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nataliesboooks 's review for:
The Traitor's Kiss
by Erin Beaty
My feelings on this book are very mixed. And I mean VERY mixed. I am giving this 3 stars, but my actual rating is a 2.5. There was a lot that was pretty good, but there were also plenty of not so good moments.
Also - this is marketed as a Mulan retelling, but it didn't remind me of Mulan at all other than the fact that the main character goes to a matchmaker and botches her matchmaking completely.
What I liked:
1) the clever ways that a small army took down a much larger one. It was almost guerrilla warfare, which isn't that common in YA fantasy.
2) using people you wouldn't suspect to be spies.
What just didn't work:
1) the matchmaking. Sage becomes an apprentice to a matchmaker in the beginning, takes a few notes about the girls and who they would be compatible with, and then forgets all about it until the last 10 pages where she helps finalize the matches. That plotline was unceremoniously dropped after going to a lot of trouble to set it up. I thought that Darnessa was going to be a major character but she was barely in it.
2) the romance was very meh. Truth be told, I'm getting really sick of the "I don't want to marry anyone. I want to be independent...oh wait, there's a hot guy, I'm in love" plotline.
3) the death of one of the characters at the end. It was brutal and really unnecessary
4) the plot was very meandering and hard to follow
5) the point of view changes (sometimes mid-paragraph) gave me whiplash.
Still, this is the author's first book, so I rounded up. Not sure what the title has to do with the book though. Who is the traitor? Sage?
Also - this is marketed as a Mulan retelling, but it didn't remind me of Mulan at all other than the fact that the main character goes to a matchmaker and botches her matchmaking completely.
What I liked:
1) the clever ways that a small army took down a much larger one. It was almost guerrilla warfare, which isn't that common in YA fantasy.
2) using people you wouldn't suspect to be spies.
What just didn't work:
1) the matchmaking. Sage becomes an apprentice to a matchmaker in the beginning, takes a few notes about the girls and who they would be compatible with, and then forgets all about it until the last 10 pages where she helps finalize the matches. That plotline was unceremoniously dropped after going to a lot of trouble to set it up. I thought that Darnessa was going to be a major character but she was barely in it.
2) the romance was very meh. Truth be told, I'm getting really sick of the "I don't want to marry anyone. I want to be independent...oh wait, there's a hot guy, I'm in love" plotline.
3) the death of one of the characters at the end. It was brutal and really unnecessary
4) the plot was very meandering and hard to follow
5) the point of view changes (sometimes mid-paragraph) gave me whiplash.
Still, this is the author's first book, so I rounded up. Not sure what the title has to do with the book though. Who is the traitor? Sage?