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kairosdreaming 's review for:
A Captive of Wing and Feather
by Melanie Cellier
Well, so far I'd have to say this is my least favorite in the 'Beyond the Four Kingdoms' series. At this point, I feel like the books are perhaps getting a tad formulaic and rushed. Which leaves me with not as much connection to the characters.
Adelaide has been missing for awhile. Missing of her own volition that is. After the tragic circumstances of her family, her godmother helped her escape to a quiet town. Quiet until she was cursed that is; unable to communicate easily with the townsfolk, but perfectly comfortable around her swans, she's not resigned to her fate, but she has adjusted to it. But then Prince Gabriel comes along. A friend from childhood, he recognizes Adelaide, and is not content to leave her to the life she's living.
Adelaide, while she has an interesting relationship with the swans, is honestly not that interesting herself. She's resigned to her fate, resigned to her life and while she has a spark of ambition for some things, it comes across as inauthentic. Which then transfers to the rest of her actions. Gabriel was just too much too soon and he kind of whooshes in and does things and the rest of the characters just kind of go with it. As far as the side characters, they were ok. I liked Wren and Cora and would have loved more detail on their lives. The antagonist had shallow motivations and I think more character development could have really made him into a force to be reckoned with instead of a placeholder bad guy.
The plot was fast, furious, and haphazard. There were different things that happened that really didn't need to be in the story at all because they didn't add much value. While it sets up some of the "plans", it could have been told as soon as shown, because again, it was more a detour and didn't add much. Like most of the books in the series, it interweaves the others, and that's fine considering it's the 5th book, but it did it through a speech of Gabriel's that covered the whole history of the others and was a lot of info at one time.
I just couldn't get into this one. I didn't like the characters as well, thought the plot was not as developed, and just couldn't immerse myself like the others. It doesn't put me off the series, but I'm not longer rushing to the next book as I have with previous ones.
Review by M. Reynard 2020
Adelaide has been missing for awhile. Missing of her own volition that is. After the tragic circumstances of her family, her godmother helped her escape to a quiet town. Quiet until she was cursed that is; unable to communicate easily with the townsfolk, but perfectly comfortable around her swans, she's not resigned to her fate, but she has adjusted to it. But then Prince Gabriel comes along. A friend from childhood, he recognizes Adelaide, and is not content to leave her to the life she's living.
Adelaide, while she has an interesting relationship with the swans, is honestly not that interesting herself. She's resigned to her fate, resigned to her life and while she has a spark of ambition for some things, it comes across as inauthentic. Which then transfers to the rest of her actions. Gabriel was just too much too soon and he kind of whooshes in and does things and the rest of the characters just kind of go with it. As far as the side characters, they were ok. I liked Wren and Cora and would have loved more detail on their lives. The antagonist had shallow motivations and I think more character development could have really made him into a force to be reckoned with instead of a placeholder bad guy.
The plot was fast, furious, and haphazard. There were different things that happened that really didn't need to be in the story at all because they didn't add much value. While it sets up some of the "plans", it could have been told as soon as shown, because again, it was more a detour and didn't add much. Like most of the books in the series, it interweaves the others, and that's fine considering it's the 5th book, but it did it through a speech of Gabriel's that covered the whole history of the others and was a lot of info at one time.
I just couldn't get into this one. I didn't like the characters as well, thought the plot was not as developed, and just couldn't immerse myself like the others. It doesn't put me off the series, but I'm not longer rushing to the next book as I have with previous ones.
Review by M. Reynard 2020