"I should think that this
is what anyone would wish—
to be loved
for themselves
and not their position."

I wanted to like this book so much. I tried so hard. I didn't listen to people's reviews. I didn't pay attention to the average rating on GoodReads. I didn't listen to any of that. I really tried to like this.

But I honestly didn't and that's what matters.

This book is false advertising. It claims that it's a gory and 'morally grey' book with loads of killing and stuff, but it isn't. It's just world building, and honestly not very much of that.

We get a lot of random stuff. Pretty much half of the book is the three queens in their everyday lives.

It's a huge buildup to the (I can't even remember the name and I read this book like two weeks ago) it's a buildup to the thing where they fight & choose the new queen.

* LET THE SPOILERS COMMENCE *

And, after 398 pages, we didn't even find out who the damn queen was! I wanted Katharine to die, I wanted Arsinoe to be ripped apart, and I wanted Mirabella to be queen.

After proceeding to read some spoiler-y reviews of the next two books (which I'm most likely not going to read. If I do they'll be on audiobook) and in doing so I've found out that Katharine is the queen?

*yawn* Talk about predictable.

Joseph dies and Katharine gets a new love interest. What happened to 'loving' Pietry?

I had to suspend my beliefs so so so so much to even slightly think this book is even a bit real. There are so many things that are mentioned that never come back.

They mention specific events and stuff but never mention them again.

We hardly even know anything about the worlds and the whole book is WORLD BUILDING!

The low magic was hardly explained, we barely get to know anything about the past queens, the current queens' childhood, and their mother.

I think I'm mainly just mad that we know so little from a 398 paged book.

It's utter nonsense.

*sigh* i guess ill give this book a break. the parts that WERE gory and morally grey and stuff were really awesome. Those parts, such as the part where they intend to rip Arsinoe apart, really gave the book its three star. This book could definitely merit a two star, maybe even a one star if it weren't for those parts.

I found the side characters much more fleshed out and developed than our main three. The three queens were boring, if im being honest. They friends were what I really cared about.

My favorites were Bree, Elizabeth, and Jules.

I think all the sort-of "governments" that the three regions have are kinda cool kinda not.

It was an ok book. If I'm being honest, don't waste your time or your money. I spent $11 on this book and that's $11 I'll never get back.


OVERALL RATING: 3.0