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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
This was a pretty amazing book! I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next and I really enjoyed it! Everything about it kept me interested. I kept turning the page to find out what happens next. Wonderful read!
Highly enjoyable, fast-paced, with twists and turns and intrigue aplenty! This novel follows Kalinda, an orphan raised in the secluded temple in the mountains, who is taken from her home in order to be the 100th wife of Rajah Tarek. While at court, she must not only navigate her new role, but also the mysteries and intrigue that threaten not just her position, but her life!
Kalinda was a fantastic character, and I loved the development of her strength and power as the story went on, as well as the characters surrounding her who are so important to the rising resistance in the story. This story hints at the series to come well, and builds towards a more epic series nicely, while still feeling like this story has some elements of closure within the novel. The only thing that I found less believable was the love story aspect, which was ok, but felt underdeveloped to me.
Kalinda was a fantastic character, and I loved the development of her strength and power as the story went on, as well as the characters surrounding her who are so important to the rising resistance in the story. This story hints at the series to come well, and builds towards a more epic series nicely, while still feeling like this story has some elements of closure within the novel. The only thing that I found less believable was the love story aspect, which was ok, but felt underdeveloped to me.
Why does every damn YA high fantasy book have to have some kind of trail? Why?
Okay so let's say I see a man, a real man if flesh and all, a man that I know nothing at all about, for the first time in my gloriously menless existence. What do I do? I, *cough cough*, desire him, fall madly in love with him with next to no reason, am ready to put my life on the line in order to save him. Naturally.
Talk about raging hormones. If there's anything I truly despise in YA literature, or any book really, is poor reasoning behind the actions of the characters. Insta love can very easily be the downfall of a potentially decent book.
Let's talk hypothetical here - this books could have been so much more. SO MUCH MORE. The thing I found myself wishing for was f/f romance. Imagine how much better of a story [b:The Hundredth Queen|32852217|The Hundredth Queen (The Hundredth Queen, #1)|Emily R. King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1484806967s/32852217.jpg|57513415] would have been had the romance not been focused on a blatantly obvious relationship between our special snowflake heroine and her beloved guard who is coincidentally the first man she has ever set her eyes upon, and instead have been a story of Kalinda and, say, Jaya (or anyone really) being amazing girlfriends who would defeat the overpowering patriarchy together and rise as ultimate power couple against all odds. That would have been an interesting read.
This is what a call a missed oportunity. So instead of a highly diverse f/f fantasy the YA genre is so desperately lacking, we get a stereotypical tale about an ugly and plain (but not really because all men find her beautiful, of course), unexplainably sickly (do you see it coming already?) orphan girl with mysterious heritage (yeah, it's one of those), with a boring, shallow romance and plot twists that are about as unexpected as drama on RuePaul's Drag Race. Did we really need another one of those?
Okay so let's say I see a man, a real man if flesh and all, a man that I know nothing at all about, for the first time in my gloriously menless existence. What do I do? I, *cough cough*, desire him, fall madly in love with him with next to no reason, am ready to put my life on the line in order to save him. Naturally.
Talk about raging hormones. If there's anything I truly despise in YA literature, or any book really, is poor reasoning behind the actions of the characters. Insta love can very easily be the downfall of a potentially decent book.
Let's talk hypothetical here - this books could have been so much more. SO MUCH MORE. The thing I found myself wishing for was f/f romance. Imagine how much better of a story [b:The Hundredth Queen|32852217|The Hundredth Queen (The Hundredth Queen, #1)|Emily R. King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1484806967s/32852217.jpg|57513415] would have been had the romance not been focused on a blatantly obvious relationship between our special snowflake heroine and her beloved guard who is coincidentally the first man she has ever set her eyes upon, and instead have been a story of Kalinda and, say, Jaya (or anyone really) being amazing girlfriends who would defeat the overpowering patriarchy together and rise as ultimate power couple against all odds. That would have been an interesting read.
This is what a call a missed oportunity. So instead of a highly diverse f/f fantasy the YA genre is so desperately lacking, we get a stereotypical tale about an ugly and plain (but not really because all men find her beautiful, of course), unexplainably sickly (do you see it coming already?) orphan girl with mysterious heritage (yeah, it's one of those), with a boring, shallow romance and plot twists that are about as unexpected as drama on RuePaul's Drag Race. Did we really need another one of those?
I'd say this is a good enough story, but in my opinion it wasn't well written. I may have given it a higher rating if I read it at a younger age. The story itself is one that has been done over and over, with decent enough changes.
Not for me, in the end. Started off wonderfully, however, it lost me once it took a sharp detour into insta-love.
Disappointing. The plot was boring and the characters air-headed with the usual bad YA insta-infatuation. Ultimately, I ended up skimming through to the end and will not be reading the rest of the series.
Look I just reread this because the whole series is available on KU and I'm just so ... utterly baffled at the pacing of this thing. 80% of it happens in five days max, it's absurd.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
I really wanted to like this book. The description sounded interesting, the premise seemed different, I was interested. Sadly, the writing itself is often choppy and the drama is forced. Rarely do I find a book that I can't force myself to get through, but by the 10th chapter I couldn't go on. If you enjoy unnecessary love triangles and forced drama, you might like this book. But for myself, I bailed before the story even really began because of the writing.