Saving The Abandoned Empress

Not bad. Great characters and character development. The climax is unexpected and awesome and shows a very positive vibe after all the trials and tribulations. The characters involved grow, mature, but are so not lose themselves due to the hassles. Very cool.

This is an interesting story that gets off to a good start. Plenty of angst, heartache, and betrayal that has you mentally roaring at Emperor Cathain and wanting to chop him into bits for the massive amount of agony and suffering he inflicts on our FL, Empress Eleanora. I have a few personal issues with what comes next. Firstly, when Eleanora finally gets a second chance after MUCH suffering, it will be her abuser who remains the ML. And it’s important to note that she suffered physical, sexual, emotional, and financial abuse at his hands. I won’t go into the specifics, let the author wring the emotions from your heart as you start the book at the end of her time. But, despite everything, this FL will soften to her abuser, and for me it makes NO sense to let go of your past experiences and fall for him again. If you as a reader have been a victim of DV, this may be a bit of a trigger book. Although I can see that this time around he has made some changes, the MLs core personality remains. And years of loss and abuse have his face stamped on her memory in many horrid flashbacks as the cause of her suffering. How do you let that just go because he starts being interested in you? It just makes no sense to truly be free of your abusive ex with a second life/chance only to risk everything again and be vulnerable to him! But then, the FL loved him obsessively their first (second?) time together for no reason. Truly, none. He rejected her from the start. In other words, her history of making poor decisions is well established. Second issue; age. FL is 12 with many memories of being 22/23 when she died. ML is 16. And no amount of having the soul of someone in their 20s makes the sexualisation ok, especially when FL has moments of poor recall like it’s a dream, and ML has just a few flashes. Nor the author saying it’s “normal” for young couples to be expected to share a bed. 12! It’s so creepy to read as an adult. Tbh I just can’t atm. At chapter 71 I am pausing (not dropping) reading this and may be curious to see what happens another day. I have gotten attached to this sill FL, I can see there may be some redemption for the ML, and I appreciate that the author got my feelings stirred enough at the start to be invested. Some grammar errors, mostly irregular verbs and plurals.

story is great but what would’ve made it 10x better for me is if she got reincarnated to get her revenge instead of getting a second chance going 12 years in the past now that would’ve been a slay