Reviews

Soft DNF. I'd like to stick this out eventually, but I'm too excited about other things right now to wade through this clunky exposition.

I'm vaguely intrigued by the conflict and the characters, but I'm honestly struggling to care since I've been dropped in the middle of it, with no setup whatsoever before everything turned to shit.

And once it did turn to shit, all the setup has been extremely, as I said, clunky. It's already, at less than 20%, been so repetitive. The characters just keep putting themselves in and staying in ridiculously stupid situations in the name of info dumping and establishing very flimsy character relationships.

And for now, what little has been explained sounds very cliche and cheesy.

I do think that if I stick out this clunky beginning, the intrigue will pick up and I'll eventually like it. But I'm not in the mood to try right now.

(Just so I know, if/when I come back to it: I got through chapter 8.)

idkrod's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

4.1⭐

hellothereimlisa's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

jjbeingobsessedwithbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Really good and tense and everything it needed to be to capture my attention. The ending kinda shocked me but didn’t at the same time

builtempires's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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? N/A

3.0

“Kindness is never a mistake.”

This book was an odd experience; I struggled to get into it at first and it took me weeks to get through the first half (it didn’t help that I was in a reading slump). The second half was a lot better, I finally got into the story and I flew through it, but there’s something about it that didn’t wholly work for me.

Will is a weird character, it’s like you’re always at an arm’s length from him and I wonder if it was purposeful since the author obfuscates some events in favor of the plot twist. I don’t dislike him and I’m actually curious to see if we get to know him better.

I liked James a lot, I found him really compelling and fun, especially as we learn more about him. His dynamic with Will is fascinating and it gets more complex at the end, I really want to know where the author takes their story. I liked Violet too, she was a great character with an interesting conflict driving her actions. Katherine was completely useless, I’m still wondering why she was even there. Her POV chapters were the worst to get through. Not to mention whatever that was with Will.

I heard good things about the sequel so I’m excited to read it, the ending set up a lot of interesting dynamics and questions and there’s so much potential for a stronger book. I’m sad I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I wanted to because I love Captive Prince by this author but I hope the sequel makes me change my mind!

itisclara's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

4.25

OMG THE ENDING!!! I can’t wait to read book 2!!! I have so many questions and I need answers!!
The first 200 pages were a little slow for my liking, but the pace was picking up after that. The characters were interesting, I do hope we get a little more of their respective backstories in book 2 and maybe some more insight into their emotions and thought processes. The ending was amazing, but I hope that things get explained more (such as

how long Will has known or suspected his secret, why Katherine ended up as Simons fiancée, etc.

). I’m certain the second book is gonna be even better than the first.

More...