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A review by cala_p
Kingdom Cold by Brittni Chenelle
2.0
Copy provided by the author.
This was the first book I got off a reviewing site called Booksirens. It was one that sounded the best. It was...okay. It started strong, and the writing was fairly good and had a good flow to it, but in a lot of ways the book fell short.
First off, I was bored. A princess is forced to marry a prince from another kingdom, and right before the wedding the castle is attacked by enemies. The prince then stays to help, but then is going to be executed, at the same time the princess is forced to marry the other prince. While the two work together to fix this and find the king. The attempt at drama was there, but it fell short.
Secondly, I was just confused. Said “other prince” “saved” her castle. At first, they hint that he’s the villain. Then it sounds like he is the one who drove the others away, but stayed to try to take over. And the Queen in all this--good or bad, I wasn’t sure. She seems to be working for or with the intruder prince, in exchange for her daughter’s hand, but often this doesn’t seem overly forced. Like she does play a level of villainy in this.
When the castle was attacked, prince/King-to-be helps the princess and her maid with help from his brother. When villain prince shows his true colors, the good prince’s brother gets captured, (Still not sure where he went), and the prince gets tossed into jail to be executed.
At the same time that the princess is working on saving him, she wants to look for her father. But, then so does the queen, who agrees to marry off her daughter to the villain in exchange for saving her husband from the other intruders. Again, what is her angle? Is this just super good writing or bad writing that never thought her through.
Third, the sad attempt at a love... triangle(s)? Square? While the princess and prince didn’t want to marry each other, while hiding out, they do form an attraction to one another. He’s also the only one she has left, so really, he’s her only help at this point. The maid then also starts to form an attraction, after one friendly conversation and a shared look. Again, though, the maid also only really just met him too. So when it comes down to it, the maid gets mad at the princess for possibly having to marry the villain (cause there’s a lot of choice here!) and for not loving the prince enough. If she was a longtime girlfriend or something, I would get it. But this was just a poorly executed love triangle. Then later turns out the prince's brother is in love with the princess too and at the same time, the maid loves him. All while the princess is “jealous” because she thinks he loves the mad since he refuses to go back to his kingdom. Why does she care?
Fourth, connected to that, the characters themselves weren’t the greatest. I couldn’t wrap my head around the princess. In one scene she’s crying and trying to make her maid/friend un-mad at her. In another she’s carrying swords and trying to be a bad a** and help a jailbreak. So which is it? I see she’s clearly related to her mother.
Time jumps by weeks but no indication of it. I’m really not quite sure of that ending.
I could see a good story here. I think it needed some more fleshing out and some finer plot details fixed. As is, it did fall flat for me.
This was the first book I got off a reviewing site called Booksirens. It was one that sounded the best. It was...okay. It started strong, and the writing was fairly good and had a good flow to it, but in a lot of ways the book fell short.
First off, I was bored. A princess is forced to marry a prince from another kingdom, and right before the wedding the castle is attacked by enemies. The prince then stays to help, but then is going to be executed, at the same time the princess is forced to marry the other prince. While the two work together to fix this and find the king. The attempt at drama was there, but it fell short.
Secondly, I was just confused. Said “other prince” “saved” her castle. At first, they hint that he’s the villain. Then it sounds like he is the one who drove the others away, but stayed to try to take over. And the Queen in all this--good or bad, I wasn’t sure. She seems to be working for or with the intruder prince, in exchange for her daughter’s hand, but often this doesn’t seem overly forced. Like she does play a level of villainy in this.
When the castle was attacked, prince/King-to-be helps the princess and her maid with help from his brother. When villain prince shows his true colors, the good prince’s brother gets captured, (Still not sure where he went), and the prince gets tossed into jail to be executed.
At the same time that the princess is working on saving him, she wants to look for her father. But, then so does the queen, who agrees to marry off her daughter to the villain in exchange for saving her husband from the other intruders. Again, what is her angle? Is this just super good writing or bad writing that never thought her through.
Third, the sad attempt at a love... triangle(s)? Square? While the princess and prince didn’t want to marry each other, while hiding out, they do form an attraction to one another. He’s also the only one she has left, so really, he’s her only help at this point. The maid then also starts to form an attraction, after one friendly conversation and a shared look. Again, though, the maid also only really just met him too. So when it comes down to it, the maid gets mad at the princess for possibly having to marry the villain (cause there’s a lot of choice here!) and for not loving the prince enough. If she was a longtime girlfriend or something, I would get it. But this was just a poorly executed love triangle. Then later turns out the prince's brother is in love with the princess too and at the same time, the maid loves him. All while the princess is “jealous” because she thinks he loves the mad since he refuses to go back to his kingdom. Why does she care?
Fourth, connected to that, the characters themselves weren’t the greatest. I couldn’t wrap my head around the princess. In one scene she’s crying and trying to make her maid/friend un-mad at her. In another she’s carrying swords and trying to be a bad a** and help a jailbreak. So which is it? I see she’s clearly related to her mother.
Time jumps by weeks but no indication of it. I’m really not quite sure of that ending.
I could see a good story here. I think it needed some more fleshing out and some finer plot details fixed. As is, it did fall flat for me.