Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - La Fiancée

"What is a friend but someone who thinks you're capable of more than you do?"

I am so freaking disappointed with this book! I expected so much more from the author of The Selection and The Siren. It is just so, so dull!

I was stolen of all the joy I could have felt. All of it. The book started and it was promising me a delightful court intrigue that would explore the idea of a Royal marriage and a scandalous affair that would have been unforgetable. All that was stolen, replaced by the sketch of a court intrigue and a secret kiss that degenerated into a sappy romance that has absolutely zero chemestry and is most likely the worst case of instalove I have ever read about.

To be fair, instalove is not really my thing. I usually hate it. There are, however, exceptions and The Siren written by Cass herself is one of them. So, my question is - how did she go from that absolutely sweet and endearing love story between Kahlen and Akinli to this horrendous disaster that is Hollis and Silas?! I have seen doors with more personality than Silas. Which isn't hard, because all I can really tell you for sure about him is that his eyes are blue. Oh and that he loooooves Hollis, who is the most incredible, amazing and perfect person who has ever walked on earth. For him, that is, because for everyone else she is just useless.

I haven't found on single person aside from Silas capable of giving one single, decent compliment to her. And since it has to be decent, no, Jameson's compliments don't count. She is just the mosr useless, talentless person everyone has ever come across. Which means I shouldn't be so surprised she ended up 💫falling on love💫 with the only person who would praise her for her talents and that she is one of the most annoying characters ever. Because you see, as everyone thinks she is talentless, she will follow them and tell us again and again and again and again that she is useless, talentless, almost below average and that is absolutely not fit to be a Queen even if everything she ever did while playing that role unofficially was the best thing to do. She created a whole place to ease the tension all by herself and executed it perfectly - and yet she is talentless and would never be a good Queen. Anyway, no need to worry about forgetting Hollis is useless, she will remind you once again just in case.

The rest of the characters aren't better. First of all, why would anyone need enemies when you have a friend like Delia Grace? Jeez! The toxicity of the friendship between her and Hollis hurt my brain. Cass can create friendships so pure and sweet and yet chose to create one of the most toxic I ever found in a book. Hollis just kept forgiving her and finding excuses for everything she said and did - "oh, I understand it must be hard, you are forgiven" and "oh, I know her better than anyone, of couse she misses me, she just doesn't know how to show it!" and "oh, love for everyone because my big heart is the thing the blue-eyes Silas most admires about me, so I must let everyone walk over me as otherwise I couldn't be seen as kind" (these are not quotes from the book, but they are close and could very much be). HOLLIS EVEN APOLOGIZED TO HER WHEN SHE DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG FOR GOD'S SAKE!

Then we have one more character eho is toxic as hell. The King himself. At least, Cass acknowledges that much in the end of the book. That's the only good thing about it.

And then we have characters like Nora, Valentina and Hollis' mother who can't keep a consistent personality. Nora and Valentine were described like bitches and behaved accordingly the first time they showed up, but the second time they were beyond nice and sweet to Hollis and willing to build a friendship with her. Hollis' mother is a cold bitch, but just when it is convinient to the plot, the rest of the time, she loves her daughter, although she isn't effusive in her demonstrations of love.

We also have characters like Scarlett and Silas' mother who don't show up enough, so they are too nice every time they show and Hollis spends the whole scenes telling us how much she loves them, in hopes we like them too - FLASH NEWS: we don't, they are just indifferent.

Basically, what I am trying to say is Cass created a whole set of annoying and/or toxic characters who are flat and two-dimensional.

It's easy to guess that with characters like these, there's not much anyone can expect from their relationships. And you better not expect anything at all, because they are just nlantly disappointing. There isn't one single relationship - whether it is friendly, romantic or familiar - I could root for. You already know how much I hated the instalove, but you don't really have any idea how strong my hatred it. Let me clarify that. I would rather have been stuck in the relationship between the king and Hollis, one I have already said that is beyond toxic. At least that relationship would have brought some action and life to the plot with the political intrigue and perhaps the scandalous affair I wanted so badly. Which is obviously more than the sappy, poorly executed instalve brought.

The friendships are either with people whose personality completly changed between the first they showed up and the second or just toxic because at least one of the characters involved is toxic.

The familiar relationships are disastrous. I won't even talk between the one between Hollis and her parents. It is just wrong. And the ones between Silas' family are just... not enough. I mean, I am told about them, but I don't see much of that love, brotherly, motherly, fatherly or whatever. It is just not shown enough.

Let's disgrace the book even more with a world just as catastrophic. And anyone who has read the book is even in a position to ask, "What world?". Because truth is, you just can't see it. Aside from a palace where every single one that is important for the plot lives and one single tradition, all you get is a neighbour kingdom that you are not even quite sure where exactly it is in relation to Coroa. A neighbour kingdom that, guess what?!, is ruled by an evil king!! 😱😱 Shocking, I know. And it gets even more shocking! Why is that king evil? Well, because he has to be. Evil kings are cool and a must in Fantasy! I bet you weren't expecting that!

Oh, and speaking of Coroa. I have a fun fact for you. Do you know how Portuguese say "crown"? Coroa. Which is quite similar to how Spanish and Italian say it - Corona. And how Romanian say it - coroană. I found it weird to be reading a bok where the name of the country is literally crown. And I am sure I wasn't the only one. The woman who came up with Illéa for The Selection couldn't have made an effort and find a better name for the new country?! Something just a little bit more original for crying out loud!

In fact, the only good thing about the world is the court environment (before it gets ruined by the instalove plotline that is). It is extremely credible and I really, really loved it.

And the small good things don't end here, which is the only reason why this book didn't get 1 single star.

Although the pace is slow and drags on and on without any actual plot development, Cass makes the story flow without problem, making the book incredibly easy to read. More than that, although my brain cells wanted to commit suicide, Cass' writing style made me want to keep reading as if this book was the most interesting one in the entire world. And I have no idea how she managed that, ut she does deserve credits for being able to do so.

The ending was so incredibly sad and yet the best part of this book. Hollis was finally a character I could empathize with. Everything she was feeling was described so well and vivedly, I felt every single bit of it. I mean, I couldn't care less about every single character of this book and yet I felt my heart breaking a little bit. Cass makes us feel exactly what the main character feel and that is awesome.

Overall, this is nowhere near as good as The Selection and The Siren. It is a disappointment, to be honest. And I can't find in myself the strenght to believe the next book will be better, even if I know I'll read it anyway. I wish Cass had done more, developed more. The characters, the world, the plot. It all had potential - lots of it - and Cass wasted it by going down the sappy instalove road, ignoring all the court intrigue the plot was offering her. And even if she didn't want the court intrigue, there was so much more than could have been done, other than a rushed love story between the main character and a blue-eyed boy who has no other trait.

"The most valuable thing you can own is the assurance of your place in someone's heart."

Content Warnings