jackieprivett 's review for:

The Veiled Kingdom by Holly Renee

3.5

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Reading the back cover, I immediately thought of Throne of Glass but with more romance! And it did start out that way with Nyra basically being on the run and living in the streets. I wish we got more of her time in the streets and her time with Micah…I think he could be such a cute character! Maybe we’ll get more of him and her time in the streets later on, though.

I saw in another review that this is reminiscent of Divergent and I so see that! I definitely felt that, especially since they are underground, Nyra is innocent and lacks fighting skills, and Dacre is the leader of the rebellion. 

I enjoyed Dacre and his possessiveness, but I didn’t like how it was clearly stated. I may just be used to other writing, but him outright saying he’s possessive of Nyra gave me the ick for some reason? I wish it was more subtle and we’d get that he was possessive in how he acted and what he said around/to Nyra. I was wanting more Fourth Wing vibes, where Xaden is possessive of Violet but doesn’t say it out right. I wished we saw more jealous Dacre with Nyra and Eiran!

Plus their first spicy scene?? Definitely gave me the ick. Dacre gave me creep vibes and was too full of himself and conceited. This was seen throughout the book, too. Their next spicy scene Nyra literally said she didn’t know if that was what she wanted and Dacre was like “you don’t have a choice” which was icky to me. I did enjoy some parts of the spicy scenes though! Definitely different from other books I’ve read!

Again, I saw in another review that there was really no “fantasy” aspect of the book. Fae were mentioned like halfway through and only came up a couple of more times. The only other fantasy aspect was their magic, which was only mentioned at the beginning and hardly ever again. Nyra finding out her power was cool, but I wish we spent more time on it and dove into it more. I think more magic should have been used throughout the book to really get that fantasy feel. 

Again again, in another review, they mentioned the lack of world building. We know very little about the palace and city they’re in. We know the king is taking over and hurting and killing people, but what else, and why? We know the rebellion is planning something against the king and palace, but what? We know people are avoiding the tithe, but nothing else about it. Shouldn’t the tithe have already happened while Nyra was taken underground (I literally can’t even think of their city’s name, since it was only mentioned literally once, but it’s Enveilaria?). I feel like a lot was left out and it was mostly focused on the love story (which don’t get me wrong, I love a good love story). I hope we find out more in the next book! 

The ending was pretty mind blowing to me! After Dacre spoke to his father, I was hoping for a bigger reaction once he realized Nyra was the lost princess/Verena. It was a very quick realization, with him even saying he thought Nyra was her this whole time. Then when he found Nyra in this room and they did it, I was expecting him to say “I know you’re the princess, we have to run” and they’d go together! Yet he’ll be the hunter in the next book! The way he subtlety revealed how he knew she was the princess was pretty great, though! 

In the next book, I’m hoping for more world building (+ world understanding cause I’m confused), more fantasy and magic, and Dacre finding and secretly helping Nyra/Verena! I wonder how Wren will react to the news?!