If you are looking for a good, angsty time pass, this is it. This novel could have been spectacular, but it had its hits and misses.
I guess it’s safe to say that Soren is the best thing in the book. Honestly, I’d be happier if he was the main character, as I would love to have YA romance novels have a male MC. The only reason I’m even reading the next book is for him. He wanted to be a good man but his father made it impossible because of the terrible acts the Kalovaxians condoned. He was the perfect Royal who also happened to be this angsty, freedom-wanting guy. However, I just really liked him for the brief page time that he had. Soren is the prince and is the star of the overly cliche love triangle. I just thought the premise of the novel was so fascinating, along with Soren. She was kept alive and granted a place in the royals Court, where she was subjected to humiliation and even torture. Thora/Theodesia is the queen of a conquered nation, Astrea, which was taken over by the Kalovaxians. I think the only decent concept in this book was the plot. I may have read this fast, but I really can’t think of any PoC characters. For the amount of diversity this situation should have created, there was none. There were hints that the conquered Astreans happened to have been dark-skinned, while the Kalovaxians were fair and Russian based. I also found that race was really ignored and overlooked in a setting where it was crucial. I’m not entirely sure why, as nothing about this book was spectacular, neither the writing nor the characters. However, I still found myself loving this book. Every other character was either bland or utterly annoying. I wanted to love Thora/Theodesia so badly but she turned out to be the same dramatic, overly stupid character that repels me from the story. This novel has all of the above, unfortunately. I have a newly picky taste for YA fantasy, as I’ve grown tired of the love triangle, convenient magic system, annoying and dumb heroine cliches that I’ve been seeing lately. However, by the time I picked this up, the second book had already been released. Barnes and Noble had a sample booklet and I was captivated by the cover.
I remember being interested in this book before it was released. However, I think a better description of my ebook reading is “books that I somehow end up devouring” as explained by my consumption of the entire After series. I do this thing where I read books that I think will be trash and quick as ebooks on my phone.
0 kommentar(er)
