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A review by atrailofpages
Wizard's Masquerade by Jay Pellegrin
2.0
That cover is basically like everything to me, but this story sadly was not for me. I’m so sad too because this book had such potential! I want to preface by saying that just because I didn’t enjoy the book, does not mean someone else will not. These opinions are my own, I know there are many who will love this book and probably would love the main character, I just sadly didn’t. And take my thoughts with a grain of salt. I’m just so frustrated and I need to vent about my feelings.
This story follows Leyna who has the dream of becoming a wizard for His Majesty’s Royal Guard. In all honesty, I’m not 100% sure how to explain the plot. It’s basically about this girl who wants to become a licensed wizard for the king to protect her kingdom and the people in her kingdom, and how she tries to stop bad guys. There, done.
To me, this book had such potential! The cover is beautiful, the romance sounded amazing, and I loved the sound of the magic system. However, it felt so so so short for me. And the main reason is because of Leyna.
I first will mention what I did like about this book, and that was the Jester, and a few of the side characters, and the basic concept of the world. The Jester for me is the only reason I gave this two stars. He was a fun character, I love those goofy, sassy, fun, cinnamon roll men that just bring a smile to my face whenever I read about them. He was just adorable, and I don’t know what he saw in the main character. He deserves the best, and better than the love interest in this book. I really liked a couple of the side characters that were friends with Leyna too. Even though she did not deserve them as friends, I’m glad they were in the book because it really helped me get through the book to have other characters that were much more lovely compared to Leyna. I also like the concept of the world, I do wish we had started the story while we were still in the wizard school because the book started with basically graduating and to me it was like I fell into the middle of a story. I actually checked to see if there was a book before this one because it just seemed such a sudden start to the story that it confused me at first. I think it would’ve been nice to experience the characters being in the school first before getting into the meat of the story, it would’ve made more sense since this is apparently a duology and the way the book ended did not give me the impression that there would be another book. In fact, I like the way this book ended and I really wish it didn’t continue because the way it ended is how I think it should stay.
Now for the main reason why this was given two stars by me. I would’ve given this more stars, but the main character unfortunately in my personal opinion does not deserve that many stars. She, to put it succinctly, was just a terrible person. I have never read a character that I disliked as much as I disliked her. Character development to me is so important in a book, and she had no development. She never improved, by the end of the book she was the same person only thinking about herself and her job. I wish I had kept track of how many times she kept worrying about losing her job because of maybe rule breaking even if that meant saving someone who was innocent, all she thought about was herself and her reputation. At the start of the book I immediately disliked her, but I thought “hey she probably will improve I’m not going to worry about it right now”. Nope. She never improved, and I had to read this entire long book about this girl who is vain, stuck up, selfish, and self-centered. Yes maybe she was tough and rather brave when it came to a sticky situation, but only when she deemed it was worthy of her time to do so, or she thought it was a good idea. If someone else thought of an idea that they should do, she would shut it down because oh I don’t know it was breaking a rule and she couldn’t do that because she would lose her job. And I know there’s supposed to be another book, but I just have no desire to read about her story anymore.
And because I did not like the female main character, I did not find the romance believable. She was not a likable character and so I don’t understand how there was a romance. And it is a bummer too because I love the grumpy/sunshine trope and I love slow burn romances. This definitely was a slow burn, and for sure grumpy, emphasis on the grumpy, sunshine romance, but it wasn’t believable to me.
I really am sad that this book did not turn out the way I thought it would. Maybe if there were a side story, our prequel novella about the Jester I would totally read it because I love that man and he deserves so much more and so much better!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This story follows Leyna who has the dream of becoming a wizard for His Majesty’s Royal Guard. In all honesty, I’m not 100% sure how to explain the plot. It’s basically about this girl who wants to become a licensed wizard for the king to protect her kingdom and the people in her kingdom, and how she tries to stop bad guys. There, done.
To me, this book had such potential! The cover is beautiful, the romance sounded amazing, and I loved the sound of the magic system. However, it felt so so so short for me. And the main reason is because of Leyna.
I first will mention what I did like about this book, and that was the Jester, and a few of the side characters, and the basic concept of the world. The Jester for me is the only reason I gave this two stars. He was a fun character, I love those goofy, sassy, fun, cinnamon roll men that just bring a smile to my face whenever I read about them. He was just adorable, and I don’t know what he saw in the main character. He deserves the best, and better than the love interest in this book. I really liked a couple of the side characters that were friends with Leyna too. Even though she did not deserve them as friends, I’m glad they were in the book because it really helped me get through the book to have other characters that were much more lovely compared to Leyna. I also like the concept of the world, I do wish we had started the story while we were still in the wizard school because the book started with basically graduating and to me it was like I fell into the middle of a story. I actually checked to see if there was a book before this one because it just seemed such a sudden start to the story that it confused me at first. I think it would’ve been nice to experience the characters being in the school first before getting into the meat of the story, it would’ve made more sense since this is apparently a duology and the way the book ended did not give me the impression that there would be another book. In fact, I like the way this book ended and I really wish it didn’t continue because the way it ended is how I think it should stay.
Now for the main reason why this was given two stars by me. I would’ve given this more stars, but the main character unfortunately in my personal opinion does not deserve that many stars. She, to put it succinctly, was just a terrible person. I have never read a character that I disliked as much as I disliked her. Character development to me is so important in a book, and she had no development. She never improved, by the end of the book she was the same person only thinking about herself and her job. I wish I had kept track of how many times she kept worrying about losing her job because of maybe rule breaking even if that meant saving someone who was innocent, all she thought about was herself and her reputation. At the start of the book I immediately disliked her, but I thought “hey she probably will improve I’m not going to worry about it right now”. Nope. She never improved, and I had to read this entire long book about this girl who is vain, stuck up, selfish, and self-centered. Yes maybe she was tough and rather brave when it came to a sticky situation, but only when she deemed it was worthy of her time to do so, or she thought it was a good idea. If someone else thought of an idea that they should do, she would shut it down because oh I don’t know it was breaking a rule and she couldn’t do that because she would lose her job. And I know there’s supposed to be another book, but I just have no desire to read about her story anymore.
And because I did not like the female main character, I did not find the romance believable. She was not a likable character and so I don’t understand how there was a romance. And it is a bummer too because I love the grumpy/sunshine trope and I love slow burn romances. This definitely was a slow burn, and for sure grumpy, emphasis on the grumpy, sunshine romance, but it wasn’t believable to me.
I really am sad that this book did not turn out the way I thought it would. Maybe if there were a side story, our prequel novella about the Jester I would totally read it because I love that man and he deserves so much more and so much better!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.