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chaiteatea 's review for:
The Veiled Kingdom
by Holly Renee
1.5 stars. DNF'd at 34%/Ch 9. Tandem read with audio and the narrators were fantastic so there is that. It was also duet style which yes.
The premise was interesting but execution was lackluster and boring. There is nothing that draws me in, not the characters, not the plot, not even the fact that it such an easy read that I could've finished it before bed. There is just nothing there. No explanations, no set up and it doesn't even need a lot! It has the potential if more time and care had gone into crafting just even a smidge of this world and characters. I was honestly expecting this to be like her Kingdom of Stars series which I have read before and liked. Was that mind numbingly simple? Yep. But it was also interesting and kept me engaged. This, clearly, did not.
All of that said, I did peek around at the reviews to see if maybe I should push through and this book seems to fall into the spectrum of you love it or you hate it but almost everyone has something to say at that last chapter. After deciding to DNF and writing the first part of my review, I decided to read that infamous chapter and nope, I am glad I DNF'd. The moment one withdraws consent during the act and the other party doesn't stop? That's exactly what that is. There is no sugar coating it with "but enemies to lovers!" or any other nonsense. I likely won't be reading this author again.
The premise was interesting but execution was lackluster and boring. There is nothing that draws me in, not the characters, not the plot, not even the fact that it such an easy read that I could've finished it before bed. There is just nothing there. No explanations, no set up and it doesn't even need a lot! It has the potential if more time and care had gone into crafting just even a smidge of this world and characters. I was honestly expecting this to be like her Kingdom of Stars series which I have read before and liked. Was that mind numbingly simple? Yep. But it was also interesting and kept me engaged. This, clearly, did not.
All of that said, I did peek around at the reviews to see if maybe I should push through and this book seems to fall into the spectrum of you love it or you hate it but almost everyone has something to say at that last chapter. After deciding to DNF and writing the first part of my review, I decided to read that infamous chapter and nope, I am glad I DNF'd. The moment one withdraws consent during the act and the other party doesn't stop? That's exactly what that is. There is no sugar coating it with "but enemies to lovers!" or any other nonsense. I likely won't be reading this author again.