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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
It is 3,5* but I round it up because of Torden.♥
This book will not be everyone's cup of tea. At the beginning it is slow paced. Whole book is not much action packed. If I should describe it I would say it is a fantasy romance with parts of retellings in it and I enjoyed it very much. It was nice to watch Selah's charachter development. I did guess some of the plot twist but in these days it is hard to be completly surprised by book, so I did not mind. I did cringe a little with the kind of insta love, but because I love the guy I can go with it. One part of this book broke my ♥ a little but I can't wait how it will develop in the next book, I just hope that it will not go way I think it might go, because I would be pissed. So I will definitely pick up the next book.
This book will not be everyone's cup of tea. At the beginning it is slow paced. Whole book is not much action packed. If I should describe it I would say it is a fantasy romance with parts of retellings in it and I enjoyed it very much. It was nice to watch Selah's charachter development. I did guess some of the plot twist but in these days it is hard to be completly surprised by book, so I did not mind. I did cringe a little with the kind of insta love, but because I love the guy I can go with it. One part of this book broke my ♥ a little but I can't wait how it will develop in the next book, I just hope that it will not go way I think it might go, because I would be pissed. So I will definitely pick up the next book.
this book really wasn’t for me.. i would’ve dnf’ed it if i wasn’t buddy reading it. i absolutely hated the romances (how freaking fast they claimed to “love”), did not like the writing style and frankly just did not care about the protagonist.
but, even though this book wasn’t for me, i do think anna bright has great potential and will read another book written by her once it comes out (i will not read the sequel to this book).
but, even though this book wasn’t for me, i do think anna bright has great potential and will read another book written by her once it comes out (i will not read the sequel to this book).
3.5 stars. I liked the romantic pieces of this book pretty well, but the shady ship plot really dragged for me. The people on the ship don’t really have much characterization and so I couldn’t even tell them apart. I thought the writing was fine, but the ending fell flat for me. I will likely read the sequel to see what happens.
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It is 3,5* but I round it up because of Torden.♥
This book will not be everyone's cup of tea. At the beginning it is slow paced. Whole book is not much action packed. If I should describe it I would say it is a fantasy romance with parts of retellings in it and I enjoyed it very much. It was nice to watch Selah's charachter development. I did guess some of the plot twist but in these days it is hard to be completly surprised by book, so I did not mind. I did cringe a little with the kind of insta love, but because I love the guy I can go with it. One part of this book broke my ♥ a little but I can't wait how it will develop in the next book, I just hope that it will not go way I think it might go, because I would be pissed. So I will definitely pick up the next book.
This book will not be everyone's cup of tea. At the beginning it is slow paced. Whole book is not much action packed. If I should describe it I would say it is a fantasy romance with parts of retellings in it and I enjoyed it very much. It was nice to watch Selah's charachter development. I did guess some of the plot twist but in these days it is hard to be completly surprised by book, so I did not mind. I did cringe a little with the kind of insta love, but because I love the guy I can go with it. One part of this book broke my ♥ a little but I can't wait how it will develop in the next book, I just hope that it will not go way I think it might go, because I would be pissed. So I will definitely pick up the next book.
adventurous
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book is a hot mess. I kept waiting for it to get better… and then it ended.
The setting: When is this book set? An alternate history post-American revolution that didn’t happen? Sometime in the 1800s? Instead of the American revolution, India - I mean ‘Bharat’ - had a violent rebellion and England retreated back into its own borders to mind its own business and give up on empire? There’s this evil Eastern European empire that’s chewing up countries and spitting them out ravenously and everyone is afraid of it? A girl can’t rule on her own but suddenly there are radios and she’s wearing a ponytail?
The ‘retelling’: This is not a retelling of anything. It’s a mish-mash of fairy tales and myths that make little sense and are just cobbled together into …. well I’m not sure what.
The main character: Selah is the worst MC I’ve read in a while. She has no agency. None. She drifts along, letting the plot happen to her, falls for every boy she meets, cries constantly, ignores whatever illegal activity the Beholder’s crew is getting up to, and is utterly infuriating. I kept thinking well, she’s annoying and passive *now* but let’s give her a chance to grow… and then the book ended. Spoiler: she didn’t grow. She has a brief moment of standing up for Anya and saying she should choose who she marries — and then goes back to blindly following her evil? stepmother’s plan to woo a different boy every two weeks. No. Agency. No acknowledgement that she's just as much a pawn as Anya. Also she claims that a character she’s barely spoken three words to is ‘like a brother to her’ and the Beholder’s crew is like family… when she never interacts with them and they have the depth of cardboard for all we've seen of them.
There was one brief moment on the Beholder, before all the nonsense of falling all over all the boys started, when it *did* feel like she was at home there with them. And then it was over. But that was the one point where I thought I might like where the book was going.
The love interests: Why must she fall for every single one? Why is she ‘completely in love’ with three different boys in one book? and honestly there were signs that Captain Lang was going to be another one but that never materialized. Just ugh.
The stepmother: why is she SO evil? And no one else can see it? and her father does nothing and is just wasting away? while she schemes to send Selah away for good?
The audiobook: The narrator was all right. She made the MC sound like a whiny brat which to be fair she was. Also some characters got really strong accents which was a bit weird but with the confusing setting was excusable.
Summary: A hot mess. Seriously. Skip this one
Edited to add: Ok so in the very last chapter she does get a liiiiitle bit more determination and makes a decision. But I still maintain that being a whiny spineless character for 90% of the book and then getting a little better in the last 10% does not a good book make -- even if it's the first book in a duology. Like. It's still got to stand alone, and this one doesn't really.
The setting: When is this book set? An alternate history post-American revolution that didn’t happen? Sometime in the 1800s? Instead of the American revolution, India - I mean ‘Bharat’ - had a violent rebellion and England retreated back into its own borders to mind its own business and give up on empire? There’s this evil Eastern European empire that’s chewing up countries and spitting them out ravenously and everyone is afraid of it? A girl can’t rule on her own but suddenly there are radios and she’s wearing a ponytail?
The ‘retelling’: This is not a retelling of anything. It’s a mish-mash of fairy tales and myths that make little sense and are just cobbled together into …. well I’m not sure what.
The main character: Selah is the worst MC I’ve read in a while. She has no agency. None. She drifts along, letting the plot happen to her, falls for every boy she meets, cries constantly, ignores whatever illegal activity the Beholder’s crew is getting up to, and is utterly infuriating. I kept thinking well, she’s annoying and passive *now* but let’s give her a chance to grow… and then the book ended. Spoiler: she didn’t grow. She has a brief moment of standing up for Anya and saying she should choose who she marries — and then goes back to blindly following her evil? stepmother’s plan to woo a different boy every two weeks. No. Agency. No acknowledgement that she's just as much a pawn as Anya. Also she claims that a character she’s barely spoken three words to is ‘like a brother to her’ and the Beholder’s crew is like family… when she never interacts with them and they have the depth of cardboard for all we've seen of them.
There was one brief moment on the Beholder, before all the nonsense of falling all over all the boys started, when it *did* feel like she was at home there with them. And then it was over. But that was the one point where I thought I might like where the book was going.
The love interests: Why must she fall for every single one? Why is she ‘completely in love’ with three different boys in one book? and honestly there were signs that Captain Lang was going to be another one but that never materialized. Just ugh.
The stepmother: why is she SO evil? And no one else can see it? and her father does nothing and is just wasting away? while she schemes to send Selah away for good?
The audiobook: The narrator was all right. She made the MC sound like a whiny brat which to be fair she was. Also some characters got really strong accents which was a bit weird but with the confusing setting was excusable.
Summary: A hot mess. Seriously. Skip this one
Edited to add: Ok so in the very last chapter she does get a liiiiitle bit more determination and makes a decision. But I still maintain that being a whiny spineless character for 90% of the book and then getting a little better in the last 10% does not a good book make -- even if it's the first book in a duology. Like. It's still got to stand alone, and this one doesn't really.
3.5 // super interesting! I really liked the premise, I’m interested to see how Bright finishes this duology
The book can be summarised in about 10 words, and that’s because NOTHING HAPPENED
***This review originally posted on What A Nerd Girl Says***
I’ll admit it straight out – this book only appeared on my radar because it was on BookBub and I haven’t been able to read in a book in ages and so I thought, hey, the cover is pretty so why not. I’m definitely glad that I took the chance. I will say that the book started off very slowly to me only because things happened so quickly that it was hard to really figure out what was going on and why I cared. It seemed one minute that Selah was proposing to Peter and then she was on a boat and she was very upset about it and I was like, what on earth just happened. The meat of the story is her journey and I think to get there had to be done quickly and I understand it but it definitely did not hook me right away. I think I read up until Selah leaves and then I stopped and came back to it a day or two later.
There’s also one teensy little thing that was really hard for me and that was the name of all the countries and leaders and stuff. I feel like its OUR world but in an alternate history but there were times where they were a ton of words I just didn’t understand and it felt incredibly distracting and it took me out of the story because I felt like I was missing something.
That aside, I did truly enjoy this book. I really liked Selah as a character, this sort of mousy, easily tricked character that is so unsure all of the time who blossoms into so much more. The first place that Selah visits is England and to me, everything just felt so wrong. It seemed like Anna was building this forbidden romance that we were supposed to root for but there was just something in my gut that made me feel like it wasn’t right and I didn’t feel like Selah was truly being the person I knew she could be. It just all felt so wrong. It felt like there was this one-dimensional goal but there was stuff behind the scenes that I needed to get to and I just wasn’t yet and I just kept wanting to be like, Selah, move on! England ain’t it!
But when Selah reaches her second destination, that’s when the book just really stands out, honestly. First off, all the characters that come into play here are just…so interesting and colorful and I love them. I love Torden – there was just something so incredibly genuine about him and I really adored him. I liked him better than the suitor in England – I’ve seen reviews where people are genuinely torn between the two but I was immediately sold on Torden. I also absolutely adored his family and I think that endeared me to this part of the book as well. I’m the oldest of six children and I know the chaos that is being part of a big family and how no one is perfect but you still love them anyway because you’re so close and you grew up in the same space as them. I really felt Selah come into her own in this part of the novel and I was here for it. This felt like the story beginning and I was at the edge of my seat wondering how on earth things were going to work.
There’s an underlining story revealed toward the end, the one I was itching at while Selah was in England, and I’m 100000% here for it, but I do wish it had come in a little earlier. It felt like an add on and almost like the main story could have held its own but then this was thrown at me and I was like, oh, okay, there’s a bigger picture here. Didn’t see that coming…But I’m interested in seeing how the second book will both wrap up Selah’s main story and this story that involves…way more people. The second and FINAL (so excited, I don’t think I could handle 3 books right now) comes out in June and I’m counting down the days.
I’ll admit it straight out – this book only appeared on my radar because it was on BookBub and I haven’t been able to read in a book in ages and so I thought, hey, the cover is pretty so why not. I’m definitely glad that I took the chance. I will say that the book started off very slowly to me only because things happened so quickly that it was hard to really figure out what was going on and why I cared. It seemed one minute that Selah was proposing to Peter and then she was on a boat and she was very upset about it and I was like, what on earth just happened. The meat of the story is her journey and I think to get there had to be done quickly and I understand it but it definitely did not hook me right away. I think I read up until Selah leaves and then I stopped and came back to it a day or two later.
There’s also one teensy little thing that was really hard for me and that was the name of all the countries and leaders and stuff. I feel like its OUR world but in an alternate history but there were times where they were a ton of words I just didn’t understand and it felt incredibly distracting and it took me out of the story because I felt like I was missing something.
That aside, I did truly enjoy this book. I really liked Selah as a character, this sort of mousy, easily tricked character that is so unsure all of the time who blossoms into so much more. The first place that Selah visits is England and to me, everything just felt so wrong. It seemed like Anna was building this forbidden romance that we were supposed to root for but there was just something in my gut that made me feel like it wasn’t right and I didn’t feel like Selah was truly being the person I knew she could be. It just all felt so wrong. It felt like there was this one-dimensional goal but there was stuff behind the scenes that I needed to get to and I just wasn’t yet and I just kept wanting to be like, Selah, move on! England ain’t it!
But when Selah reaches her second destination, that’s when the book just really stands out, honestly. First off, all the characters that come into play here are just…so interesting and colorful and I love them. I love Torden – there was just something so incredibly genuine about him and I really adored him. I liked him better than the suitor in England – I’ve seen reviews where people are genuinely torn between the two but I was immediately sold on Torden. I also absolutely adored his family and I think that endeared me to this part of the book as well. I’m the oldest of six children and I know the chaos that is being part of a big family and how no one is perfect but you still love them anyway because you’re so close and you grew up in the same space as them. I really felt Selah come into her own in this part of the novel and I was here for it. This felt like the story beginning and I was at the edge of my seat wondering how on earth things were going to work.
There’s an underlining story revealed toward the end, the one I was itching at while Selah was in England, and I’m 100000% here for it, but I do wish it had come in a little earlier. It felt like an add on and almost like the main story could have held its own but then this was thrown at me and I was like, oh, okay, there’s a bigger picture here. Didn’t see that coming…But I’m interested in seeing how the second book will both wrap up Selah’s main story and this story that involves…way more people. The second and FINAL (so excited, I don’t think I could handle 3 books right now) comes out in June and I’m counting down the days.