Promised and Pursued by L.C. Petra

 Happy Release Day on 12/11/2025!!

This is L.C. Petra's debut, and unfortunately, I didn't love it as much as I had hoped I would. There were a lot of good elements, but there were more bad - enough that this is the may be third book I DNF'd in 2025. 

I absolutely hate that I can't bring myself to give this 4 stars. I made sure when I started this book that I kept in mind that this was a debut novel for this author, and it helped me get through it as much as I could. I promised an honest review, and so - I will give one. 

Before I say why I DNF'd this book at 47%, I do want to say that if it weren't for a couple things, I would have definitely enjoyed it more. I love the Viking and norse mythology aspects of the story, the overarching plot is interesting, and the characters are easy to love and to hate. This has A LOT of potential to be an amazing story, it really does. I love that the author infused her story with this one, and I hope she forgives me for the negative comments I'm about to say. I know authors pour the hearts, souls, sweat, and tears into their stories. I hate it more because I feel like this author is a very sweet person, so again - I'm sorry <3 

So, why did I DNF? One of the main reasons was that the flow of the story and the plot in general feels like it’s skipping around a little bit, the pacing is hot and then cold. Parts that should have more detail lack them, and parts that do have detail are over too quickly.  

Some scenes could have been written out longer and would have absolutely added to the story. Like in the beginning when Shaw was laying out in the medicine room and Rasha was trying to find the ingredients. Building that interaction between the characters is what builds the romance up for the reader. Instead it felt like they were fawning over each other after three VERY brief interactions. Which that does happen in some stories, but not with a character that has been built up to be a strong-willed, independent, "down with the patriarchy" huntress type of person that is Rasha, who is still a virgin and is determined to remain so as she says she would rather die that let a man take her womanhood. She is determined to never marry, to find Skadi's Bow, and lead her people to the wilds, to safety. The relationship developing between Shaw and Rasha felt short, forced, and made no sense based on their character traits. 

The descriptions could have been better and more detailed so they wouldn't have to be repeated so often. There was at least one mention of Rasha's curves, breasts, and/or virginity in EVERY chapter. It felt terribly unnecessary most of the time. Especially the virginity bit, it started to feel like the central focus because it was brought up A LOT. I understand that it was an important little detail, but it didn't need to be a topic as often as it was. 

Finally, the dialogue could have used some work/edits. Sometimes it was hard to follow the conversation between characters as well as moods. There was a moment where Rasha was talking about the map with Harald then got angry really fast but I didn't really grasp why she was so mad about it right away, I had to go back and re-read the conversation. Or at the hunt, where I left off and decided to DNF - there were what felt like a whole bunch of things going on in one little scene and a bunch of conversations happening on and off the page. It shifted from two men, to her killing one, to Shaw coming out of nowhere and instead of planning or getting her away, they had a hot and heavy make out session with a dead body laying there, then Harald comes in and it's just chaos. 

I know that was a lot, I didn't intend to write paragraphs, but wanted to give feedback and explain why this was a DNF for me (which are rare occurrences). In the end, I feel like if there was another round or so of BETA readers, and some more development - this book would have been an amazing debut! It still is because the author put her book out there in the world, which is more than most, but I couldn't do it.