I thought this would be one novel, but it turned out to be a series of short Light Novels, roughly the length of a novella, marketed as Dark Fantasy but which I’d say blends High Fantasy with Steampunk and Gothic romance.

At a glance, it looks like it’s going to be one of those stories about fearful damsels whose father sells them into marriage to some dangerous lord to secure a political treaty, in which the damsel arrives at the castle of her unseen husband and meets a brusque sourpuss who speaks to her rudely (in this case, he calls her a “blood bag with a pulse.” the prick!), and leaves her to fend for herself after simply telling her to lock herself in her room and not open the door to anyone. Then he has to somehow run back to rescue her from some attack or mistake of her own doing.

In such stories, some old servant always gives the damsel instructions like, “Don’t touch such-and-such,” “Don’t go into such-and-such room,” and “Don’t go out during such-and-such time.” Instructions that, of course, the damsel disobeys and is nearly killed for it. But, surprise, it turns out she has a special power. Here, it’s that she is a Null, an extraordinary human of a sort that hasn’t been born in millennia, that absorbs and nullifies magic. So convenient for a King of Beasts that possesses the magic of the Abyss, an ungovernable and chaotic force he can barely control. With this special characteristic in her favour, Elara becomes a true queen consort with power and authority overnight, accompanying Kaelen everywhere, participating in battles, and earning the respect of his Beastkin generals. All very well and good.

I think Kaito Ashwood has raw talent for storytelling, but their style is too unstructured, inconsistent, very much in need of an editor with an eagle eye, and above all the ability to handle pacing and organise scene layout. Ashwood’s stories are plot-driven; there’s little character development: it’s all about the plot. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but you have to know how to structure the plot and give it pacing and narrative consistency; otherwise it drags the readers round at a frantic pace, and the plot twists feel forced.

That is the biggest problem in my experience with this series. In general, Light Novels are supposed to be like this: the “light” in the genre’s name means they have a plot with light content and easy-to-read language and dialogue. They’re not supposed to be profound or delve into complex characters or explore intricate themes, and they generally don’t put much effort into worldbuilding, focusing instead on adventure and romance. They’re pure escapism. Knowing that, I shouldn’t complain.

But I am complaining. Partly because I don’t usually read Light Novels, so I’m not used to this genre and expected more, which is certainly on me; but also because I think that even as Light Novels go, this series is rougher than it should be.

For example, the author explains nothing about this world, revealing everything as we go, and very little at that, and leaves many gaps and drops revelations too abrupt. At first, this world seems pseudo-Medieval, divided between the forces of Darkness of the Umbria Empire and the forces of Light of the Kingdom of Solara, but suddenly we learn about a third faction, all highly scientific and steampunky, who hate magic because it’s primitive and anti-science. And we’re never told why this world is the way it is.

And the characters change for no apparent reason. They appear out of nowhere; we didn’t know Elara had siblings until they appeared. The same thing happens in Kaelen’s entourage. At first, he tells her he doesn’t have a court and that everyone is a shadow or a monster, but then his generals and his court materialise out of thin air. So much comes out of nowhere, even the betrayals. We’re told to beware of a character who isn’t trustworthy, and then, out of nowhere, the other character that didn’t seem untrustworthy, is the betrayer. A maddening lack of structure and contrived plot twists.

And of course, we aren’t told exactly what is the “Moon curse” that’s killing the king.

So why didn’t I give up? Because I was initially enjoying the first volume, The Moon-Cursed King, despite all its flaws. The opening arc is so Beauty and the Beast-esque in theme and atmosphere. When it’s mentioned that Kaelen is cursed, I expected a curse in the style of the fairy tale, and since I tend to judge retellings by how they handle this detail, I was hooked and needed to find out about the curse. And I never found out. Despite that, the plot still held up due to Elara’s empowerment storyline, so I endured the plotholes and erratic structure for her sake and because I wanted to know where the curse came from, what was needed to break it, and why they were at war (other than because Light vs Darkness).

But the second volume, The Gilded Cage, lost me. It’s shorter and with a poorer storyline. It revolves round stopping Elara’s father, who turned out to be a cartoon villain, from summoning the Light’s equivalent to a Tsar Bomba to defeat the Darkness (and blow the entire planet up as collateral damage). Kaelen is out of commission for a while, so it falls to Elara to be the heroine, and it’s a clumsy plotline: everything goes too perfectly for her, the twists are even more abrupt than in the first book, and to top it all off, it ends on a cliffhanger that makes you grind your teeth.

Apparently, this is going to be stretched into several novellas, but I’ve lost the desire to continue because I don’t see any improvement coming, only decline, and that doesn’t give me any confidence that the third volume and those that follow will be good. And even my curiosity about Kaelen’s curse has waned, I’ve read enough stories of this type to guess that the problem here is most likely corrupted magic.

However, I’ll mention some positive things: there are no OTT tropes here, thank goodness! With Elara being the typical beautiful princess and Kaelen the typical huge hunky immortal, I was worried they’d be constantly sleeping together and swooning over each other for pages upon pages. Fortunately, whilst there attraction happens soonish, it’s not over the top. I’d even venture to say that, for a Dark Romance, the romance is more tame than dark.

And Elara, although not 3-dimensional, has character charisma. This series might be very High Fantasy and very adventure-driven and warrior-like, more to the liking of boys than girls, but it’s worth noting that it’s the hen that rules in the henhouse.

Well, maybe I can still be tempted to read the next volume just to see the hen bossing the roosters round . . . If the author finds a sharper editor for it. It’s such a shame to see how chaotic the story is. Perhaps making the volumes longer instead of short novellas could help, too. If it were up to me, everything would have been published in a single volume instead of bit by bit; it would remedy the cliffhangers issue, at least.

If you’d like to try this, be warned: if you don’t like Light Novels, you probably won’t like this and will find it too empty-calories. Also, this isn’t a retelling of anything, neither of a fairy tale nor a myth, but the thematic similarity to Beauty and the Beast is undeniable; I wouldn’t be surprised if more elements appeared in the future. And lastly, I’m not taking the second volume into account for my rating, which was earned only by the first volume.