Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: August 30, 2022
Pages: 448
Publisher: Entangled Teen
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Synopsis:
No one knows about the twins that are born to the throne every other generation. It is the best kept secret in the kingdom and one that allows the royal line to continue.
Meren is the twin born second, whose only purpose is to be a double for her sister, the rightful heir to the crown. She is meant to be sacrificed for her sister if there is ever a threat.
The biggest threat, King Eidolon, is rumored to have taken the lives of many queens in the past. With the death of the current queen, Meren’s grandmother, Eidolon sends word of his wish for peace and a union between their kingdoms.
On the eve of her sister’s coronation, Meren is kidnapped by a Shadowraith, with whom she feels a strange connection. Struggling to control his powers, the Shadowraith is hiding secrets of his own.
Meren must escape so she can fight for the kingdom’s safety against the impending dangers lurking to overtake it.
Review:
I have mixed feelings about this one. While there are certain aspects that I absolutely loved, there are also things that fell short for me. I think it is a solid 3-star experience and many readers are going to fall on either side of that.
I’ll start by saying that it is a classic YA fantasy story, and if you love this genre and all the usual components then this is a story for you.
Setting: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
My favorite part about this story is the world-building. The magic system and story world are rich and intricate. I would have loved a more in-depth exploration of these aspects. Especially in the beginning, some concepts are a little lacking in description, leaving me wanting a better grasp on the way things are and how the world works.
The premise is so unique and interesting and I just wanted more of it. I wanted more attention given to the magic, culture, background, society structure, etc. I think the lore in this story is one of its strongest points and it would have been more captivating to me if this was done justice with more detail.
Plot: ⭐⭐⭐
The plot is exciting. The sequence of events and the pacing kept the story moving and left me wanting to find out what happened next. The beginning is fast-paced and I really enjoyed that.
There were a few points that had me questioning things. I won’t go into specifics so as not to give any spoilers. But at some points in the story, I was questioning certain actions of the characters, as well as some parts of the story world that didn’t quite make sense to me.
I did, however, feel it lacked a sense of urgency with the plot. I think because the villain in the story doesn’t get any real page time it doesn’t make the “imminent” threat feel real, more a far-off danger that I didn’t feel afraid of as much as I feel like I should have. The tension just wasn’t there.
Engagement: ⭐⭐⭐
It took me a little while to get into this one. Part three is when things started to fall into place for me. Regardless, I was still invested enough to keep reading. The political intrigue is engaging. I loved seeing the different factions of people and cultures.
If YA fantasy tropes are your thing then you will love the ones in this book. I think with a little more fleshing out at the start I would have been more invested in the outcome.
The beginning is a little rough. The prologue was a blandly generic setup that can be found in numerous books of this genre. It could be enough of a cliché that many wouldn’t continue reading.
There are some incredibly unique concepts to this story that hooked me in and could have made it a higher star rating for me if the execution of them was more fleshed out.
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I love Meren’s snarky attitude and independent nature. And I enjoyed the building romance between her and Reven. He is the epitome of a tortured good-guy with a bad rep. Their banter is catchy and emotional.
Of course, enemies to lovers is a favorite of mine so I couldn’t resist, and this part of the story worked well for me. Their scenes together are fun and I enjoyed seeing them get to know and understand each other better.
I would have liked a little more insight into the characters’ development in the beginning, to better see their transformation and connect with their motivations.
Style: ⭐⭐
The voice of the story felt a little off to me. The dialogue sometimes feels too modern, like there is a disconnect between their vocabulary and this story world and time period. It also feels a little too juvenile in some places, except the content of the story definitely isn’t.
At first, the voice of the protagonist feels much younger than her actual age. Of course, I understand this is young adult, but my initial impression was that it is written for a younger age range until I realized that the content is more for older teens.
There are a lot of matter-of-fact statements (telling), rather than implying things with details, descriptions, and actions (showing). Like the opinions and perspectives are being forced upon the reader instead of letting us infer on our own. For example, the emotions of the characters are blandly stated, rather than giving us context to show them.
This caused me to feel not as swept away within the story as I could have been.
Overall:
I feel like my review may seem overly critical. Perhaps I’m just jaded when it comes to this genre because I read so much of it. Or perhaps, because I am an editor, it is my natural inclination to point out areas of improvement.
Either way, I still think this is a good story and, although I give it three stars for my personal experience, I do think a lot of readers are going to really enjoy this book.
Thank you so much to Netgalley and Entangled Teen for gifting me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback!
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