Review: Midsummer Nights (Bad Fairies #1) by T.J. Land

Newly arrived at Oberon’s court, Puck has already made a name for himself through his wit, his wiliness, and his very nice legs. But he’s not interested in the envy of his peers; what he’s really after is the attention of the Lord of All Fairies himself. Seducing the monarch will surely win him power and prestige, provided he can withstand Oberon’s famously bad temper.

Soon, though, Puck realizes that Oberon’s belligerent façade is just that, and his schemes of strategic seduction are submerged beneath budding infatuation. Now, Puck will have to muster all his tricks, from sonnets to the lash, to win the fairy king’s heart – a task which becomes substantially more difficult when Oberon discovers that Puck has been consorting with mortals…

Puck is servant to Oberon, King of the fairies, and is set on winning over his master.

His master is a grumpy fairy and is particularly upset about being forced to stay in an unhappy marriage. The king's got a temper and, apparently, he's not adverse to using it.

Things get physical between Puck and Oberon pretty quickly and I assumed things would progress nicely from there.

I was wrong. Remember that temper I mentioned earlier? Mhmm. Oberon has one and when he was mad at Puck, he let him have it. And not just with words, he was physical, too. I'm sorry, but that's abuse. Both verbal and physical. Oberon's sadistic urges turned sexual towards the end, and that I was (mostly) OK with. But I couldn't get past his initial abuse of Puck, especially because I don't completely buy that Puck was into the "consensual" beatings in the end. I think it was something he put up with in order to please his master and that's not something I can agree with.

I think this story had potential. The setting and world building was fun. There was a neat twist in the end that I liked. The story was really short, so If I hadn't had such a dislike to Oberon right from the beginning I would have enjoyed it much more. I don't think I had enough time to warm up to him. The story was over before I had a chance.

A copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

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