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A review by littlebookhunter07
The Cup and the Prince by Day Leitao
3.0
Thank you to the author and book funnel for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book comes out on the 15th October.
Where to begin. I feel conflicted with my thoughts on the book because I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading it, unfortunately it just fell flat for me in some regards.
The book was an easy read, I was entertained and there was not a moment where I felt bored. The plot kept me intrigued enough that I often found myself thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it, and I wanted to know where it goes. This book had so much potential to be great however this is where my disappointment comes in. There were multiple issues that could have picked up by the novel being longer, detected by Beta readers or fixed through developmental editing.
Characters:
I liked some of the characters in this book, however I did not love them. I felt as though a lot of the characters were one dimensional, and there needed to be more depth to their personalities, motivations, and back stories to give them more individuality. The character that I found the most appealing and has a lot of potential would be Larzen; he gave me strong Loki (of the Marvel Cinematic Universe) vibes and I enjoyed his scenes in the book.
As for the romance, you can tell who the love interest is the moment you meet him. This is purely because of the typical structure of a love interest and the fact that even though Zora exhibits some amount of disgust for this person, she cannot help pointing out how handsome he is. Their relationship felt rushed and the connection they supposedly had was not convincing or realistic enough for me to care about them as a possible pairing. At most I would have believed friendship, although they had no build up, no chemistry and when they kissed, it felt unimportant rather than the milestone it should have been. It would have been better if it were more of a slow burn, more hints at this tension between them, then the romance progressed in future books.
Pacing:
Although fast paced books are generally good and easy to get into, in this instance it impacted the book negatively. The transitions between scenes were abrupt and I felt I did not have enough time to take in what was happening before it moved on to the next thing. It felt like the plot points and action was crammed into a novel half the size it should have been.
Plot:
The concept for the plot was solid. However, I think the execution is what primarily has fallen short for me.
I loved the idea of the shadow creatures manifesting in any dark spot within the Dark Valley, even somewhere as simple as the shadow inside someone’s shoe. I was however disappointed that it was not explored more. That the mental toll that this took on Zora did not play a part in other scenes as much as a childhood of well based fear of even the smallest amount of darkness would have on a person. I hope we get more information and more depth on these creatures and their influence in Book 2.
There are major inconsistencies where the book constantly spoke about how dangerous the games were yet I felt none of that tension because they were over as soon as they began. They also were not particularly large in scale or as life threatening as they were made out to be.
Each competition Zora used potions as an advantage against her competitors and she was made out to be highly skilled in alchemy. However, we didn’t get to see her actually make the potions or get a sense of the process required/how challenges it is to make them or prove that she is as proficient as she says because it was glossed over .The potions she did use were terribly similar to each other and there was not enough variety in their effects or anything that showcased how talented she was. To be fair, it is book 1 so maybe we will see more in book 2? If she were as talented as we are made to believe, could she have not made a truth potion or something to question people she thought were trying to kill her?
This goes into another issue I had. There were many cases throughout the book where there was not a lot of build up or clues before Zora came to conclusions or figured things out. For example: Zora suspects Alegra of trying to kill her or plotting against her and I don’t understand how Zora came to that conclusion so quickly. Zora is painted out to be naïve, she was getting along with Alegra and it seemed they might form a friendship, then she finds out that Griffin and Alegra are involved with each other… and suddenly her opinion on Alegra shifts and when something goes wrong she suspects Alegra straight away.
Writing:
This book was easy to follow for a fantasy book which I appreciated.
Although it is considered YA and it does have scenes that support thisp, majority of the book felt like it was written as middle grade due to the maturity, the simplistic writing style and the common case of telling instead of showing. The main issue I found with the writing goes hand in hand with the other problems I found with the book. This book would have thrived if it were longer, took a closer look at the details and had more development throughout.
Themes:
Feminism – what it is like being in a man dominated world.
It felt like the author was forcing the theme onto the reader as though it was a box to check for every chapter, however I appreciated what she was trying to achieve. My favourite scene was when Zora was at the market and saw explicit paintings of herself. She confronted the painter and he explained that while he wasn’t fond of them and he actually admires her, sex sells and he needed to feed his family.
Overall: (despite my issues) I actually did enjoy the story and I am excited for the possibilities and directions that this story may take. I look forward to continuing with book two, however these issues I have mentioned, if not in some way addressed, may mean that the second book is as far as I may take it.
Where to begin. I feel conflicted with my thoughts on the book because I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading it, unfortunately it just fell flat for me in some regards.
The book was an easy read, I was entertained and there was not a moment where I felt bored. The plot kept me intrigued enough that I often found myself thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it, and I wanted to know where it goes. This book had so much potential to be great however this is where my disappointment comes in. There were multiple issues that could have picked up by the novel being longer, detected by Beta readers or fixed through developmental editing.
Characters:
I liked some of the characters in this book, however I did not love them. I felt as though a lot of the characters were one dimensional, and there needed to be more depth to their personalities, motivations, and back stories to give them more individuality. The character that I found the most appealing and has a lot of potential would be Larzen; he gave me strong Loki (of the Marvel Cinematic Universe) vibes and I enjoyed his scenes in the book.
As for the romance, you can tell who the love interest is the moment you meet him. This is purely because of the typical structure of a love interest and the fact that even though Zora exhibits some amount of disgust for this person, she cannot help pointing out how handsome he is. Their relationship felt rushed and the connection they supposedly had was not convincing or realistic enough for me to care about them as a possible pairing. At most I would have believed friendship, although they had no build up, no chemistry and when they kissed, it felt unimportant rather than the milestone it should have been. It would have been better if it were more of a slow burn, more hints at this tension between them, then the romance progressed in future books.
Pacing:
Although fast paced books are generally good and easy to get into, in this instance it impacted the book negatively. The transitions between scenes were abrupt and I felt I did not have enough time to take in what was happening before it moved on to the next thing. It felt like the plot points and action was crammed into a novel half the size it should have been.
Plot:
The concept for the plot was solid. However, I think the execution is what primarily has fallen short for me.
I loved the idea of the shadow creatures manifesting in any dark spot within the Dark Valley, even somewhere as simple as the shadow inside someone’s shoe. I was however disappointed that it was not explored more. That the mental toll that this took on Zora did not play a part in other scenes as much as a childhood of well based fear of even the smallest amount of darkness would have on a person. I hope we get more information and more depth on these creatures and their influence in Book 2.
There are major inconsistencies where the book constantly spoke about how dangerous the games were yet I felt none of that tension because they were over as soon as they began. They also were not particularly large in scale or as life threatening as they were made out to be.
Each competition Zora used potions as an advantage against her competitors and she was made out to be highly skilled in alchemy. However, we didn’t get to see her actually make the potions or get a sense of the process required/how challenges it is to make them or prove that she is as proficient as she says because it was glossed over .The potions she did use were terribly similar to each other and there was not enough variety in their effects or anything that showcased how talented she was. To be fair, it is book 1 so maybe we will see more in book 2? If she were as talented as we are made to believe, could she have not made a truth potion or something to question people she thought were trying to kill her?
This goes into another issue I had. There were many cases throughout the book where there was not a lot of build up or clues before Zora came to conclusions or figured things out. For example: Zora suspects Alegra of trying to kill her or plotting against her and I don’t understand how Zora came to that conclusion so quickly. Zora is painted out to be naïve, she was getting along with Alegra and it seemed they might form a friendship, then she finds out that Griffin and Alegra are involved with each other… and suddenly her opinion on Alegra shifts and when something goes wrong she suspects Alegra straight away.
Writing:
This book was easy to follow for a fantasy book which I appreciated.
Although it is considered YA and it does have scenes that support thisp, majority of the book felt like it was written as middle grade due to the maturity, the simplistic writing style and the common case of telling instead of showing. The main issue I found with the writing goes hand in hand with the other problems I found with the book. This book would have thrived if it were longer, took a closer look at the details and had more development throughout.
Themes:
Feminism – what it is like being in a man dominated world.
It felt like the author was forcing the theme onto the reader as though it was a box to check for every chapter, however I appreciated what she was trying to achieve. My favourite scene was when Zora was at the market and saw explicit paintings of herself. She confronted the painter and he explained that while he wasn’t fond of them and he actually admires her, sex sells and he needed to feed his family.
Overall: (despite my issues) I actually did enjoy the story and I am excited for the possibilities and directions that this story may take. I look forward to continuing with book two, however these issues I have mentioned, if not in some way addressed, may mean that the second book is as far as I may take it.