Review: This Will Be Fun by E.B. Asher

The Gist
Four heroes saved Mythria from the Fraternal Order. Clare, Beatrice, and Elowen defeated the Order, but they lost their leader, Galwell, in the process. After his funeral, the three splintered and went their separate ways. Ten years later, Queen Thessia's upcoming wedding forces all three of them back together, and drama ensues. There's another quest, past nuisances turned lovers, second chance romances, and hijinks.

The Review
A mixed bag of thoughts from this book. To be honest, I always have a tough time getting into fantasy books, but once I'm in, I'm in. I struggled to get into this one. It was a lot of exposition where the reader got to know the world and the characters, and it honestly felt like the exposition continued going until I finished the book. I think this drawn out exposition didn't help the pacing - it flies one chapter and drags in another. The central "conflict" in the book that sends the characters on the quest is introduced about a third/halfway through the book, and it's resolved at the end of the book within a few pages. The big bad guy wasn't scary or threatening, and it felt like a background plot to the main characters' love lives. I get romantasy, but it was more rom- than -antasy.

The elongated exposition did nothing for the characters either. While I usually love multiple POVs, I think switching narrators every chapter made it harder to get the characters. Clare has survivor's guilt from a tragic event from his youth, but it's barely mentioned. Beatrice resents her upbringing and feels indebted to Elowen, yet her and Elowen only briefly mention it before making up and being friends again. As much as I ended up loving Elowen, she still acted childish at certain points. I could point out reasons as to why she acted childish, but none of them would've been addressed in the book. Canonically, she's just childish for no reason. The best characters (Vandra and Hugh) were still wildly underdeveloped but juuuuust charming enough to bump up the character love.

What did win back some stars was the world-building. I think the magic in Mythria is genuinely cool, and it was incorporated in fun ways. I liked that it wasn't always life-changing magic or anything huge - sometimes it was as simple as people with handmagic that can make a really great latte or therapists with heartmagic that can tell people how to solve what's plaguing them. Their system to watch TV and take photos was also pretty cool, so once again, stars back for that.

Anyways, I gave the book 4 stars, because I did still enjoy myself greatly. I think it was a fun, easy-to-follow fantasy read, and despite most people kind of hating the ending, I didn't mind it too much. I do think if the book were to be turned into a series, the characters grappling with the ending could be an interesting way to give the characters a way to develop in the ways they so desperately need.