Scan barcode
A review by thiskiwi03
The Savior's Sister by Jenna Moreci
3.0
2.5stars
The Savior's Sister is the second book in The Savior's Series, and follows Leila in her adventures and conflicts while The Sovereigns Tournament is happening. It is coinciding with the first book "The Saviors Champion”, just following a different character.
The ST is held when the Savior comes of age and 20 men fight to the death in order to win the favor of both the Sovereign and the Savior. At the end of the tournament, the victor is arranged to be married to the savior and they rule alongside her. However, explored in TSS, there is an internal plot to murder the savior so Brontes (the Sovereign) can continue ruling the realm.
While I loved TSC, I found it different from what I had read at the time, I found TSS a bit harder to read. This book had the same issue with the first in my opinion, and that was that the world, and magic system felt really flat and claustrophobic. With the world, in TSC it was the labyrinth and arenas and challenges that Tobias was in, and that was it… With TSS, the world is the castle, and that’s it… there are mentions of other realms and the possibility of war, but that was almost like a throw-away plot point.
The magic system is not well explained. The few times we do see magic being used, it isn’t explained.. It just happens. She thinks of somewhere and POOF, she’s there! She touches things and they are healed, Hallelujah!!! Enough said…
I found the use of language in TSS a lot more crass than I was expecting. And there was points of regal formal “summon this person, or that person is dismissed” and then in the next vein there is lots of talk about sex in a modern yet vulgar manner. And the sexual exposures (and one in particular) were just gross and vulgar. The one I'm thinking of, and I don’t want to spoil it, quite late in the book (if ya know ya know), I feel like that was just put in there to be a point of shock value. And it was a shock, completely unbelievable and completely unnecessary except to maybe make you hate these characters even more.
I mean, maybe the crassness used throughout the book is supposed to be there, like a “peek behind closed doors” type of thing. But it contradicted the regalness and more realistic dialog within the book, and it just didn’t work.
There was a lot of politics and murdering and things of that nature within the castle, and those were all really boring to me. Politics isn’t something I follow at the best of times, but I tried…
The plot twist revealing who this secret traitor is, it just didn’t work. Readers would be shocked, for sure, I mean if you really went in with your detective hat, it wouldn’t be too hard to figure it out, but this person was one among several rather forgettable characters that show up very little throughout the story. There was no Chekhov's Gun (that I could see), and the reveal just took me way out of the story and at that point (very late in the book) I kind of rushed toward the end.
The romance between Leila and Tobias: I loved TSC because it was sprinkled in there, but there was constant “I’m not in this tournament to love the savior, I hate the savior, I only have eyes for her sister”. It made for a really sweet romance when they were together, and there was definitely some sweet romance in here as well, but there are a couple of points that I didn’t like through TSS… First, and this did happen a bit in TSC, was the bipolar “I love you, lets have a huge argument about something/get out, wait please don’t leave”. It does make me wonder whether either, or both, Leila and Tobias have bipolar. I know they always had a short time together when they did see each other, but the conflicts felt too rushed, and then suddenly they were over and it was all “no, I’ll wait till you’re ready” type thing…
My other point to make is that I found Leila was a lot hornier than Tobias with so many fantasies about him that happen. And when they are written, sometimes I found it hard to determine if they were real or fantasies. A change into something like italics may have helped to distinguish.
While I have stated quite a few sticking points, I did still enjoy my time reading this for the most part, and I have seen that there will be another installment of the series coming, and I really hope we see more of this world and really get to understand it beyond the castle gates. This is an opportunity to really expand. To develop the relationship even further with Tobias and Leila, and let them get to know each other properly. I will continue on with the series, but I am expecting better from the next book.
Characters: 3
Plot: 2
World: 2
Romance: 4
Re-readablility: 1
Average: 2.5
The Savior's Sister is the second book in The Savior's Series, and follows Leila in her adventures and conflicts while The Sovereigns Tournament is happening. It is coinciding with the first book "The Saviors Champion”, just following a different character.
The ST is held when the Savior comes of age and 20 men fight to the death in order to win the favor of both the Sovereign and the Savior. At the end of the tournament, the victor is arranged to be married to the savior and they rule alongside her. However, explored in TSS, there is an internal plot to murder the savior so Brontes (the Sovereign) can continue ruling the realm.
While I loved TSC, I found it different from what I had read at the time, I found TSS a bit harder to read. This book had the same issue with the first in my opinion, and that was that the world, and magic system felt really flat and claustrophobic. With the world, in TSC it was the labyrinth and arenas and challenges that Tobias was in, and that was it… With TSS, the world is the castle, and that’s it… there are mentions of other realms and the possibility of war, but that was almost like a throw-away plot point.
The magic system is not well explained. The few times we do see magic being used, it isn’t explained.. It just happens. She thinks of somewhere and POOF, she’s there! She touches things and they are healed, Hallelujah!!! Enough said…
I found the use of language in TSS a lot more crass than I was expecting. And there was points of regal formal “summon this person, or that person is dismissed” and then in the next vein there is lots of talk about sex in a modern yet vulgar manner. And the sexual exposures (and one in particular) were just gross and vulgar. The one I'm thinking of, and I don’t want to spoil it, quite late in the book (if ya know ya know), I feel like that was just put in there to be a point of shock value. And it was a shock, completely unbelievable and completely unnecessary except to maybe make you hate these characters even more.
I mean, maybe the crassness used throughout the book is supposed to be there, like a “peek behind closed doors” type of thing. But it contradicted the regalness and more realistic dialog within the book, and it just didn’t work.
There was a lot of politics and murdering and things of that nature within the castle, and those were all really boring to me. Politics isn’t something I follow at the best of times, but I tried…
The plot twist revealing who this secret traitor is, it just didn’t work. Readers would be shocked, for sure, I mean if you really went in with your detective hat, it wouldn’t be too hard to figure it out, but this person was one among several rather forgettable characters that show up very little throughout the story. There was no Chekhov's Gun (that I could see), and the reveal just took me way out of the story and at that point (very late in the book) I kind of rushed toward the end.
The romance between Leila and Tobias: I loved TSC because it was sprinkled in there, but there was constant “I’m not in this tournament to love the savior, I hate the savior, I only have eyes for her sister”. It made for a really sweet romance when they were together, and there was definitely some sweet romance in here as well, but there are a couple of points that I didn’t like through TSS… First, and this did happen a bit in TSC, was the bipolar “I love you, lets have a huge argument about something/get out, wait please don’t leave”. It does make me wonder whether either, or both, Leila and Tobias have bipolar. I know they always had a short time together when they did see each other, but the conflicts felt too rushed, and then suddenly they were over and it was all “no, I’ll wait till you’re ready” type thing…
My other point to make is that I found Leila was a lot hornier than Tobias with so many fantasies about him that happen. And when they are written, sometimes I found it hard to determine if they were real or fantasies. A change into something like italics may have helped to distinguish.
While I have stated quite a few sticking points, I did still enjoy my time reading this for the most part, and I have seen that there will be another installment of the series coming, and I really hope we see more of this world and really get to understand it beyond the castle gates. This is an opportunity to really expand. To develop the relationship even further with Tobias and Leila, and let them get to know each other properly. I will continue on with the series, but I am expecting better from the next book.
Characters: 3
Plot: 2
World: 2
Romance: 4
Re-readablility: 1
Average: 2.5