The First Girl Child

The First Girl Child is a 2019 historical fantasy-romance by Amy Harmon. It was published in August 2019 by 47North. The story is set during the Viking era. I discovered the book while browsing Kindle Unlimited one day.

The novel takes place in the kingdom of Saylok. The story follows Bayr of Saylok, the bastard son of a powerful chieftain who is haunted by the curse his dying mother cast upon the land. With her dying breath, she cursed Saylok to not have any daughters. Raised among the Keepers at Temple Hill, Bayr is gifted with inhuman strength. But he’s also blessed with an all-too-human heart that beats with one purpose: to protect Alba, the first girl child born in nearly two decades and the salvation for a country at risk. Now the fate of Saylok lies with Alba and Bayr, whose bond grows deeper with every whisper of coming chaos. Charged with battling the enemies of their people, both within and without, Bayr is fueled further by the love of a girl who has defied the scourge of Saylok.

Overall, I think this book was a miss for me. Judging by the blurb, I was expecting a novel that was a mix of fantasy and historical romance, but the book doesn't quite deliver. It is a historical romance with just a dash of fantasy elements thrown in. The magic system of curses and blood runes was under utilized in my opinion. The magic system itself had potential, but it wasn't expanded upon enough or taken proper advantage of. The system was unique and could've made the story interesting, but seemed to mostly serve the purpose of setting the plot in motion and being referenced occasionally later on. The curse itself created an interesting conflict, there are no girls being born and no one knows why, but it too is shunted to the side to focus on the romantic plot. I was also expecting something a little more action-oriented, since this is a Viking romance. There's nothing inherently wrong with the way the story is told and what plot elements received the most emphasis, but this novel simply wasn't for me.

Another issue I had with The First Girl Child was the overall pacing. The novel takes place over the span of about twenty years. It's a slow burn romance with not much action. There are parts of the book that move very slowly and I feel could have been consolidated down or explored in a different, less meandering way. It felt to me, upon finishing, that there were a lot of scenes that didn't really serve a purpose. If the author had chosen to skip over some of those moments, the book would flow a lot more naturally. The issue with pacing also applies to one of the later plot twists. The twist is introduced too late in the plot to be effective and by the time it happens, I was already expecting it. Due to the amount of filler, and amount of discussion happening in the story about Saylok's daughter problem and its consequences, it was almost a given how the king of Saylok would try to resolve the conflict. It also felt ineffective because it didn't conflict with the plotline I was the most invested in. I was curious about when and how the truths about Bayr and Alba were going to be revealed, not what the king was scheming about. So, I didn't really find the twist to be very groundbreaking.

I found it somewhat difficult to connect with any of the characters. The reader is meant to connect with Bayr and Alba, being the main characters, but they don't have much substance. It was hard to feel invested in their relationship as a result as well. The king of Saylok is the villain of the story, and it's very clear from his first appearance that he's meant to be the villain. Every subsequent scene is meant to show how evil he is, but the reader already knows that and those scenes instead put emphasis on the other, secondary characters around him, which doesn't feel intentional. I found myself liking the secondary characters, such as Ghost and Dagmar, more than the main ones, because they had much more nuance and complexity to them.

This review has been negative so far, but I don't want it to seem like I completely hated the book or the author. Harmon is a very skilled writer. The prose was captivating and made it difficult for me to put the book down, despite the aspects I mentioned above. She creates a vivid picture of the world of Saylok and, despite my disappointment in this novel, I want to read more of her work. I found the core idea of this story intriguing, but not the execution.

The First Girl Child was a book that didn't quite work for me. I expected a different story than I ended up reading. I don't want to discourage others from reading this book simply because it didn't fit my tastes. Romance isn't a genre I tend to enjoy, but I wanted to give the story a try. If romance is a genre you enjoy, and this story interests you, I hope my opinion doesn't sway you from deciding to read it. It's objectively a good book, just not the one for me.

Rating: 2.7 Stars

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Let's Talk About Romantic Subplots

So, romance, its a thing. Not only is it a genre in its own right, it's also a trait that a lot of stories share. High-fantasy can have romance. Mystery can have romance. Adventure can have romance. In any fictional genre, you can find romance. However, just because romance can fit into the story doesn't mean that it should be in the story. I'd like to discuss my thoughts on romance, more specifically romantic subplots. (If I was slightly more organized, this post might've been up right after Valentine's Day. but I wasn't, so it wasn't, so I'm talking about it now.)

First, let me just say that I don't have anything against romances in general. I'm not a huge fan of the genre, but I'm not going to tell an avid romance reader that they're wrong or have bad taste. You read what you want, and I'll read what I want. I've actually read books with great romances and relationships that I liked. And, I've also read some where the romantic subplot was boring, or felt unnecessary or took up too much of the book. Now, I think I can divide my negative opinions about romance and romantic subplots into three categories: overdone, unnecessary and just problematic.

Overdone
I know a lot of people love Romeo and Juliet but I'm not one of them. I'm tired of books being adaptations of the play. Some retellings have been done very well, but there's an over-saturation. I like star-crossed lovers just fine, but star-crossed lovers where one or both have to die in order for the story to stick with you? It's been done to death, and I hate it. If you want your romance to be broken up because there needs to be some type of sacrifice, it doesn't have to be death. Imprisonment, exile, and even plot devices like "if I ever see you again, the world will explode" make the two characters splitting up much more impactful than one or both characters dying.

Also in this category, love triangles. There doesn't need to be one in every YA series. If yo're going to write about Girl Character not being sure if she wants Boy A or Boy B, fine. But the "triangle" can't just be the fact that both boys like her and she doesn't want to choose. Show why she's torn between Boy A and Boy B and why she should and shouldn't chose each one. Also, please don't make Boy A a childhood friend and Boy B a handsome new kid, because we know what's going to happen there. The reason why I don't like love triangles is that, if the book is not categorized as strictly romance, it can rob the story of its impact. For an example, The Hunger Games is about overthrowing an oppressive regime that forces children to fight to the death, but too many people turned it into Peeta vs. Gale.

Unnecessary
As mentioned above, not every story requires a romantic subplot. And, even if there is romance in the story, it doesn't need to be a huge focus. My favorite book on Earth is The Hobbit. There is no romance in The Hobbit because the story doesn't need it. The Harry Potter series has romantic elements sprinkled throughout, but you could cut out, or skip past those scenes, and it doesn't effect the story.

I've read so many books where 2/3 of the way through, I was enjoying the book, and then all of the tension turned from "stop the bad guy", "solve the crime" etc to whether or not two characters would get together and the main plot was shunted to the back. That ruined those books for me. I would also put last minute coupling in this category. If the main conflict has been resolved, and the rest of the book is just Character A and Character B admitting their feelings, I don't really need it. Especially if, prior to the conversation where they admit their feelings, there's been no indication that either character felt anything stronger than friendship for the other.

Problematic
I know a lot of people cringe at the term problematic, but romances that fit in this category make me cringe, which is why I'm using it. Some of these tropes are fine, just not my taste, while others I find very troubling.

First, the "not my taste" ones. I hate the trope of male characters that are jerks to their own love interests. I don't mean ones where they butt heads at first, or don't like each other at the beginning but slowly get closer and dislike turns into friendship and then love, by the way. I mean ones where the guy is a huge jerk, he stays a huge jerk, but his love interest still wants to be with him. Or thinks she can change him. Or knows that he's actually just damaged and that makes him act this way. Not a good romance, actually really toxic and I don't like it. To a lesser extent, this includes the "I was mean to you as a kid because I had a crush on you" plot, because again, that doesn't excuse the behavior.  Insta-love is another one that I'm just not a fan of. If I'm going to be invested in a couple, I want to actually see their relationship develop, not just read "he saw her and knew she was the one. The end".

Now, to the romances that I think are very troubling. One: killing off one or both members of the only gay, lesbian or bisexual relationship in the story. If you do that, you brag about how representative your story is, because its not. In a similar vein, if you write a bisexual character and they end up with someone of the opposite gender, that doesn't make them straight, so don't treat it like it does. (Basically, write happy, healthy non-straight relationships, okay?) Two: romanticizing abuse. I shouldn't have to explain this but there are still people who think the Joker and Harley Quinn dynamic is "goals". Emotional abuse, physical abuse, manipulation, its not cute and it's not romantic. Lastly, relationships involving one adult and one character who is not an adult. We have a word for that, and it's not romantic. Some might argue this one saying that "Character A is 15 and Character B is 18-21, its not that bad". No, it is. Because the author chose to make the characters those ages. They could've both been in their 20s, or both been teenagers, but they chose to have one be an adult and one be underage. Maybe it wasn't intended to be predatory, but it easily comes across that way.


Romance when written well adds a layer to the story being told. Sometimes, that simply raises the stakes. In other scenarios, it brings about a form of character growth. The problems arise when romance isn't handle well. If it's shoehorned it, or it distracts from the main story being told, then I take issue with it. As I said earlier, I don't have a problem with romance in general, just it being misused.

Blogtober Day 26: Paranormal Romance

Paranormal romance is the intersection between a romance novel and the supernatural. Often times, the story follows the formula of one character meeting and falling in love with some mysterious love interest who turns out to be some sort of supernatural being. Sometimes a vampire, other time the love interest is some kind of shapeshifter. 

In order to qualify, at least from the criteria on Goodreads, the story needs to have both romance and the supernatural element at its forefront. If there’s a vampire love interest, let’s say, but him being a vampire isn’t a major part of the plot, it doesn’t qualify. The same is true if the story itself is paranormal, but there isn’t a romance at the center of the story. The best, and most well-known, example of a paranormal romance is, of course, Twilight. There’s a romance, regardless of how much its love or hate, and the paranormal element, Edward being a vampire and that being a central part of the story.

Now that we’ve established what it is, let me tell you my thoughts on paranormal romances. I’m not a huge fan. I’ve got nothing against anyone that writes this subgenre or reads it, but it’s just not for me. I’ve read many, and there are a lot of things about the subgenre that I just don’t like. 

Usually, the main character, who’s almost always a girl, learns her crush is a vampire or werewolf or whatever when she finds herself in a dangerous situation and he rushes in to save her. I’m not a big fan of women being damsels in distress. Often, the main character is bland. She’s bland, she’s boring. She’s not pretty, or smart, or talented. She has all of the personality of a paper bag. I know, there’s an argument to be made about the story being wish fulfillment, but why does that mean the main character has no personality? Boring main characters make the story so much harder to read and it takes me out of the story. If I don't care about the main character, why should I care about what happens to her?

A lot of these stories are YA novels, and YA novels tend to over-dramatize relationships or make aspects that shouldn’t be seen as romantic appear like they’re relationship goals. Also, it weirds me out that hundred/thousand-year-old beings have nothing better to do than lurk around high schools. It’s weird and creepy. Even when the supernatural being in question isn’t a thousand years old, there’s almost always an age-gap. Maybe the protagonist is in high school, and the love interest is college-aged it’s still weird, especially given the prevalence of adult men dating “mature” teenagers which is just a smokescreen to hide the predatory behavior of said men. It sends the message that dating someone older than you is fine, because it means you’re more mature, not that he’s predatory. 

There’s sometimes a soulmate aspect, which works when used correctly and appropriately, but it often isn’t. The angle is used to wave off any problematic aspects of the text that someone might object to. The love interest follows her around or breaks into her house? He’s not stalking her; he’s just worried about his soulmate. He loses control when she cuts her hand or it’s a full moon? Of course, he wasn’t really going to kill her, she’s his mate. Also, I find the concept of soulmates, and the implication that the characters are incomplete without each other, to be dumb. In some, there’s an added problem of the main character being the creature’s soulmate meaning she’s somehow responsible for “fixing” him. I don’t see why she’s all of a sudden responsible for what this random person, who she probably just met, does.

The last pet peeve that I have about young adult paranormal romance is the bad dialogue. This isn't the case with every novel in the genre, but a number of them have this problem. The characters are supposed to be teenagers, yet they don't sound like teenagers. They sound like what a 40-year-old thinks teens sound like.  It easy to tell when the author is much older than the demographic they’re writing for in this case. I’m sorry, but no teenager these days is going to call someone a “trollop”. No one’s used that word in about 40 years. As soon as I read that, it takes me completely out of the story itself and all I focus on is the dialogue. Additionally, and this has nothing to do with paranormal YA in particular, but exposition/info dumps through dialogue also needs to go. It needs to stop. It’s unrealistic. No one’s going to explain the entire, centuries-long war between two factions, their first time meeting someone.

These have been my thoughts on paranormal romance, more specifically young adult paranormal romance. As I said earlier, I’ve got nothing against the genre, it’s just not for me. I also know that not every book has these issues, but I thought I should mention why I dislike certain parts of the genre rather than just say something like “it’s just stupid”. What are your thoughts on paranormal romance?