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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Still finishing this up but I'm in grave danger of skipping the last 20 pages, so here's a review anyway.
Not very good, honestly! Quite a disappointment. It's got some interesting ideas, a fun premise, and good bones of world-building, but the execution is ham-handed AND boring, not a great combination! The writing is serviceable though needed another round with the copyeditor; the characters are all unbearably annoying and/or boring; and the plot is sooo slow and repetitive that I sometimes looked up in shock at how little occurred in a hundred-page span. :| It's really such a pity, because this sounded like a fun fantasy novel with loads of political intrigue, but Derr does not deliver. However, if a reader just wants a super slow, zero tension, low stakes, ultra boring fantasy politics romance to read, this is certainly better written than others in the genre.
Here are my more specific thoughts:
1. No political acumen on display in a book about political acumen! Seriously, other than Allen, NO ONE has any savvy with the court politics and empire ruling stuff. Repeatedly an important thing will happen and Sarrica or Lesto will say they don't understand the implications. If these guys are really that clueless after years in power, then they need to hire some better advisors stat.
2. Everyone sounds and acts like children playing a "grown-ups in charge of an empire" game on the playground. There's all this world-building info--people, places, things! Geography, trade relations, nobility with grudges!--but little of it is relevant to the plot...it's just fluff so that Allen can name drop a bunch of people/places/things in text and sound smart. There's a lot of pouting and stomping around to show us how important and busy Sarrica and Lesto and Ren are! There's Sarrica looking around his window-less office (is it a bunker? Maybe) and thinking "Man, I wish this office had some fucking windows" (I paraphrase but not by much) and not realizing that he is the HIGH KING and can just tell a minion to get him a new office and they will do that. There's zero gravitas from Sarrica and minimal respect towards him from the people around him even though he is an emperor. Very, very weird.
3. Even though the characters seem to be a bunch of kids playing pretend, the violence is not pretend, lol. The tonal mismatch between the clumsy palace intrigue and the over-the-top descriptions of violence was a bit odd.
4. It's an empire but the military is...a selection of private mercenary armies? Sounds like a recipe for a coup d'etat to me!
5. Sarrica wants to do some good ol' prison reform but he just hasn't found the time in all his years as High King! Since he hasn't had a chance to do a full overhaul of the prisons and treatment of prisoners, that means every prisoner gets treated like crap and His Majesty is helpless to do anything about it. For example, instead of telling his guards to give a prisoner, like, a chair and a toilet, Sarrica lets them chain the prisoner to the wall by the dude's hands, suspended above the floor. You know, like a High King who wants prison reform does!! But I guess it's OK because this prisoner is a bad guy. Sarrica will get around to those reforms later, now that he has Allen to do his work for him. :) /s
Anyway. I was hoping this would be the entree to a fun and exciting fantasy series, but it's dull and annoying, so I will have to skip the other books.
Not very good, honestly! Quite a disappointment. It's got some interesting ideas, a fun premise, and good bones of world-building, but the execution is ham-handed AND boring, not a great combination! The writing is serviceable though needed another round with the copyeditor; the characters are all unbearably annoying and/or boring; and the plot is sooo slow and repetitive that I sometimes looked up in shock at how little occurred in a hundred-page span. :| It's really such a pity, because this sounded like a fun fantasy novel with loads of political intrigue, but Derr does not deliver. However, if a reader just wants a super slow, zero tension, low stakes, ultra boring fantasy politics romance to read, this is certainly better written than others in the genre.
Here are my more specific thoughts:
1. No political acumen on display in a book about political acumen! Seriously, other than Allen, NO ONE has any savvy with the court politics and empire ruling stuff. Repeatedly an important thing will happen and Sarrica or Lesto will say they don't understand the implications. If these guys are really that clueless after years in power, then they need to hire some better advisors stat.
2. Everyone sounds and acts like children playing a "grown-ups in charge of an empire" game on the playground. There's all this world-building info--people, places, things! Geography, trade relations, nobility with grudges!--but little of it is relevant to the plot...it's just fluff so that Allen can name drop a bunch of people/places/things in text and sound smart. There's a lot of pouting and stomping around to show us how important and busy Sarrica and Lesto and Ren are! There's Sarrica looking around his window-less office (is it a bunker? Maybe) and thinking "Man, I wish this office had some fucking windows" (I paraphrase but not by much) and not realizing that he is the HIGH KING and can just tell a minion to get him a new office and they will do that. There's zero gravitas from Sarrica and minimal respect towards him from the people around him even though he is an emperor. Very, very weird.
3. Even though the characters seem to be a bunch of kids playing pretend, the violence is not pretend, lol. The tonal mismatch between the clumsy palace intrigue and the over-the-top descriptions of violence was a bit odd.
4. It's an empire but the military is...a selection of private mercenary armies? Sounds like a recipe for a coup d'etat to me!
5. Sarrica wants to do some good ol' prison reform but he just hasn't found the time in all his years as High King! Since he hasn't had a chance to do a full overhaul of the prisons and treatment of prisoners, that means every prisoner gets treated like crap and His Majesty is helpless to do anything about it. For example, instead of telling his guards to give a prisoner, like, a chair and a toilet, Sarrica lets them chain the prisoner to the wall by the dude's hands, suspended above the floor. You know, like a High King who wants prison reform does!! But I guess it's OK because this prisoner is a bad guy. Sarrica will get around to those reforms later, now that he has Allen to do his work for him. :) /s
Anyway. I was hoping this would be the entree to a fun and exciting fantasy series, but it's dull and annoying, so I will have to skip the other books.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
An arranged marriage that starts off cold and ends with the two people involved head over heels in love with each other is one of my favourite tropes and this one scratched a very specific itch that I had. The distance between Allen and Sarrica that gradually closed as Allen strived to prove that he was the best person Sarrica could marry and got himself into dangerous situations just to get the point across created an exquisite flavour of angst that I really enjoyed.
I liked that Allen was determined and unwilling to give up when faced with challenges, and although he felt insecure about how Sarrica thought about him, he never showed his weaknesses. It was mostly Allen’s personality and character development that pushed the story forward while Sarrica played more of a passive role. I did like their interactions though I have to admit I found Allen’s conversations with the supporting characters such as Lesto (my favourite character honestly), Rene and Tara much more interesting because they were able to reveal much more about Allen’s character. Lesto is a major influence on Sarrica’s character and without him, Sarrica would’ve been bland and one-dimensional, and I think the author wrote Sarrica and Lesto’s interactions with the goal to make Sarrica seem more compelling but I just thought it made Lesto more appealing instead.
There were some parts of the story that happened abruptly,like Allen and Rene’s rescue and the end of the war, which I found jarring and anticlimactic. Those were the two instances where I had to reread just to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. Overall, it was a slow burn romance that was good but I also thought it was lacking something, especially when it came to Sarrica realising his feelings for Allen.
I liked that Allen was determined and unwilling to give up when faced with challenges, and although he felt insecure about how Sarrica thought about him, he never showed his weaknesses. It was mostly Allen’s personality and character development that pushed the story forward while Sarrica played more of a passive role. I did like their interactions though I have to admit I found Allen’s conversations with the supporting characters such as Lesto (my favourite character honestly), Rene and Tara much more interesting because they were able to reveal much more about Allen’s character. Lesto is a major influence on Sarrica’s character and without him, Sarrica would’ve been bland and one-dimensional, and I think the author wrote Sarrica and Lesto’s interactions with the goal to make Sarrica seem more compelling but I just thought it made Lesto more appealing instead.
There were some parts of the story that happened abruptly,
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was in the 3.5-3.75 kinda range for me, entertaining enough but not really succeeding at the kind of courtly manners & formality it was attempting. This seems to happen a lot when (especially North American) authors try to do this kind of courtly fantasy without really being subtle enough about politicking, intrigue, status and protocol. It tends to come out a bit silly, eg when the mc is described as being 'thrown out of court' when he's actually just been dismissed from the room - and that in itself is so indecorous it's wildly improbable, or when a prince travels cross country completely unattended for no very good reason. It feels more like an 80s high school movie than an environment filled with highly-bred aristocrats. So basically the kind of stuff that makes the setting seem flimsy and unbelievable, and undermines all the attempts at lavish and detailed worldbuilding.
That said, it's broadly a fun book in the arranged-royal-betrothal-gone-wrong-then-righted genre and isn't the worst by any means, since the plot trundles along at a decent pace. The romance, however, isn't tremendous since the main characters are generally apart and considering how to approach each other when they reunite. The main fun is really in the sassy bromance between the king and his military leader, who has basically devoted his life to knocking some sense into the royal skull, so I'm going to give his book a go next.
That said, it's broadly a fun book in the arranged-royal-betrothal-gone-wrong-then-righted genre and isn't the worst by any means, since the plot trundles along at a decent pace. The romance, however, isn't tremendous since the main characters are generally apart and considering how to approach each other when they reunite. The main fun is really in the sassy bromance between the king and his military leader, who has basically devoted his life to knocking some sense into the royal skull, so I'm going to give his book a go next.
Highly entertaining, I enjoyed this tremendously. Few people do world building as excellently as Megan Derr. There was also lovely chemistry, lovely tension and nicely fleshed out characters. If I were to have one complaint (and it would be a very minor one), it was that there were too many side characters and side plots that distracted from the main story ... and had a tendency to slow the momentum down. Otherwise, this book is reminiscent of another all time favorite based around an enemies to lovers SL (C.S. Pacats' Captive Prince) ... this was a fun read and a excellent start to this series ...
I honestly don't know why I finished this, I simply felt I needed to in hopes it got better. felt like fanfiction and probably would've been a decent one if it had characters I cared about. also looked into the author after the fact and yikes (always be wary when they openly share their tumblr accounts...). good reminder to do a little bit of research before picking a random book off of hoopla to read