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sparksofember's review
3.0
Well written book with a strong allegorical Christianity. I thought it a little odd how heavily focused Alara (and God?) was on monarchy-bad, democracy-good, but I appreciated the gender equality in her culture. Some readers would take issue with the portrayal of the trinity here and I appreciated the author's note at the end explaining that. It didn't really bother me but, at the same time, I never got close to remembering which name applied to which person. I gave up trying pretty quickly and I thought it a little funny how easily the characters would swing between the three names, sometimes in the same sentence.
The romance, for me, was on the tepid side. I've been trying to think why and I think I prefer reading books where characters meet and fall in love, vs this book where Alara and Dorrel have already been in a relationship for some time. For readers who love reading stable, healthy, already-grounded relationships - this'll be right up their alley. For myself, the only time I perked up was when a character brought up possibly committing herself to an arranged marriage and I was hopeful a romance would come out of that. But then it was dropped, but maybe it will come back up in book 2?
The romance, for me, was on the tepid side. I've been trying to think why and I think I prefer reading books where characters meet and fall in love, vs this book where Alara and Dorrel have already been in a relationship for some time. For readers who love reading stable, healthy, already-grounded relationships - this'll be right up their alley. For myself, the only time I perked up was when a character brought up possibly committing herself to an arranged marriage and I was hopeful a romance would come out of that. But then it was dropped, but maybe it will come back up in book 2?
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