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libraryinthecountry 's review for:
The Beholder
by Anna Bright
The Beholder is a charmingly romantic fantasy that left me longing to cross the ocean and explore new lands.
When I went into this, I expected the story of a girl forced into a betrothal by an evil stepmother only to find she’s developing feelings for the one she’s meant to marry. While some of those aspects are somewhat true, this story took me by surprise and ended up subverting my expectations at multiple turns.
First, I fell in love with the crew of The Beholder and I fully expect to learn more about them in the next book, particularly our prickly captain.
Selah is blindsided by plans to marry her off across the world and quickly suspects something is afoot. However, she’s also awed and quickly swept away by the people, cultures, and new places she’s introduced to.
It was easy to get just as swept away as Selah. While this story can’t claim to be a retelling of a single story, there is a blending of elements from Cinderella, The Odyssey, King Arthur, and Hansel & Gretel into the story (and probably a few others I’m not thinking of off the top of my head).
My biggest caveat with this story is that Selah is the type of character that things seem to just happen to. And that is fine, but Selah doesn’t often use the agency she has to question and push for answers or seek answers on her own. There’s several instances of obvious foreshadowing in this that I felt Selah could have used a gateway to be more forward and stop letting people direct her life. However, this is something that Selah comes to do by the end of the book, it’s just unfortunate to see her characterized this way initially. It makes her seem very naive and aloof, especially when one considers how quickly and easily she is willing to give her heart away (something I hope she keeps close to herself in the next book).
Other than that, I’d say the time period is a little difficult to pin down. Initially, I felt the story took places in the 19th century for sure, but there is mention and use of a technology that won’t be as advanced as it is in this book until the early 20th century. If anything, there are times the world building is descriptive and interesting, but it does feel as though it’s fully realized and developed enough in this book. I’d love to see more explanation about how Potomac and the other countries came to be and their story, beyond the brief explanations we get in this book.
However, I think both Selah’s characterization and the time period/world-building are minor aspects to the whole of this book. It’s charming and romantic and definitely pulled me in to Selah’s story and adventures. I’m absolutely going to be reading the next one – I’m excited about where this book leaves us!
When I went into this, I expected the story of a girl forced into a betrothal by an evil stepmother only to find she’s developing feelings for the one she’s meant to marry. While some of those aspects are somewhat true, this story took me by surprise and ended up subverting my expectations at multiple turns.
First, I fell in love with the crew of The Beholder and I fully expect to learn more about them in the next book, particularly our prickly captain.
Selah is blindsided by plans to marry her off across the world and quickly suspects something is afoot. However, she’s also awed and quickly swept away by the people, cultures, and new places she’s introduced to.
It was easy to get just as swept away as Selah. While this story can’t claim to be a retelling of a single story, there is a blending of elements from Cinderella, The Odyssey, King Arthur, and Hansel & Gretel into the story (and probably a few others I’m not thinking of off the top of my head).
My biggest caveat with this story is that Selah is the type of character that things seem to just happen to. And that is fine, but Selah doesn’t often use the agency she has to question and push for answers or seek answers on her own. There’s several instances of obvious foreshadowing in this that I felt Selah could have used a gateway to be more forward and stop letting people direct her life. However, this is something that Selah comes to do by the end of the book, it’s just unfortunate to see her characterized this way initially. It makes her seem very naive and aloof, especially when one considers how quickly and easily she is willing to give her heart away (something I hope she keeps close to herself in the next book).
Other than that, I’d say the time period is a little difficult to pin down. Initially, I felt the story took places in the 19th century for sure, but there is mention and use of a technology that won’t be as advanced as it is in this book until the early 20th century. If anything, there are times the world building is descriptive and interesting, but it does feel as though it’s fully realized and developed enough in this book. I’d love to see more explanation about how Potomac and the other countries came to be and their story, beyond the brief explanations we get in this book.
However, I think both Selah’s characterization and the time period/world-building are minor aspects to the whole of this book. It’s charming and romantic and definitely pulled me in to Selah’s story and adventures. I’m absolutely going to be reading the next one – I’m excited about where this book leaves us!