(courtesy Simon & Schuster Australia)
One of the most sacred axioms of book buying, assuming you pay attention to such things and honestly this reviewer rarely does, is that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover (but of course we all do so sorry, not sorry).
Probably up there too is the idea that you shouldn’t let a snappy, quirky title place undue buying influence on you either, but again, I am easily swayed by titles that embrace an idiosyncratic sense of fun, and no, I care not if the guardians of good literary title this is a sound approach to picking the next book you read (or which joins the towering stacks of TBR titles which will one day topple over and cause a sizeable earthquake in your neighbourhood).
This is why The Dark Lord’s Guide to Dating (and Other War Crimes) by Tiffany Hunt practically leapt off the “new releases” shelves at Sydney-based Galaxy Bookshop and into my ridiculously eager hands, its title sounding like the just the kind of fun I need in a time of work stress and global uncertainty.
Rather happily, and alas, it’s not always the case, the book itself more than matched the mischievous vibe of the title, with everything from the amusingly inventive chapter headings to the snappy, buoyantly fun dialogue to the meta self-awareness of the characters adding up to a novel which has you laughing far more often than it doesn’t.
OOOO
This is a seriously funny book.
Even more brilliantly, while the premise could have so easily ended up as a lame one-joke idea in lesser hands, Hunt absolutely builds and enlarges and clearly has a huge amount of enjoyment with it, the comedic vibrancy of her garrulous approach only growing with every hilariously pitch-perfect chapter.
What adds even more appeal to a book already awash in it, is that The Dark Lord’s Guide to Dating (and Other War Crimes) dares to mix its goofily self-aware comedic sensibilities, which are up there with the best stand-up comedians you have ever had the pleasure of watching, with some seriously intense emotional back and forth.
That matters when the Dark Lord at the heart of the story, Lord Kazimir Blackrose, in need of a bride to make his empire-enlarging Heirloom of Dominion ancient magical artifact actually come to life, kidnaps Lady Arabella Evenfall from the sort of neighbouring kingdom of Solandris.
She is, on paper at least, the perfect candidate for unwilling matrimony – she is a direct descendant of the First Hero who banished the evil Shadow King into oblivion, which is key to make the Heir of Dominio whir busily to life, and she’s is also presumably a compliant princess who will simply accept her marriage to a dark lord as just another misogynistic imposition in a long line of such grievous slights.
But Arabella, fed to her beautifully appointed back teeth has had enough of being treated like a tradeable commodity and Lord Blackrose discovers he has a feisty partner who very much demands to be treated as an equal.
So much for the best laid dark-infused plans of Kazimir and his coterie of advisors – his meticulous strategist Sims, his archly insightful steward Vex, security chief Thorne, and his “slightly problematic” enchanter Griffin.
Arabella, it turns out, has magic of her own, and while she is a woman of staunch ethics and high moral standards, is more than capable of matching it with her new husband, magically, relationally and in every way that matters.
As the back cover blurb of The Dark Lord’s Guide to Dating (and Other War Crimes) rather entertainingly makes clear, “Being abducted by the realm’s most notorious villain is just another Tuesday for Arabella”, and what emerges quite quickly is that if Kazimir is going to make her his bride without any permission, then she’s really going to make him work for it.
Cue a blizzard of witty retorts, blisteringly funny dialogue back-and-forth that zing with the very best romcoms ever, and scenes that crackle with the kind of cleverly devised comedy that makes the heart sing and the soul laugh.
As a fantasy comedy of opposites clashing rather fabulous well with each other, and yes, you know it’s just a matter of time until the dark lord’s utilitarian actions give way a real and magically robust romance, The Dark Lord’s Guide to Dating (and Other War Crimes) is a delicious sip of laugh-out-loud deliciousness that delivers on every single soot-stained and stone-fallen page.
OOOO
OOOO
And part 3 …