Review: Nobody's Hero

Nobody's Hero by Bec McMaster
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this for the Fairy Tale Retelling square for Romance Bingo.

If you want an updated Beauty and the Beast with a kick-butt heroine, then you would enjoy this one. I ran into the problem of, again, not being the biggest fan of some urban fantasy tropes. The hero kidnaps the heroine and they are immediately inexplicably drawn to each other. It was more sexual here and it sort of does show how they grow more emotionally together later on but I was still missing a deeper connection.

This story did a better job of bringing me into its world but I still can't help feeling too much is thrown at the reader. This world is set in the future, 2100ish, where it appears a government center was experimenting with splicing human and animal DNA had a breakout and a meteor struck the earth, which killed some of the environment and released a deadly disease. We have humans, wargs, revenants, and reivers. Along with introductions to explanations to why the world and these groups are the way they are, we are introduced to a our main couple, villains, and characters you know will be featured in future books; it's a lot to take in. The page count in these romance fantasy crossovers has got to get larger to make satisfactory room for everything.

Besides, she needed someone to argue with. Someone who challenged her to stand at his side, not just step in front of her to protect her. Someone who pushed her to be the woman she knew she could be, not just the type of woman he wanted.

If you've been looking for a self-sufficient, level-headed, and action star in her own right heroine, look no further. Riley was my favorite part of this story and I could read about her all day. The hero is a warg, human who turns into a beast, and had some trouble breaking out of the stoic, hard bitten, and wall-off hero. I can't say I ever completely believed in their romance due to insta-lust, world building interrupting, and a sort of other woman problem. Hero was married but had to leave his wife, he really loved her and thinks she is still alive. It made the situation with Riley very awkward for me, even though he hadn't seen his wife in years.

The characters and world building were interesting but the flow and intricacies of connecting threads didn't quite blend all the time. I'm going to plan on reading the next in the series because I'm interested in the characters, I hope the author gets more comfortable in the world she has created and things flow more natural and gain depth.




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