Asta didn’t expect to ever be married. The boys in town only ever teased her for the way she looked and the way she walked. She was happy with the idea of being single for a long time and staying with her best friends Erland and Gunnar for years into the future. Nevertheless, she was betrothed to a man named Nils. She doesn’t care for him at all, which he can tell. In a moment of jealous rage, Nils lashes out at Gunnar who he thinks is the object of Asta’s affections. Nils gravely injures an already injured Gunnar, who had no romantic interest in Asta at all. He was completely preoccupied with his feelings for his friend Erland and only looked at Asta as his best friend, nothing more. Asta, Erland, and Gunnar leave their families in the village behind to live in a cabin together just outside of the borders and to try to start a life for themselves, happily, without the weight of close-minded people on their shoulders.
I came into this book expecting so much more. I wanted a sweet LGBT teen historical romance love story. I really wanted that. Unfortunately, I received a story that felt rather insta-love and felt like it was based more on lust than romance. Erland and Gunnar definitely had chemistry from day 1, but I never really saw how happy they were to be around one another outside of sleeping with each other. It always seemed like Gunnar and Erland were having disagreements about something or another. Between Gunnar’s severe depression and Erland’s severe anxiety, neither of which was being handled well by the characters, they seemed to be almost completely incompatible. I feel like by the end I was okay with their relationship, but it wasn’t a smooth read.
I also expected Asta to be at the center of the story as the main character. Nevertheless, the book focuses more on Erland and Gunnar’s problems rather than her finding herself after moving out. I was hoping for more from her, but she spends most of the book trying to save Gunnar’s family farm and trying to help his little brother. It felt like she was a side character in the story. A lot of the book was told from her point of view, but it was about how she was interacting with the other characters without a lot of personal growth for herself.
The race was an interesting goal to meet, but the book was definitely trying to do too much along the way. The characters were always getting harshly injured and were often in some amount of physical or mental pain. By the time I got to the race, I was so tired that I wasn’t even able to be properly excited anymore. If the book had focused on Gunnar’s healing without any more injuries past that, I feel like I would have been able to enjoy the story more. If the book had focused more on the goal of winning the race and allowed the characters to put their effort into that cause, I think I would have enjoyed the story more. If the book had focused on trying to forge a relationship between two very troubled characters (Gunnar and Erland) without the race & additional injuries and drama added in, I think I might have enjoyed the story more. By trying to do all three, I feel like it was a little bit much.
Overall, I currently would not recommend the book to those looking for a YA historical fiction/romance story. I see that it has many high reviews, so if you are looking for reasons to read this book, there are plenty! Don’t let me stop you! I just personally did not enjoy my time with this story.
I received a copy of this book and this is my voluntary review.
Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 books.
