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daniella84's review against another edition
2.0
*spoilers*
Some elements of this I really enjoyed - the inclusion of South Asian food, dress, and culture was very cool to see and it's not something I see featured a lot in YA (until more recently) so I appreciated the insight it provided! I also thought the snake magic was interesting at first, but I found as the book went on the boundaries of snake magic went from being able to lie and talk to snakes to being able to move a snake pit that exists outside of space and time around at will and being able to talk to other animals as well through the snake - it felt like things were being added as the plot necessitated it which made it hard to keep any tension there. The villain also seemed quite strange - I would understand a lady grieving for her husband wanting to meet him again and to protect her son from the same fate, but making her hell bent on destroying the kingdom, and wanting to become the god of death itself seemed a little far-fetched. And of course she had to have been abused as a child and was now taking this out on others...
Other characters like Aditi also felt like they were only there to move the plot along, and to act as a motivation for Ria to act when needed. The relationships between Rani and Ria and the other characters never felt more than skin-deep, and I never understood what we saw in the love interests (apart from them being hot and the bare minimum of kind) to have them fall in love in 2 weeks.
The first half of the story I thought was pretty solid, but as the book went on my enjoyment dropped off. Especially around the 3/4 mark things felt like they were just happening to delay the finale, and I do not think this book needed to be 500 pages! Especially for the first in a duology! Things like Rani travelling away from the palace for 2 weeks but then being able to be back in a few hours by carriage, and snake magic seeming to be able to do anything, also made the world feel like it hadn't been well established despite the book being pretty lengthy. Ria in particular also felt like she did very little in the palace apart from give us more exposition, whereas Rani got to go on an adventure/treasure hunt, so it felt strange that Ria still got the same amount of page time.
My main qualm is that for something like a sister-swap situation to work, these girls need to be IDENTICAL. Like Vanessa Hudgens playing all the roles identical. And at the beginning Ria had lived in an orphanage and then on the streets, and is described as being skinnier, darker-skinned, and with scars that Rani would never have gotten in her life. It was hard to believe that even though Ria was being bathed by servants and subjected to many dress fittings, where people even comment on her skin and her weight, that no one would notice? And there are many times with both girls that the love interests mention they're acting weird (and both of course are prone to outbursts about how unfair the system is etc.) but we just dismiss it so quickly that it doesn't matter until we have to have the big confession moment (and then it still didn't really matter though I hate when they make a big deal about a false identity thing so I didn't mind that as much). And then at the end both boys mention they kind of suspected all along?? It made the whole central premise unbelievable, and made it feel like it didn't even matter that they had to keep up the ruse of being someone else because even when they slipped up, no one cared until the plot called for it. It was like the other characters were purposely choosing to ignore things!!! I was willing to suspend my disbelief at the beginning, but as the story progressed and the characters hardly even try to keep their identities secret, it just got frustrating. People would also be so willing to exposit to them things they should already know, or misinterpret something weird they said to keep the charade up.
I sadly won't be continuing with the series (as it seems they will be hunting the same artefact they already found in this book and just gave away with no struggle whatsoever, and it seems the villain is going down a 'possessed by a god' arc which I don't LOVE) but would be interested to see more from the authors in future! It is cool that these sisters got to write with each other and make a story that you could see a lot of themselves in, but sadly the plot/world just fell a bit flat for me. Maybe younger YA readers would enjoy this more, and I think fans of [b:The Ivory Key|55959475|The Ivory Key (The Ivory Key Duology, #1)|Akshaya Raman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1633053798l/55959475._SY75_.jpg|76948298] might like this too!
Some elements of this I really enjoyed - the inclusion of South Asian food, dress, and culture was very cool to see and it's not something I see featured a lot in YA (until more recently) so I appreciated the insight it provided! I also thought the snake magic was interesting at first, but I found as the book went on the boundaries of snake magic went from being able to lie and talk to snakes to being able to move a snake pit that exists outside of space and time around at will and being able to talk to other animals as well through the snake - it felt like things were being added as the plot necessitated it which made it hard to keep any tension there. The villain also seemed quite strange - I would understand a lady grieving for her husband wanting to meet him again and to protect her son from the same fate, but making her hell bent on destroying the kingdom, and wanting to become the god of death itself seemed a little far-fetched. And of course she had to have been abused as a child and was now taking this out on others...
Other characters like Aditi also felt like they were only there to move the plot along, and to act as a motivation for Ria to act when needed. The relationships between Rani and Ria and the other characters never felt more than skin-deep, and I never understood what we saw in the love interests (apart from them being hot and the bare minimum of kind) to have them fall in love in 2 weeks.
The first half of the story I thought was pretty solid, but as the book went on my enjoyment dropped off. Especially around the 3/4 mark things felt like they were just happening to delay the finale, and I do not think this book needed to be 500 pages! Especially for the first in a duology! Things like Rani travelling away from the palace for 2 weeks but then being able to be back in a few hours by carriage, and snake magic seeming to be able to do anything, also made the world feel like it hadn't been well established despite the book being pretty lengthy. Ria in particular also felt like she did very little in the palace apart from give us more exposition, whereas Rani got to go on an adventure/treasure hunt, so it felt strange that Ria still got the same amount of page time.
My main qualm is that for something like a sister-swap situation to work, these girls need to be IDENTICAL. Like Vanessa Hudgens playing all the roles identical. And at the beginning Ria had lived in an orphanage and then on the streets, and is described as being skinnier, darker-skinned, and with scars that Rani would never have gotten in her life. It was hard to believe that even though Ria was being bathed by servants and subjected to many dress fittings, where people even comment on her skin and her weight, that no one would notice? And there are many times with both girls that the love interests mention they're acting weird (and both of course are prone to outbursts about how unfair the system is etc.) but we just dismiss it so quickly that it doesn't matter until we have to have the big confession moment (and then it still didn't really matter though I hate when they make a big deal about a false identity thing so I didn't mind that as much). And then at the end both boys mention they kind of suspected all along?? It made the whole central premise unbelievable, and made it feel like it didn't even matter that they had to keep up the ruse of being someone else because even when they slipped up, no one cared until the plot called for it. It was like the other characters were purposely choosing to ignore things!!! I was willing to suspend my disbelief at the beginning, but as the story progressed and the characters hardly even try to keep their identities secret, it just got frustrating. People would also be so willing to exposit to them things they should already know, or misinterpret something weird they said to keep the charade up.
I sadly won't be continuing with the series (as it seems they will be hunting the same artefact they already found in this book and just gave away with no struggle whatsoever, and it seems the villain is going down a 'possessed by a god' arc which I don't LOVE) but would be interested to see more from the authors in future! It is cool that these sisters got to write with each other and make a story that you could see a lot of themselves in, but sadly the plot/world just fell a bit flat for me. Maybe younger YA readers would enjoy this more, and I think fans of [b:The Ivory Key|55959475|The Ivory Key (The Ivory Key Duology, #1)|Akshaya Raman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1633053798l/55959475._SY75_.jpg|76948298] might like this too!
rfonta69801's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
sarahthuotte's review
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.5
caylieratzlaff's review
4.0
3.5/5 - OwlCrate June 2021 book. Overall for a debut, I liked it. I got past the snakes -bleh- but it felt undeveloped with the world that often comes with fantasy YA novels. The world building potential was there, but it didn’t happen past basic explanations of the snake magic.
The plot also really didn’t get “exposed” until the last 1/4 of the book and then didn’t get resolved (assuming a sequel?). This was written in dual POV which I normally hate but it was easy to switch between Ria and Rani.
Also…just the fact that it took people the entire book to realize Ria and Rani switched when one of them literally has a birthmark on their face
The plot also really didn’t get “exposed” until the last 1/4 of the book and then didn’t get resolved (assuming a sequel?). This was written in dual POV which I normally hate but it was easy to switch between Ria and Rani.
Also…just the fact that it took people the entire book to realize Ria and Rani switched when one of them literally has a birthmark on their face
booksandladders's review
3.0
See this review and more on Books and Ladders!
While some of this felt a little improbable (especially around them switching places and it going fairly well), I did enjoy this one! I liked the premise of this and the way the characters interacted and grew. I thought this had a lot of really interesting elements and worldbuilding.
I think the plotholes were just too much for me to be fully immersed into this one, but I'm hopeful the next book doesn't have quite as many!
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While some of this felt a little improbable (especially around them switching places and it going fairly well), I did enjoy this one! I liked the premise of this and the way the characters interacted and grew. I thought this had a lot of really interesting elements and worldbuilding.
I think the plotholes were just too much for me to be fully immersed into this one, but I'm hopeful the next book doesn't have quite as many!
Like my reviews? Buy me a Ko-Fi!
beelovesreading's review against another edition
4.0
If you like prince and the pauper retellings, you're probably going to really like this
karmakit's review against another edition
4.0
This was such a fun adventure with a prince and the pauper vibe, full of magic, friendship, and finding yourself.
atra's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0