⠀⠀✧ • ° . ◦ *⠀┊ two and a half stars.



⠀i am extremely conflicted. for the majority of this book i was contemplating unhauling it or dnf'ing it. it was very childish, even though it was not supposed to be. there was no plot until the last 60-70 pages. that plot is what saved this book. it was a twisted, pre-little mermaid retelling and i loved that. with that said, in my opinion, this would have been better off as a novella where a little bit of the first book was included with the last 30%.


⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀and here’s why. . .


⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ as i stated before, this was very childish. this was written in a way that would have made me believe i got it fro the juvie fiction section at my library. however, there was mature (deaths, blood, fairly intense kissing) content in this. i'm not sure if sarah henning knew the audience she was writing for.

⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ the characters were just plain bad. the main male characters seemed to be one and the same. that's it. that's all i have to say on them. i liked nik and iker but... they were flat and their only personality trait was their royal status. our main female, evie, was decent but often annoying. she held on to the past (i'm talking ancestral past) like it was her personal trauma. if i heard evie say that no one liked her one more time i would have gone feral. let's not even get started on her trauma. the other main female, annemette, made me want to scream. in the last 60-70 pages, everyone turns into something that they weren't previously. some of this is due to secrets and lies but some of it was simply out of character.

⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊insta-love or bad writing?. we have three types of romances to discuss today. the first: love that was obviously hinted at during the entire story. second: love that we were lead to believe began way before our story took place but somehow seems that it began during the first interaction we as readers see. third: forced love for the sake of a true love kiss. i accept only the third type since it at least has a little bit going for it.

⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ i've mentioned this a thousand times already so i will just go over this briefly. the writing was wack, man. for starters, i read the word "bodice" too many times. once, it showed up four times on a page. ma'am the dictionary and thesaurus is online and they're free. when the trio was 11 years old, sarah wrote some very... weird thoughts nik was having about our two female characters. i understand it is natural but ma'am i did not want to read that. i felt like my fbi agent was going to come arrest me.

⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊the plot was pointless until the last 30%. there was some decent building within the first part of the book, i will give her that. but most of it was filler. most of it didn't provide anything. with the exception of one thing, anything she tried to use for shock value failed. why? because i guessed it at the beginning. it was predictable until it couldn't be. i will say, i enjoyed how we learned about the past via flashbacks scattered throughout the book. that was really nice and interesting.

⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ this is such a weak complaint given everything else that i have unpacked but the magic system (if you can even call it that) was stupid.. i'm not even sure how it worked. evie made reference to blood magic but it was spell books, rocks, and ink? the characters literally used the same three spells over and over. like, fam, we get it. bring something to life and move on.


final note: i am going to read the next book. i don't know when, but i will. i said this already but the last 30% saved this book. it made the previous 70% worth it. the second book is based on that last bit and it won't follow the same pattern as this one so i am completely willing to give it a chance. for what it's worth, i want to see more of evie.


↠ hardback
↠ 04.06.20 — 04.10.20
↠ annotated? yes
↠ readathon? yes
⠀⠀⇥ owl’s magical readathon