2 stars

Thank you Netgalley and publisher.

Unfortunately, I could not connect with this book. I had a really hard time getting through each chapter because I felt lost and had to keep rereading parts. My mind would wonder because I was so bored.

The second half of the book picked up but not enough to save the book as a whole. The synopsis is what drew me into requesting this book, so I had high expectations for this book. I'm so sad I didn't enjoy it.

This is an amazing start to a historical fantasy series! I am in love with it. I thought that it was well paced for the most part and I loved the main character.

I also enjoyed that it was one perspective; I feel like I do not see that a lot in most of the fantasy novels I read. It was a nice change of pace. I recommend this to anyone looking for an anti-colonial historical fantasy novel.

I received an advanced copy of Sun of Blood and Ruin from the publisher through Netgalley and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Sun of Blood and Ruin had the makings of a great novel. I've never read a Zorro retelling, but I loved the movies when I was younger and was excited to start this book. Unfortunately, I did not get far beyond the start. I won't lie; by the end of the first chapter, I had a feeling that I wasn't going to make it to the end, but since I've been in a bit of a reading slump lately, I did try to push through thinking that it was me and not the book I was having issues with. However, when I kept finishing chapters with more complaints, I knew that it was time to give up. I'm not in the business of spending more time on things I'm not enjoying.

Ultimately, it was the writing, the execution, that turned me away from Sun of Blood and Ruin. It was choppy. We flipped between past and present with no warning, and it would take me paragraphs, sometimes a whole page, to realize that we had switched. The dialogue didn't feel like it flowed naturally, with forced jokes peppering the pages that left me cringing. On top of that, there would be pages upon pages of history lessons that didn't add anything to the story.

I love world-building. It is one of my favorite parts about fantasy stories because the authors are so amazingly creative regarding the history. I want to know everything. Just ... not everything all at once. I want it gradually, my knowledge of the world deepening as I connect with the characters. I got this story's history like being smacked in the face by one of those dodgeballs in middle school that are supposed to be soft, but the boys hurl them at mock Jesus, so soft isn't a word that ends up describing them at all, wearing glasses. It hurts. And this info dump hurt my brain. I would read the paragraphs over and over, trying to understand what it had to do with the current place in the story, and when it didn't make sense, I would read it again for good measure, thinking I had missed something. I couldn't keep it all straight because there was so much. And because there was so much, I knew that when the information did become relevant, I would either need to reread those sections to remember why it was important, or the author would need to tell me all over again because there was no way I would remember.

Overall, Sun of Blood and Ruin was not for me. Many reviews say that the second half is significantly better, but I couldn't get that far.

This book takes place in 16th century Mexico during Spanish colonization. It is a fantasy re-imagining of Zorro. The narrative that was switching between the past and present did not feel smooth, but the second half of book flowed better. I enjoyed the coming-of-age trope of the main character. I did feel that the romance was a bit forced and lacked chemistry. That all said, this was a decent debut.

This was an interesting story set in Mexico under Spanish rule. It tells of Mexican mythology, folklore and history in a new and creative way.

I enjoyed the world quite a bit and the plot was very interesting. I enjoyed the historical aspects at first, but at times it started to feel more like an informative text about the Nagual culture, which could be very interesting on it’s own. But as part of this story, it kept taking me out of it. That doesn’t mean it’s badly written in anyway, just that this style of historical fantasy is not for me. I also think the romance in this was not the strongest, I was more invested in the friendships/alliances. But I really enjoyed the politics.

Sun of Blood and Ruin- 2⭐️ 2🌶️

Historical Fiction Fantasy Romance
Dual timeline
Coming of age
Prophecy
Zorro Reimagining
Shape shifting magic
Indigenous mythology
Secret identities



This was such a great premise and I’m so sad I didn’t like it more. Zorro with fantasy elements?! Yes! But unfortunately enough just didn’t work for me that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped.

The world-building was really strong. I think the intricacies of the indigenous people was beautifully done. The anti-colonial theme was strong and compelling. I wish there had been a little more clear explanation for those who may not be familiar with the culture and myths.

The plot was but the pacing was really stilted in the beginning. Thankfully things improved a lot in the second half.

The characters were only fine. I was more annoyed with the FMC not being as badass as I hoped. Why have a magical sword when you never have it? I didn’t love the main couple as a couple. They lacked chemistry and I didn’t find myself caring enough about them. The air characters were just flat.


Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for an eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

<b>This was a mess.</b>

<i>Sun of Blood and Ruin</i> was pitched as Zorro meets Mesoamerican historical fantasy, and I couldn’t have been more excited to pick this up. Enter: the utter failure that was the writing craft in this novel.

Lares suffers from a myriad of issues with her writing in this book. Chief among them are her issues with pacing and plotting, character development, tension, telling instead of showing, and excessive plot conveniences. I could go on, but I won’t.


<b>PACING AND PLOTTING</b>

Let’s discuss examples, shall we? <b>Beware: spoilers abound beyond this point.</b>

Leonora and “Prince Filipe” (who is actually revealed to be an imposter, Martín) are engaged and much of the first half of the novel is seemingly building toward their wedding. However, after an earthquake kills off Leonora’s best friend, Inés, and leaves much of their home in destruction, we are abruptly thrust en media res—we land in the midst of the wedding. Then, just as quickly, we are yanked out of that scene. Leonora tells Martín that there will be an attack on his home, Snake Mountain, so he turns to the crowd before they can be officially wed and confesses he is an imposter. This immediately then cuts to Leonora walking through the dungeons to find and free Martín so they can warn the people of Snake Mountain.

I have issues with the way Martín goes about this, but I’ll put a pin in that for now. I just have to reiterate that the pacing in this section was head-scratchingly bizarre. We spent the whole first half of the novel building up to this moment, just for it to end in the span of a single page?

This indicates to me that Lares needs to learn about proper plotting, because this was messy and the plot in hindsight felt entirely bereft of direction the whole way through. This leads me to my next issue…


<b>CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT</b>

Want to know precisely how messy this book is? Let’s take a look at the main character’s motivations. Typically, protagonists have a driving force throughout the novel—a goal to be accomplished—and flaws to overcome.

Over the course of this ONE novel, Leonora’s goals make this journey:

Act as the Zorro figure, the Pantera
⬇️
Get out of this prospective marriage with the prince
⬇️
Become her little brother’s acting regent
⬇️
Step down as the Pantera because she’s afraid of dying in battle, as was foretold in a prophecy at her birth
⬇️
Become the Pantera again because she’s suddenly fine dying in battle
⬇️
After finding out the prince is an imposter, marry him so she can remain in Mesoamerica instead of being shipped across the ocean to Spain via her stepmother’s social machinations
⬇️
Take the first chance she gets to end the marriage before it starts (what happened to needing the marriage to thwart her stepmother’s social machinations?)
⬇️
Join forces with the clans of Snake Mountain to fight the Spaniards
⬇️
Seek vengeance against Captain Nabarres (Inés died a while before this…it truly came out of nowhere)
⬇️
Get her tonalli back (this also came out of nowhere and the MC treated it so nonchalantly even while the text told us repeatedly that the loss of her tonalli would eventually kill her)
⬇️
Discover who she really is

ELEVEN motivations. ELEVEN. This is completely unnecessary and tells me that Lares didn’t have a coherent direction when she set out to write this. Which, you know, would be fine in a first draft. But this is a published book.

What Lares needed to do was simplify this down to what seemed to be the core theme of this book: discover who she is and make peace with the hands dealt her way (the prophecy and the deaths of her loved ones). The regent plot line needed to go. The marriage plot line needed to go.

Even the Pantera plot line, that gives her credibility with the clans of Snake Mountain and was a huge hook in the synopsis of this novel, needs to be reworked completely. Leonora being wishy-washy about her own alter-ego came out of nowhere. Suddenly, after a long while of being the Pantera, she’s terrified of dying in battle and is going to put down the mantle. But this occurs so early on in the novel that it has no weight to it. We’re not attached to the Pantera yet. But honestly, that doesn’t matter anyway, because in the immediate next chapter, she’s suddenly okay with dying in battle and she mentions this in conversation so flippantly that I felt completely disoriented.

Lares does this again later. Leonora seeks vengeance against Captain Nabarres and makes a big show of walking out of Snake Mountain in front of Tezca, who tries to warn her that revenge is not the morally right path. She forges on ahead anyway. Literally cut immediately to her lying in wait in Nabarres’s room in the palace and she’s decided in that time skip Lares added that she will let him live, but set him up for a lifetime of suffering. This change in her is so abrupt, it rings false. We never got to see what prompted that change within her because Lares skipped right over the character development. We see she’s changed and grown, but we didn’t get to see it happen.


<b>WRITING QUALITY: LACK OF TENSION AND TELLING VERSUS SHOWING</b>

When Leonora goes to Nabarres’s room to threaten him, she is utterly calm. After getting out of there unscathed, she makes a pitstop by her brother’s room (note: he is the viceroy, the future ruler of New Spain, as appointed by the Spanish king). His page brandishes a sword in her direction and calls out for the guards, who surround her. Again, she is utterly calm.

Why???? This was an excellent scene that had so much potential for tension and raised stakes (Will she be arrested? Will she be killed?). However, us being told over and over again how <i>calm</i> Leonora is completely eliminates these questions. She wouldn’t be calm if something bad could happen, so naturally she’s going to be totally fine. And sure enough, she was.

Why is this bad? Lares sabotaged her own scene by popping the potential for tension before it could even form. She tells us instead of showing us that Leonora is calm, and being beaten over the head with this fact as if we are not intelligent adult readers who can pick up on tone in written word undermines all of the tension this scene would have had, and also all of its stakes. This does not make for very riveting reading material. To put it bluntly, this is an extremely boring way to write.

Another issue with the telling versus showing happened early on in the book. Because Leonora’s reputation as the Pantera precedes her, we are given a lot of “told” information about how skilled of a swordswoman she is, and how legendary she is in battle against the Spaniards.

Immediatley cut to the love interest being introduced and, in the first two interactions with him, Leonora is bested immediately. In the first interaction, he steals a medallion right off the chain around her neck and she fails to get it back from him. In the second, she sword fights him and he defeats her, retreating again with another possession of hers. She only gets this possession (the Sword of Integrity) back after <i>he</i> finally chooses to give it back.

This is embarassing. The text tells us one thing, and then shows us something that completely undermines that. This man beats her twice in a face-to-face confrontation and she not once manages to get a leg up over this guy. At the beginning of the novel, all we know about him is that he’s new to town (presumably since Leonora hasn’t felt his exceptionally strong tonalli before). Yet this random man keeps defeating the legendary swordswoman each time they meet? This doesn’t make for very inspiring writing.


<b>PLOT CONVENIENCES</b>

Lastly, I wanted to mention the plot conveniences. When Leonora goes to her brother’s room after threatening Nabarres and is surrounded by guards, there is a convenient scream in the distance that somehow distracts every single person in the room for long enough that she just slips out undetected. How did no one notice that? Further, how did she even enter her little brother’s room if it was guarded by multiple soldiers? And where did the page come from? Was he just standing in the room and he didn’t notice her until she started running her fingers through Jerónimo’s hair? None of this makes sense.

Let’s get back to the infamous one-page wedding. I said we’d put a pin in it. Here we are. Martín asks Leonora how to leave the ceremony so they can warn his people on Snake Mountain about the impending attack. She tells him to…confess to being an imposter in front of the whole court??? One, how are they sure he won’t be beheaded immediately, considering that was highlighted as a common means of punishment for treasonous indigenous people, of which Martín has just revealed himself to be one. Two, how exactly is that supposed to get them out of the ceremony faster? The next scene literally cuts to later that night. Wouldn’t it just have been faster to go through with the ceremony, and then make up a diversion afterward?

Let’s also go back to Nabarres, who has a boner for arresting the Pantera. Leonora confronts him in his room and presents him with a letter that will ruin his life. Yet he doesn’t kill her? He claims that he can’t because she is the viceroy’s sister, but that literally didn’t stop him from accusing her of being the Pantera when she wasn’t even dressed in the mask. This time, she is, and he could just as easily kill her, call in an audience, and then unmask her and claim innocence when it’s revealed she’s the Pantera (e.g. “I had no way of knowing the Pantera was Leonora!”).


<b>FINAL THOUGHTS</b>

While this was messy, I will say there were a couple things I enjoyed. The Mesoamerican mythology was woven into the story almost seamlessly, and I enjoyed learning more about it. I also think the romance, while bland, could be really interesting in future books, now that we know some things about Tezca that he himself doesn’t yet know. Unfortunately, I will not be continuing on with the series to find out.

<b>OVERALL RATING:</b> 1 star.

<i>A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, HarperVoyager, for providing me with an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review!</i>

I love that fantasy is starting to incorporate non western cultures and mythology, and this is what attracted me the most on Sun of Blood and Ruin.

CW: violence, some gore, some others

Read via NetGalley.

Sometimes, unfortunately, a book can have all the bells and whistles but absolutely no soul to bring it to life. Such is this case with this one.

Normally I’d include a little blurb about the book here to give you an idea what the story is about, but I don’t really know what to say about this one. Set about 20 years after the Spanish incursion into Mexico, the story takes place in an alternate history, aligning some of the information we have today about that period with an imagining of what things could have been if Spain had been less successful and if magic was real. The book is *marketed* as a ‘swashbuckling’ adventure, a reimagining of Zorro, full of adventure, intrigue, romance, and magic. In actuality, there are no pirates, very little actual sword fighting, and a barely developed ‘romance’ with no pull. ‘Intrigue’ feels like a generous term for a confusing, lackluster plot. The marketing was great; the execution was not.

My biggest issue with the book is not the worldbuilding. The author seems to have drawn heavily on both the mythology and the history of the area, and it was really interesting to see what bits and pieces I could pick up on from what I remember learning in school and marrying that with what the author’s devised for the overall plot. There’s a lot of material in the story, and it should have made for a really vibrant backdrop. Unfortunately, perhaps due to how the information was laid out, it instead became a somewhat jumbled mess. I felt like I spent a large portion of the first half just trying to figure out the context and the magic. I’m still not entirely sure I know what was going on, and I think a lot of that comes from the lack of explanation.

My biggest issue also isn’t with the characters. That’s not to say I don’t have a problem with the characters. That particular problem is because all of them feel incredibly flat. It’s not unusual for side characters to sometimes come off as a little 2-dimensional; they’re not the focus, and making characters that stand out when, by definition, they have a less critical role isn’t easy. But even the main character, Leonora, came across as completely uninteresting. She should be amazing— she’s a shapeshifting vigilante with a magical sword. That should be top marks in my personal heroine rankings. Instead I found that she just lacked any realness; if I didn’t know better, I’d have thought the story was about someone else that we hadn’t met yet, and that Leonora was just a random character in a prologue. She effectively does nothing for the vast majority of the book, and there’s so little character growth in her until the absolute end that she became almost unlikable.

This leads into what was really my biggest issue with the book: it felt flat. Bare boned, like it was just the rough draft and it was waiting on that special spark to bring the whole thing off the page. I found that I didn’t really care how it ended, or what happened to Leonora, or how she got to wherever she was going to end up. The plot didn’t start to take off until the last roughly 15% of the book, but by that point everything else had felt so ‘blah’ and confusing that even the interesting, engaging bits were only okay.

At the end of the day, what should have been an immensely interesting, rich, enthralling story ended up, for me, being completely unremarkable. The worldbuilding was jumbled, chaotic, and inefficient, the characters were flat and uninteresting, and the plot itself was slow, unclear, and unimpressive. I hate that this one was such a dud, because I was really excited by the overall premise. Unfortunately, it just didn’t quite hit the mark.

I ended up listening to this on audiobook and honestly was enthralled by the premise (fantasy reimagining of Zorro). Honestly I found this more of a fantasy than a romance (which to be clear, I was perfectly ok with!) and thought it was a FANTASTIC new entry in the fantasy genre. I'll definitely be picking up the next book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

3.5 stars rounded up.

I was very wary coming into this because of the low rating, but it wasn't really that bad at all. Trust me, I've read much worse lol

The first half read like a typical Chosen One YA with a cardboard Strong Female Protagonist, and I was about to dismiss the entire thing, but the second half redeemed the book for me. It finally read like an adult book because Leonora stopped acting like a princess, there were actual life and death situations, and Leonora experienced character growth by the end.

Honestly, I'm probably a bit biased here because I like any fantasy novel that explores colonialism. With Leonora's character being mestiza, we get to see her navigate both worlds, and we see the best and worst of both sides.

Reading through the reviews, I feel like you might have to be somewhat familiar with the basics of colonialism in Latin America, especially with topics like social stratification and New Spain's style of government. I think if I didn't have some of this knowledge beforehand, I probably wouldn't have liked this book at all.

I did love how the author wove Nahua mythology into this alternate historical fantasy story. I loved the inclusion of Nahuatl and Spanish. The author didn't do any handholding when it came to this, which was my favorite part of it.

If the first half wasn't so YA, this could easily be a 4 star read for me.

I might be interested in picking up the sequel when it comes out. We'll see.

Thank you to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for this arc.

I was very excited about this one because of our Mexican mythology! Unfortunately I didn’t love it, although I did enjoy it… but I really really wanted to love it, the cover is so artistically beautiful! It was somewhat confusing to me, I couldn’t keep up with all the names. It seemed like every main character had like 3 names. It would get a bit repetitive and didn’t really connect with the characters. Maybe I need to do a re-read and take some notes?
Things I enjoyed were: the fast pace, references to historic events, the action, the bit of gore and some twists!

I will read the next book in the series for sure, and most likely read this one again before.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for allowing me to read this advance copy!

Sub-genre: Historical Fantasy
Features: Colonialism, Indigenous Characters (Main), First Person POV, Mesoamerican Mythology, Secret Identity, Shapeshifting, Single POV, Zorro Retelling
Series Length: 1+ books

Set in 1500's Mexico, a young woman fights to protect her people from injustice. By day, she is the mestiza noblewoman, Leonora; by night, she is Pantera, the masked vigilante. Leonora must come to terms with the opposing sides of herself, and face a threat even greater than the Spanish conquistadors - a threat to the world itself.

I will break down this review into world-building, characters, romance, and plot.

World-Building:

When I think of colonialism, I don't think of Spain first. Even though I intellectually know Spain colonized much of Latin America, I didn't truly understand - until reading Sun of Blood and Ruin. Lares' powerful world-building brings colonized Mexico to life, showing Spanish as the language of oppression, and religion as a weapon against the people.

Despite Spain's oppressive rule, Lares illustrates how indigenous people retained their cultural identity and autonomy. Some resist openly, while others, like Leonora, struggle with their place in New Spain.

Though Lares establishes the environment well, I got lost with the gods. Through Leonora's eyes, we learn about the Nahua myths and customs; knowing only a little about Mexica (Aztec) myth, the many names and references overwhelmed me. Instead of showing things through story, Lares defaults to explaining through Leonora.

It may have helped to simplify. Lares obviously knows a huge amount about Mexican history and mythology, and excitedly loads it into the book. Focusing more closely on fewer things would have made the world more digestible.

On the other hand, we get front-row seats to tonalli - the life-force magic used by Leonora. Simple yet exciting, Lares shows us plenty of whirling, earth-shaking magic.

Characters:

I felt lukewarm about Leonora. Her main character trait is Being Angry, and she consistently makes reckless choices. This does not seem like an intentional flaw, and does not improve much throughout the book.

Perhaps because of where the story starts, Leonora feels simultaneously complicated and superficial. From page one, she's already a vigilante folk hero, an accomplished swordsman, and a sorcerer; how does the reader relate? What exactly are her struggles?

Exposition tells us that 10 years ago, she disappeared into the jungle, and was taught magic and swordsmanship by the gods. What an exciting place to start! We could learn magic and meet the gods alongside Leonora, instead of learning about her very-interesting past through not-so-interesting explanations.

The other characters also feel unfortunately flat, with some exceptions. To keep this spoiler-free, I will not give specifics, but two characters are initially set up as antagonists, and later reveal exciting depths.

Romance:

Leonora's love interest, Andres/Tezca, introduces himself by stealing her medallion. From there, they are at odds for most of the book - but they also want to smooch, of course. The narrative doesn't develop this subplot much; they are attracted to each other because, without any scenes deepening their connection.

Plot:

The plot is... rough. Like with Leonora's character, there is too much happening. In the first few pages, Leonora - vigilante/swordsman/sorcerer/shapeshifter - gets shot, incapacitating her for the first 30% of the book. From there, she gets engaged to the prince of Spain, her ship gets blown up, she plays politics against her step-mother, she loses her magic sword, and gives up being a hero. Oh, and the world might be ending. The pacing gave me whiplash, and bored me at the same time. I wanted to see Leonora do heroic things; instead, she spends many pages arguing with Spanish politicians.

This improves dramatically in the second half of the book, when the story commits to fantasy adventure instead of political intrigue. We go into the jungle to help the native resistance against Spain. The world really comes to life here, intertwining history and myth.

In Sun of Blood and Ruin, Lares has really cool ideas, but tried to cram too much into one book. New ideas were still being introduced in the final chapters. Several times, Leonora responds to information with revelation, but has to explain it's significance to the reader. Overall, the book lacks cohesion, never fully allowing the reader to participate.

Other Thoughts:

I listened to Sun of Blood and Ruin on audiobook, narrated by Victoria Villareal. This phenomenal audio narration carried the book for me; I kept listening just so I could hear Villareal read. This helped tremendously with pronunciation; unless you speak Spanish and Nahuatl, I highly recommend the audiobook.

Conclusion:

As Lares' debut novel, Sun of Blood and Ruin demonstrates imaginative ideas and depth of research. With more experience, I believe Lares will craft some brilliant stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for the ARC. Sun of Blood and Ruin published on February 20th, 2024.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this audio.

What an amazing book!! This was a book I had an are time putting down! I recommend!!

I wanted to love Sun of Blood and Ruin so much, but it was rather meh. I was expecting a much more badass FMC and more high-level political scheming, but it all felt rather basic. The best part was the Mesoamerican folklore and mythology. That made this fantasy feel fresh and new. But aside from that, this book wandered with too many story elements to carry a cohesive plot. It felt like the back half of the book was a retelling of the first, just with different enemies and different powers. I enjoyed the love interest, even if he wasn't anything we hadn't read before. I don't know, I really wanted to like this one.

The world building of this story was so incredibly well done & used some unique mythology native to the Americas (specifically what is now Mexico). This story also interweaves the history of colonialism in the area & discusses important themes related to the history of this area & Spain’s actions that forced native people out of their homes and to abandon their belief systems. I also felt like the main character Leonora is really well done as her journey to help her people also becomes a journey of self discovery. I am so excited to see what the author does with this series next since this is only book one!

Genre: YA historical fantasy
New Spain (Mexico), 16th century

The old gods of the Mexican people are starting to lose footing as the Spaniards force Catholic conversion on the indigenous population. A young woman named Leonora, sister of the Viceroy of New Spain, is also Pantera, the Panther, a masked fighter who protects the indigenous peoples. As Leonora, she's been baptized twice and attends mass. As Pantera, she respects the old gods and listens to the prophecies... she is, after all, an actual panther shifter. This is the start of her tale as a fighter to maintain the balance, to fight against the injustice of the Spanish colonists, and stave off the destruction of the universe that comes with the Fifth Sun.

When reading this with my eyes, I DNFed on page 5. First person present tense is very difficult for me to read that way, and I found the writing inaccessible. So I waited patiently for the audiobook from the library, and was very invested. The narration helped me connect with Lares's writing. Honestly, I also just love listening to Spanish in my ears these days (especially as I start to understand more of it).

Sun of Blood and Ruin struggles a bit with pacing, but the audiobook really helped me get past that. There were also a lot of characters to keep track of, some of whom have multiple names and identities, but again, once you settle into the narrative, that makes sense. The romance is very slow burn, but satisfying for a YA book. There’s some interesting play with concepts of dualism, especially related to the magic system, deeply rooted in the indigenous religion.

I’m really glad I gave this book a second chance. It’s pitched as a spin on Zorro - a masked vigilante from the upper class defending Mexico against Spain - and it does that well. It’s not packed with adventure, but there is still plenty of action.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC! I am very grateful and happy to explore everything this author will write in the future as well!

I really enjoyed this book. I'm a big fan of fantasy and I love that this took fantasy and blended it with Aztec history and legend. Our MC was interesting and I liked that she wasn't automatically perfect at everything. I also appreciated that while there were romance elements in this book, that wasn't the primary focus. It was just the right sprinkling of romance to keep things interesting.