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rebeccazh's review against another edition
Even better than I remember. Really enjoyed it.
swissmunicipal's review against another edition
4.0
I'm not sure this quite deserves four stars, but I definitely enjoyed it. It mostly wraps up the story for the main characters from this and the first book - with the third kind of being its own thing. There's lots of wonderful detail, but it does at times become overbearing (said as someone who is not a lover of poetry).
fujerica's review against another edition
4.0
Better than the first one - I liked the mystery aspect. What I did NOT care for was how the mystery was resolved. But whatevs. I'll read the next one in the series.
thedearest's review
3.0
These books are a very strange mishmash of genres but there you have it. I'm still enjoying the series.
wealhtheow's review against another edition
2.0
Kim is the granddaughter of a long-lost princess, but in a noble gesture she turned down a chance at love and Dobrenica's throne. She returned to the US to recover from the tumultuous events of [b:Coronets and Steel|7830913|Coronets and Steel (Dobrenica, #1)|Sherwood Smith|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348532088s/7830913.jpg|10893363], only to have a strange vision of her cousin. Afraid something terrible has happened, she races to Dobrenica and discovers that her cousin has died in a mysterious car accident, and her husband (formerly Kim's love interest) is the primary suspect. Kim is sure something fishy is going on, and sure enough, all the obvious stuff has gone down--the mysterious bastard cousin has been making a play for the throne, as has the endlessly annoying Tony. (Tony is one of my major frustrations with this series, actually, because he is constantly making armed coup attempts, and yet everyone still trusts and socializes with him. Plus, the story seems to think he's a charming rogue that Kim is attracted to despite herself, whereas to me he's her creepy cousin who's not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. The fact that he's jumped to drastically incorrect conclusions and started holding guns to people's heads as a result in BOTH BOOKS supports my interpretation.) Less expected are the supernatural elements in this book; they work well, and were my favorite part of the story. If this series continues, I hope we get more interaction between Kim and Alec, and perhaps Tony will have a fatal accident or two.
kurenai's review
3.0
I wasn't quite sure what to expect of this book. The first one had me enthralled from page one as I was sucked into this alternate not-exactly-here urban fantasy world taking place mostly in Dobrenica, a microscopic European country that never was with politicking embroilments like you wouldn't believe!
What drew me into the first book was the characterization and the fun hijinks that ensued with a bit of romance and a lot of political entanglements thrown in to spice things up. There was just enough of everything to leave me wanting more and I waited with baited breath for the next installment to come out.
This story takes off after a couple month hiatus when Kim left Dobrenica. She's now teaching French and German at a school in Oklahoma trying to outrun all of the painful memories that she left behind when she fled the country to go back to the US. And now months later - and a brush with a colleague's near-death experience - she has decided to go back and once again face those problems.
I have to admit that I'm only giving this 3 stars though. I'd almost put this at a 3.5 but after mulling it over I have to drop it down from 4 to 3 only because the fun, the fast, the furious, the crazy hijinks and highs and lows were not present like they were in the first book. This was far more of a Dobrenican political book focusing on familial and hierarchical relations within the five royal families. New characters were introduced and names from the first book were fleshed out but the overall characterization and charm was not really there for me.
I still plowed through this book in one-marathon session (which I tend to do with books and authors that I absolutely love) but it pains me to say that this book was a little bit of a let-down. Kim's self-absorbed ways and ridiculous use of "Americanese" started getting on my nerves. I grew up in SoCal - part of that in L.A. - and while I'm in my late (not early) 20's I don't see it necessary to say something like 'for the win' or 'frienimies'. The characters I loved reading about were not really present in this book and there wasn't much interaction with Kim and Alec at all throughout most of the book and the new names introduced fell a bit flat for me. Also, while I loved the meticulous attention to detail the Dobrenican politicking and maneuvering started to get a little overwhelming after a while; I found myself tuning out every now and again when governmental procedures or precedents were mentioned. I just couldn't care enough about the politics to love that aspect of the book.
Also.... vampires. Hrm. Well, not where I expected this book to go at all. I did like the fact Kim generally maintained her tenuous grasp of magic (prism power?) rather that suddenly become amazingly adept all at once but the thing with the vampires... Wow. Um. Well, I knew this was an urban fantasy which was hinted at in the first book but because it was mentioned only in passing I didn't put much stock in the magical aspect of this story. It just seemed a little... off to me. I plowed through that aspect of this book because it did not feel like the important part of this plot.
With all of that said, I still very much enjoyed this book. It was a far darker journey but the writing was top-notch, the characterization was decent, the story kept pace, and I still had to keep turning pages because I needed to know how it was going to end. All in all I don't regret my $10 Amazon purchase so that's the important thing.
What drew me into the first book was the characterization and the fun hijinks that ensued with a bit of romance and a lot of political entanglements thrown in to spice things up. There was just enough of everything to leave me wanting more and I waited with baited breath for the next installment to come out.
This story takes off after a couple month hiatus when Kim left Dobrenica. She's now teaching French and German at a school in Oklahoma trying to outrun all of the painful memories that she left behind when she fled the country to go back to the US. And now months later - and a brush with a colleague's near-death experience - she has decided to go back and once again face those problems.
I have to admit that I'm only giving this 3 stars though. I'd almost put this at a 3.5 but after mulling it over I have to drop it down from 4 to 3 only because the fun, the fast, the furious, the crazy hijinks and highs and lows were not present like they were in the first book. This was far more of a Dobrenican political book focusing on familial and hierarchical relations within the five royal families. New characters were introduced and names from the first book were fleshed out but the overall characterization and charm was not really there for me.
I still plowed through this book in one-marathon session (which I tend to do with books and authors that I absolutely love) but it pains me to say that this book was a little bit of a let-down. Kim's self-absorbed ways and ridiculous use of "Americanese" started getting on my nerves. I grew up in SoCal - part of that in L.A. - and while I'm in my late (not early) 20's I don't see it necessary to say something like 'for the win' or 'frienimies'. The characters I loved reading about were not really present in this book and there wasn't much interaction with Kim and Alec at all throughout most of the book and the new names introduced fell a bit flat for me. Also, while I loved the meticulous attention to detail the Dobrenican politicking and maneuvering started to get a little overwhelming after a while; I found myself tuning out every now and again when governmental procedures or precedents were mentioned. I just couldn't care enough about the politics to love that aspect of the book.
Also.... vampires. Hrm. Well, not where I expected this book to go at all. I did like the fact Kim generally maintained her tenuous grasp of magic (prism power?) rather that suddenly become amazingly adept all at once but the thing with the vampires... Wow. Um. Well, I knew this was an urban fantasy which was hinted at in the first book but because it was mentioned only in passing I didn't put much stock in the magical aspect of this story. It just seemed a little... off to me. I plowed through that aspect of this book because it did not feel like the important part of this plot.
With all of that said, I still very much enjoyed this book. It was a far darker journey but the writing was top-notch, the characterization was decent, the story kept pace, and I still had to keep turning pages because I needed to know how it was going to end. All in all I don't regret my $10 Amazon purchase so that's the important thing.
phloxyloxy's review
4.0
This is the sequel to [b:Coronets and Steel|7830913|Coronets and Steel (Dobrenica Duology #1)|Sherwood Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1283959242s/7830913.jpg|10893363], which I haven't reread since last year but LOVED.
I loved this one too, just not as much. It has:
- an intelligent, liberal female protagonist who is classically schooled in the American system, yet ends up being a long-lost relative of royalty
- a Central European setting in the made-up country of Dobrenica, which is quaintly behind-the-times in terms of technology but pretty heavy on the folklore and mysticism
- political intrigue
- murder plots
- fancy royal events
- more than one roguishly handsome lead male
- and vampires. HOWEVER, although their existence is a large part of the story, they are not sparkly [b:Twilight|41865|Twilight (Twilight, #1)|Stephenie Meyer|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1307515757s/41865.jpg|3212258] vampires or overly sexual ones. The basis is on folklore, which makes a difference. I think I might like to reread this once the big vampire craze has passed, though.
I loved this one too, just not as much. It has:
- an intelligent, liberal female protagonist who is classically schooled in the American system, yet ends up being a long-lost relative of royalty
- a Central European setting in the made-up country of Dobrenica, which is quaintly behind-the-times in terms of technology but pretty heavy on the folklore and mysticism
- political intrigue
- murder plots
- fancy royal events
- more than one roguishly handsome lead male
- and vampires. HOWEVER, although their existence is a large part of the story, they are not sparkly [b:Twilight|41865|Twilight (Twilight, #1)|Stephenie Meyer|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1307515757s/41865.jpg|3212258] vampires or overly sexual ones. The basis is on folklore, which makes a difference. I think I might like to reread this once the big vampire craze has passed, though.
meeners's review
3.0
...and this one is basically court duel, but with (evil, not sparkly) vampires as the baddies instead of whoever the faceless foes were in court duel.
eilatan's review
2.0
Really not my kind of book. Might be other people's kind of book, though.
I really just don't like the protagonist. She feels really self-centered and shallow to me and I had a hard time buying into the whole concept of the novel. I will admit that the fact that the vampires are repelled by sparkly things was amusing, though.
Also, the character named Nat annoyed me because I am sorry, that is not an acceptable nickname for Natalie. (Okay, it's not an acceptable nickname for this Natalie: I have always hated it and hardly anyone is allowed to call my by it--it's family use only.)
I really just don't like the protagonist. She feels really self-centered and shallow to me and I had a hard time buying into the whole concept of the novel. I will admit that the fact that the vampires are repelled by sparkly things was amusing, though.
Also, the character named Nat annoyed me because I am sorry, that is not an acceptable nickname for Natalie. (Okay, it's not an acceptable nickname for this Natalie: I have always hated it and hardly anyone is allowed to call my by it--it's family use only.)
annarosiereads's review
5.0
I loved it just as much as the first one.
I would definitely recommend this book, it's a great read!
I would definitely recommend this book, it's a great read!
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