- #1
Obviously written by someone who loves cats, this is a great contract marriage story with a beast people society context. Unlike a lot of stories that I think go too far with the "carnal lust of the beastkin, " this novel is more about the behavioral qualities of the animals reflected in people, which is much more appealing in my opinion.I think the design of FL's backstory is done really well and makes her extremely sympathetic. The cat-like qualities also make the cliched Duke-with-childhood-trauma trope much more specific, since it augments the usual traits with cat tsundere qualities. I also think it was a good move on the author's part to make his position seem more precarious than the average duke, given that the vassals side more with the horrible stepmother and this leads to more interesting conflict.Overall, both leads are wonderful and there's less 2ML stuff than I figured, even though men obsessed with her crawl out of everywhere like roaches. The only con is that the actual romance is so damn slow even though he fulfills every wish she could possibly have, no matter how much he dislikes it. He is whipped in a totally appropriate way for his character. Great read.
