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A review by janniry
Daughters of Ruin by K. D. Castner
2.0
This book is what you would call "royalty core" with a twinge of female empowerment. Overall this was an entertaining book, it wasn't too bad for a first novel but it could be improved with further editing and pacing.
THE BAD: The plot jumps around alot, sometimes making it hard to keep up (or having no idea what's going on). Rhea was too bland, and had almost no "character", I often wished that Rhea defended herself. Suki had too much character, making her POV's extremely overwhelming and annoying. Plus the parenthesis were quite off putting, making my eyes skip between lines, and having to reread several paragraphs because of this. The pacing was quite bizarre, after the initial recap of the girls being younger, it's hard to tell the timing of the story. Looking back on it, it seemed to take place in a matter of days. It seemed very rushed, causing for the emotion to get lost somewhere in between.
THE GOOD: I enjoyed the setting, it felt like a typical royalty based story. But I could tell the "vibe" was different, it seemed dark and mysterious in a way. Probably just insinuating the sinister actions happening behind the scene with Declan. The reveal of Declan's plan, and hate for Rhea was the emotion I desperately wanted throughout the novel. It was the perfect resolution for Rhea and the conflict of the war itself. I really enjoyed how the POV's were written in different styles. Without reading the name of who's POV it was, it was easily identifiable. The POV's gave incredible insight into the mind of each queen and how they felt about each other and their situation.
Like stated before, the book was entertaining, but thats often not enough for a five star review. But, as a 14 year old I would've ate it up. So when looking at it that way, maybe its intended audience (14+, as it says on the back) would enjoy the book tremendously. In the end, the book could have been amazing with character development, pacing, about 150 pages more, and lots of editing.
THE BAD: The plot jumps around alot, sometimes making it hard to keep up (or having no idea what's going on). Rhea was too bland, and had almost no "character", I often wished that Rhea defended herself. Suki had too much character, making her POV's extremely overwhelming and annoying. Plus the parenthesis were quite off putting, making my eyes skip between lines, and having to reread several paragraphs because of this. The pacing was quite bizarre, after the initial recap of the girls being younger, it's hard to tell the timing of the story. Looking back on it, it seemed to take place in a matter of days. It seemed very rushed, causing for the emotion to get lost somewhere in between.
THE GOOD: I enjoyed the setting, it felt like a typical royalty based story. But I could tell the "vibe" was different, it seemed dark and mysterious in a way. Probably just insinuating the sinister actions happening behind the scene with Declan. The reveal of Declan's plan, and hate for Rhea was the emotion I desperately wanted throughout the novel. It was the perfect resolution for Rhea and the conflict of the war itself. I really enjoyed how the POV's were written in different styles. Without reading the name of who's POV it was, it was easily identifiable. The POV's gave incredible insight into the mind of each queen and how they felt about each other and their situation.
Like stated before, the book was entertaining, but thats often not enough for a five star review. But, as a 14 year old I would've ate it up. So when looking at it that way, maybe its intended audience (14+, as it says on the back) would enjoy the book tremendously. In the end, the book could have been amazing with character development, pacing, about 150 pages more, and lots of editing.