In The Dark Lord’s Guide to Dating (and Other War Crimes), we have one (1) lady named Arabella who has done some time imprisoned in a tower due to her father being extremely terrible. We have one (1) Dark Lord named Kazimir who needs the safety lock off of a magical artifact, which can only be removed if he marries someone of the bloodline of a (specific) legendary hero.
Kazimir of course decides to kidnap Arabella, and force her to marry him. Arabella is not having it, and fights back. This makes Kazimir’s black heart grow three sizes. (I am joking, it’s a much slower burn than that, though he is impressed.) There is some tense negotiation, tentative agreements, and then a lot of arguments because Kazimir has problems with “honesty,” what with being the Dark Lord and all.
There’s some tension provided by Arabella’s father attempting to get Arabella back, and by the king of the “good” kingdom attempting to go to war with the Dark Lord. There’s also relationship drama as Arabella and Kazimir have to deal with their mutual attraction for each other and the way their absolute trashfire backstories give them communication and trust issues.
This is a romantasy with some explicit “adult scenes.” And by “adult scenes” I actually mean “smut.” (You undoubtedly knew I meant smut.) The characters are engaging, but the “dark” aspects of the setting don’t quite hit the way other writers of dark fantasy do. Theres is definitely a feel of “fluffiness” that is closer to Anne Bishop than to say (and I am dating myself) writers like Tanith Lee or Louise Cooper. The humor involved tends toward the “cute,” rather than cynical or clever. (I like sarcasm and banter. There wasn’t enough to suit me, but your mileage may vary.)
That said, this a fun, fast read with engaging characters. I liked the way feelings were developing between Kazimir and Arabella, and how they were slowly learning to work together.
This review is based off of a galley received from NetGalley.
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