Vesselless by Cortney L. Winn

TL;DR: This felt very much like every Romantasy out these days.
Source: NetGalley – Thank you to the publisher!!

Plot: He needs her, he loves her and she’s not like the other girls.
Characters: A bit flat for me guys. They read like every other Romantasy couple I’ve seen.
Setting: Some effort was made to make this feel dark but we were trapped inside for the bulk of it and I felt that.
Fantasy/Romance: I didn’t buy the romance, it felt fairly shallow and the fantasy… needed work.

Summary:

She’s heiress to the throne. The throne her father stole from him.

Nizzara has always been able to perceive spirits better than the average caster. When she enters a deadly tournament to end her betrothal, she’s determined to win without succumbing to the addictive spirit magic she channels or taking a life in the duel ring. Finding herself outmatched, Nizzara must face her fear of power and team up with Dagen—an enemy who is half-ghost and all charm—to survive the tournament.

Dagen, the last King of Zarr, was killed by Nizzara’s father ten years ago. Now a half-ghost—able to phase between his human and spirit form—he is stuck in another realm, hunting wretched souls. When his keeper offers him a chance to reclaim his freedom in exchange for Nizzara’s soul, Dagen takes the deal.

There’s only one catch: she must freely give it to him by the tournament’s end or his own soul is forfeit.

Thoughts:

I think I’ve been reading too much romantasy (and I haven’t even been reading that much?). Vesselless felt very much like a reskinned version of another very popular book, and I really hate saying that. I dislike it when people compare two books so closely but for me this just felt so similar to others that I couldn’t read this in the vacuum mindset it needed.

The characters felt fairly flat, our world was overcomplicated and under explained at the same time. Additionally the plot was foreseeable from a mile away. My biggest annoyance was the frequent times our female characters were nearly raped. Especially our main character, in one WILD situation was assaulted, nearly raped, and within an hour, maybe two, was climbing the MMC. It felt gross, disrespectful, and just bad. I’ve been in those situations and that’s the last thing I wanted for days.

I’d also like to ask, can someone explain to me how the magic made very intense woods both go away and yet not? At one point it describes it as covering it up, closing the skin but its still there. We don’t simply close the skin and then are able to do all kinds of acts when our muscles and inside are cut up. That made NO sense to me, I was stuck trying to figure that out for days and I’m still annoyed with it.

This wasn’t for me guys. I guess that’s what this boiled down to. I had heard the ending was good and I’m glad others loved this but I sure didn’t. If you’re a sucker for all things Romantasy then maybe this for you. But if you want something unique? Maybe pass.