she will be free. Anyway – trigger warnings galore, okay? Aside from rape and verbal abuse, there is slavery, genocide, suicidal thoughts, and death. During all of the horrible things piling up, there is a war and Ara ‘fighting’ her way from a victim to someone who can be strong and free. She is meant to be intelligent, scientifically smart and innovative, but the character traits that are meant to make her shine are buried under abuse from her husband, and a side-dalliance from a kinder soul.

See, I am thinking this whole story or the characters are buried a bit too deep under ‘things’. Things that keep happening to them. Things for the sake of things. The characters simply become a series of unfortunate events and messed up, contradicting emotions. Granted, Savant was quite consistent in being cruel. Ara however, threw me for loops.

I do want to say, that the book starts out with some cool fantasy elements – the world that is being described, the different people and countries, there appeared to be a vision of a mysterious and beautiful realm. I wanted so much more of that, a lot less of the romance plot which was not at all pleasant to read what with all the verbal and physical abuse. The fantastical, mysterious, full of promise world was quickly left to the sidelines to focus on the relationships in between the characters whilst they battle through some political intrigue. The latter of which was a subtle undercurrent, yet again, overshadowed by the abusive relationship dynamics.

I did try to push through this story, but had to concede defeat. My main issue was that it felt like it was put together from 2 different angles: the story doesn’t quite know whether it wants to be mature or not. Some exchanges feel rather Young Adult, and then in the next moment, we’re in steam territory among turnips in the pantry, alongside the aforementioned abuse and self hatred. If you feel like you want to measure the cut of Savant and Ara yourself and find out exactly how morally grey things are, or aren’t, then do check this book out! And don’t forget to be prepared for those trigger warnings.