Book Review: Behooved by M. Stevenson

Title: Behooved

Author: M. Stevenson

Release Date: May 2025

Rating: 3.75

Synopsis

Behooved follows Bianca and Aric who are from neighbouring kingdoms and threats of war are looming. The kingdoms come up with a peace treaty and the only way to solidify this peace treaty is an arranged marriage between Bianca and Aric. As soon as they meet each other, they hate each other on sight but must go through the marriage despite their hostility toward each other. On their wedding night, an assassination attempt happens, and while trying to save Aric from this assassination attempt, Bianca accidentally turns him into a horse. The only thing they can think to do is run away because they don’t know which kingdom sent the assassin, and so they can only begrudgingly trust each other. Bianca and Aric must travel across his kingdom to Bianca’s sister to help undo the curse on Aric, while learning to trust each other, and solve the mystery of who is out to get them. 

Review

I went into this book thinking it was going to be very silly because it was very much marketed as just a romantasy where the love interest is turned into a horse, and while that does happen, the story is much more than that. While Bianca and Aric disliked each other due to miscommunications they overcame this but actually communicating which I so so appreciate when this trope typically doesn’t go this way in romantasy stories. Bianca and Aric grew together in affection after taking the time to get to know each other and understand each other’s motives. Overall the little bit of mystery and political intrigue was just enough to keep the story going at a great pace while navigating the enemies to lovers romance. If you’re looking for a cozy and fun romantasy, I would highly recommend this one.