In a world where bonded pairs must avert natural disasters a conscientious woman is bonded to a notoriously flighty man. The pair are the only survivors of an engineered disaster but before they can discover who planned it and stop them from doing it again the man is kidnapped. It is then up to the woman to find and save him so that they can, quite literally, save the world. Naturally she manages to do this and the pair learn to respect and accept each other and work together for the good of all.
This book fell a little flat for me. Not because of any deficit in the writing but because it was not at all what I had expected it to be. When I picked this book up I anticipated humour. Everything about it from the cover art (a resentful looking woman polishing the boot of a valiantly posed horseman) to the cover copy ("She wanted someone reliable. Instead she got him…") to the tone of the back blurb indicated that this was a comedy. But the story inside was pure fantasy without even a nod to funny. As a result I was disappointed before I got through the first chapter even though there was nothing ‘wrong’ with the story itself.
As a fantasy it worked reasonably well. I would like to have known more about why and how the pairs bonded. In fact, more world building all around would have been helpful. I did like the fluid sexuality of the characters and it was nice that the author didn’t go for the obvious and have the hero and heroine fall in love.
These characters have at least one more book (it is promoted at the end of this one) and possibly a series but I won’t be following it because whenever I think of this book I associate it with disappointment (through no fault of the author).
I know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover but if we can’t get an accurate idea about it from its cover art, copy and blurb then where can we?-Lynn
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