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A review by claire_loves_books
House of the Rising Sun by Kristen Painter
3.0
This was okay but I really think it should indicate somewhere that this is set in the world of the comarre series and you really do need to have read that series for it to make sense, I triple checked that it was definitely the first in the series because it was so clear I was missing huge chunks of information.
I didn't really enjoy this that much- Harlow is just a pretty unpleasant and selfish character Yes she's dealing with stuff but she's not the only one- Augustine and Lally have lost someone who was a huge part of their lives to (and arguably a bigger part of their lives than Harlow's)
Her sense of entitlement to her mother's house was also pretty unpleasant. Announcing to someone who'd lived in a house for years that you planned to sell if off as soon as possible is just mean and thoughtless. Her obsession about her father to the point of estranging herself from her mother seemed really judgemental- yes she could be annoyed about it but she had no idea what the situation between them was and to distance yourself from one parent because you don't know who the other is seem brutal to the one that is there. Yes Harlow got better as the story went on but not much.
The characters are all pretty one dimensional- Augustine the playboy who just needs a good woman to love him t redeem him, Lally the loyal servant, the baddies seemed evil for the sake of evil- they really could have learnt a few things from the evil overlord list. It was all just a bit predictable.
I didn't really enjoy this that much- Harlow is just a pretty unpleasant and selfish character
Spoiler
If she's so desperate for the money why not offer to sell her half of the house to Augustine for the $850,000 rather than demand he gives her his half for free.Her sense of entitlement to her mother's house was also pretty unpleasant. Announcing to someone who'd lived in a house for years that you planned to sell if off as soon as possible is just mean and thoughtless. Her obsession about her father to the point of estranging herself from her mother seemed really judgemental- yes she could be annoyed about it but she had no idea what the situation between them was and to distance yourself from one parent because you don't know who the other is seem brutal to the one that is there. Yes Harlow got better as the story went on but not much.
The characters are all pretty one dimensional- Augustine the playboy who just needs a good woman to love him t redeem him, Lally the loyal servant, the baddies seemed evil for the sake of evil- they really could have learnt a few things from the evil overlord list. It was all just a bit predictable.