Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review:
I so wanted to like this book more than I did. Don’t get me wrong, I sped through it in a day and a half. It was entertaining but unfortunately not very memorable and somewhat confusing at times.
The characters just didn’t resonate with me at all. The only one I had any interest in was Brannick and even he fell flat. There wasn’t much of him until near the end of the story and then his characterization was patchy at best. His speech changed between cultured and immature teenager which made it hard to see him as this swoonworthy fae prince. His tortured backstory, which was supposed to carry more impact, came across as something sadly adolescent and not a trick a fae prince who’s touted as so powerful and smart would fall prey to. The main heroine, Elora, annoyed me pretty much the entirety of the book. I wanted to like her but the insistence that she was smart when she continued to make dumb choices and do childish things didn’t endear her as a character. She acted like she was so mentally tough but broke at the slightest thing, stomping around and having outbursts. She claimed to care so much for her sisters and family but forgot those responsibilities easily when her own desires got the better of her. One moment she seemed completely incapable of something and the next she was so smart and able to achieve what a powerful fae prince could not. It’s those traits that bothered me about her. Not to mention her constant whining about marriage, it’s like I got it, you don’t like it, enough already.
The romance was practically non-existent. It was a weird combination of insta-love and slow-burn. Elora would moon over Brannick’s stunning looks while he belittled her and that pretty much summed up their relationship until around the last 20% of the book. Suddenly Brannick admired Elora for growing a spine and she’s now head-over-heels for him because he was a little kind to her and has a tortured past *massive eye roll*. We’re supposed to infer that he has deeper feelings for her that he’s restraining because of the curse he’s been placed under but honestly the way he behaves towards her is childish and not like he respects her in any way. The two barely interact for most of the book and when they do the scenes are short and not at all engaging. The bulk of their interaction is spent on Elora waxing about how hot the prince is and how he makes her heart race, as he calls her “mortal” and says something she did is disgusting or annoying. Their banter at certain points was entertaining but the chemistry was lacking.
The book drew me in with its lush descriptions of Faerie and the concept of Elora training Brannick for the “tournament” to become High King. Unfortunately there was very little of that. The writing about Faerie was the best part of the book. The rest of the plot elements surrounding the tournament fell completely short. Moments happen too quickly to feel climactic and romantic tension that could’ve been built by having Brannick and Elora train more didn’t happen at all. He’s absent for chunks of the story and there were only two sequences of her and the prince sparring, in a book that’s supposed to be about her training him. I felt there were several scenes that needed to be longer while other ones could’ve been eliminated for the sake of giving the characters more depth and interest. Instead what we’re treated to the most is Elora internally complaining about the state of her circumstances, a half-hearted betrayal plot and a friendship with a sprite that took more focus than the main romance. By the end of the book I felt the only character I knew well was Tansy the sprite. Not Elora, Brannick or any of the fae helping him. Especially Blaz, while there were so many hints throughout the book that there was more to the wolf than meets the eye, the idea was never explored. While the book zoomed by as an easy read and entertaining, nothing memorable stood out. The scenes didn’t have impact because there was no pause for emotion. Even ones that were supposed to have weight didn’t, the characters sped through dialogue and new moments piled up before the last could be enjoyed.
Like I said above, the writing for the book is good in the descriptions of Faerie and the plot concept but after that it can get a bit muddled. This book has great bones for an excellent fae series and even originality in a trope that is starting to get stale fast. However, the characters would need more depth and the plot space to breathe instead of being sped along so quickly. Overall I think the series has good potential, this first book just didn’t quite hit the mark. Will I read the sequel? Probably, I’ll be curious to see if the next book answers any of the lingering questions or improves upon the characters.
– I voluntarily read and reviewed an e-copy of this book I received for free through BookSirens from the author Kay L. Moody. All thoughts and opinions are my own. –
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Author: Kay L. Moody
Synopsis:
Faerie wasn’t supposed to be real.
Tricked by a fae prince, Elora is stuck in the Faerie realm far from her young sisters who depend on her for survival. Under the terms of her bargain, she can’t go home to the mortal world until Prince Brannick becomes the next High King.
Or until he’s taken out of the running…
Sabotaging Brannick’s chance at the crown will be much faster than helping him win. The fae prince may be charming, powerful, and wickedly handsome, but that won’t stop Elora from selling his secrets to the highest bidder.
By day, she uses her master sword skills to train the prince, while ignoring her growing attraction to him. By night, she conspires with a rival king in a nearby court whose plans could destroy half of Faerie.
If she gets caught, Brannick will kill her. But what’s life without a little bit of danger?
Babbling Books 