ALC Review: Behooved by M. Stevenson
- Story Eater
- May 20
- 3 min read
Release date: 20 May 2025
Rating: 3/5
Narrator: Natalie Naudus
Synopsis: A charming slow-burn romantasy featuring a duty-bound noblewoman with a chronic illness, a prince who would rather be in a library than on a throne, and a magical ride through a world of cozy enchantment
This beautiful paperback edition features sprayed edges.
Bianca knows her duty comes before her heart. So when the threat of war looms, she agrees to marry the neighboring kingdom’s heir. But not all royal weddings are a fairytale, and Prince Aric, Bianca’s betrothed, is cold, aloof, and seems to hate her on sight.
To make matters worse, on their wedding night, an assassination attempt goes awry―leaving Aric magically transformed into a horse. Bianca does what any bride in this situation would do: she mounts her new husband and rides away to safety.
Sunset returns Aric to human form, but they soon discover the assassination attempt is part of a larger plot against the throne. Worse, Bianca has been framed for Aric’s murder, and she’s now saddled with a husband who is a horse by day and a frustratingly attractive man by night.
As an unexpected romance begins galloping away with their hearts, Bianca and Aric must rely on each other to unravel the curse and save the throne.
Review
I’ll start with providing some clarification for reader expectations. Though the synopsis throws the word “cozy” out there, this is not a cozy book. Stevenson writes high stakes, uncomfortable environs, many violent encounters, and pretty spicy romance. There is nothing cozy about this book. Also, I didn’t really like it very much. Behooved falls short for me mainly because it feels pretty generic. It also relies on tropes I find annoying. I’m not surprised; many mainstream romantasy offerings disappoint me, but I know other readers gobble them up, so I keep on reading them, to my chagrin, and reviewing them for (some folks’) bookish entertainment.
I really dislike the miscommunication trope. Grown folk with a decent level of maturity do not make assumptions of the magnitude made between Bianca and Aric, especially given the two are royalty and the welfare of kingdoms is at stake. I don’t care what kind of intricacies the plot weaves into the situation to try and bolster it up with certain nuances for the circumstances; our protagonists aren’t dummies, and they would have found a way to communicate. And to top things off, after they found out there was a huge miscommunication, things between them were abruptly copacetic and too quickly physically intimate.
I feel the selling point for this book relied on buzzy trope phrases that give the impression those details will factor in to the story more than they do. Bianca’s illness never really gets a proper backstory and feels incidental and convenient (it turns out not to be an illness at all, really), and Aric’s preference isn’t really for being in a library but for reading a book instead of doing anything else. There’s no prevalent library setting in the book.
I also think the synopsis here gives way too much away, as I may have enjoyed being surprised by the prince turning into a horse instead of going into the plot already expecting it. I actually read the synopsis ages before I started listening to the book, so I forgot a couple of details from it, such as the nightly return to human form, which made for a nice surprise. If I’d reread the blurb, I think I’d have felt genuinely spoiled for the story. I don’t like knowing most of what’s going on before I start a book. One time, I opened a kid’s magazine and spoiled Secret of the Wings. I still feel that disappointment. Yes, that was intentional melodrama. I know some bookish folk don’t mind knowing a bunch of stuff ahead of time, but I like the element of surprise in my stories.
I’ve listened to quite a few of Naudus’ narrations, and I’ve never been disappointed. If you’re an audiophile who picks listens based on the narrator and you’ve never heard Naudus read, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with the performance.
Overall, 2.5 stars for the book and 5 stars for the narration, averaging out to about 3.75. I’m going to say a 3.5 combined overall. My quest for a unique, interesting, and non-formulaic fast-fiction romantasy from the mainstream continues.
My thanks to Macmillan Audio for the ALC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.
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