Ashley's Reviews > Split or Swallow
Split or Swallow
by
by
This is a fun palate cleanser if you just take it for what it is. The premise is ridiculous: generic fantasy setting where young women of a certain age are trained to be good at sex by basilisks (don't worry, they're in sexy human male form) in order to be married to the prince à la The Bachelor style, where he eliminates one or more potential queens-to-be each week.
Surprisingly, it's not as silly as you might think, but also don't approach it too seriously either. While the speech is mostly modern, the author does a good job as to not being too anachronistic. The pacing is mostly good, it does start to meander a bit too much at the end, and the plot itself starts to show cracks with more characters and twists being added.
As for characters, Caspen, the handsome human-basilisk sex trainer, is pretty bland, honestly. He's the classically stoic, protective romantic male lead (think Tamlin from ACoTaR). Leo, the rakish prince (who's actually misunderstood), is better, and I wanted more scenes with him.
The female lead, however, is insufferable. This is another book where I can understand why the FMC falls for the male leads, but I cannot for the life of me understand what they see in her. She is petulant and pissy almost non-stop.
Overall, it's a good book to read if you're in a slump or want a spice-heavy book (we're talking ghost pepper level here). This was definitely a FOMO read for me (I'm weak, I can't help it) and I had a generally fun time but don't think I would read the next one when it comes out.
Surprisingly, it's not as silly as you might think, but also don't approach it too seriously either. While the speech is mostly modern, the author does a good job as to not being too anachronistic. The pacing is mostly good, it does start to meander a bit too much at the end, and the plot itself starts to show cracks with more characters and twists being added.
As for characters, Caspen, the handsome human-basilisk sex trainer, is pretty bland, honestly. He's the classically stoic, protective romantic male lead (think Tamlin from ACoTaR). Leo, the rakish prince (who's actually misunderstood), is better, and I wanted more scenes with him.
The female lead, however, is insufferable. This is another book where I can understand why the FMC falls for the male leads, but I cannot for the life of me understand what they see in her. She is petulant and pissy almost non-stop.
Overall, it's a good book to read if you're in a slump or want a spice-heavy book (we're talking ghost pepper level here). This was definitely a FOMO read for me (I'm weak, I can't help it) and I had a generally fun time but don't think I would read the next one when it comes out.
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
Split or Swallow.
Sign In »