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A review by the_reading_devices
Legend of the Lakes by Clara O'Connor
3.0
2.75
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins One More Chapter for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Concluding the Once and Future Queen trilogy, comes Legend of the Lakes, a book I was eagerly awaiting after the great cliff-hanger that ended book two.
However, I was sadly disappointed to see pretty much all of my expectations let down, in a book that was, for the most part, just plain boring: events and days repeated themselves unchanging over and over with the occasional time jump to add at least a semblance of movement and a bit of spice in the main romantic relationship. One that, once again, sorely disappointed my expectation of a nice slow-burn hate-to-love, turning out to be one of those they-hate-each-other’s-guts-until-they-sleep-together, followed by the equally annoying they-wake-up-in-love-without-any-emotional-development-whatsoever.
In terms of worldbuilding, at least the question of the incompatibility between technology and magic was answered, but still it did sometimes feel a tad too convenient, while other elements of the history and lore were sometimes included in such a way, they almost looked like they were thrown in with the sole purpose of name dropping.
The last part was definitely the most exciting one, both in terms of story and characters, as betrayals followed secret plots and more truths were revealed… even though the final showdown was still not the best it could have been and was entirely predictable in my opinion.
Overall, I thought the series had a lot of potential and if I was happy to look over a few issues with the first book for the sake of its originality, I was sadly increasingly disappointed with the sequels, and I think maybe this could have worked better as a duology instead, and with a little more work on the intricacies of the world and relationships.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins One More Chapter for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Concluding the Once and Future Queen trilogy, comes Legend of the Lakes, a book I was eagerly awaiting after the great cliff-hanger that ended book two.
However, I was sadly disappointed to see pretty much all of my expectations let down, in a book that was, for the most part, just plain boring: events and days repeated themselves unchanging over and over with the occasional time jump to add at least a semblance of movement and a bit of spice in the main romantic relationship. One that, once again, sorely disappointed my expectation of a nice slow-burn hate-to-love, turning out to be one of those they-hate-each-other’s-guts-until-they-sleep-together, followed by the equally annoying they-wake-up-in-love-without-any-emotional-development-whatsoever.
In terms of worldbuilding, at least the question of the incompatibility between technology and magic was answered, but still it did sometimes feel a tad too convenient, while other elements of the history and lore were sometimes included in such a way, they almost looked like they were thrown in with the sole purpose of name dropping.
The last part was definitely the most exciting one, both in terms of story and characters, as betrayals followed secret plots and more truths were revealed… even though the final showdown was still not the best it could have been and was entirely predictable in my opinion.
Overall, I thought the series had a lot of potential and if I was happy to look over a few issues with the first book for the sake of its originality, I was sadly increasingly disappointed with the sequels, and I think maybe this could have worked better as a duology instead, and with a little more work on the intricacies of the world and relationships.