I received an e-copy of Sir Edric’s Temple from the author, Thaddeus White, in exchange for an honest review.

Description from Goodreads:
When Sir Edric Greenlock, the Hero of Hornska, is summoned to attend the King in the dead of night he fears imminent execution. Committing adultery is frowned upon in King Lawrence’s domains, especially when it’s with Lawrence’s wife. The King, however, has something else in mind. Priceless royal treasures have been stolen, and the King dispatches Sir Edric to retrieve them in a mission that could optimistically be described as suicidal. 

Accompanied by his pathologically loyal manservant Dog, the prudish elf Lysandra, and a man called Colin, he must travel to the Unholy Temple to retrieve the royal treasures from a mysterious thief

Review:
I can say this book was funny. It had good dialogue. It was well edited. (There was a time or two where I doubted the use of a word, but it wasn’t often.) So objectively it’s a fine book. Unfortunately I found the main characters so disgustingly off-putting that it completely ruined the book for me. Yes, his utter contemptibility is supposed to be so complete as to be a joke in itself, but I just wanted to be done with him and no longer subjected to his vileness. He’s like a 41yo dude-bro, convinced of his own superiority and lacking any respect for women beyond his ability to break their body parts down for his own sexual satisfaction. Ick. The problem for me was that this was the primary running joke of the book. So, it’s basically asking me, the reader, to engage in and laugh at women in the age old tradition of paternalism everywhere. Ummmm, no thank you. I get it. It’s “a joke”….at my, a woman’s, expense. I could do without it, thank you. [Cue the “lighten up, don’t be such a bitch” retorts.]