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A review by myth
The Betrothed by Kiera Cass
2.0
The book is 2 stars because it feels mean-spirited to give it the 1 or 1.5 stars it probably should be. Still, it took me a while to finish and I took breaks, so I'm willing to believe that some of the complete lack of sense-making was due to me forgetting some context.
The Good
I thought the premise had promise, though my faith in this author to carry out a story based on the book of Esther with any kind of nuance or understanding was low. I also appreciate that what Hollis wants evolves through the book, which shows character development even if I don't care for the direction.
Lady Eastoffe was kind of cool.
The Meh
I am convinced DG and Hollis at least wanted to explore each other's bodies. IDK where that should go because obviously it didn't happen, I am aware that with this author it is poor writing rather than purposeful subtext, and of course it was because DG almost snagged the king before Hollis did.
The Ugly
This book was not good. Hollis' motivations were confused, especially at the beginning, and I don't think they were meant to be. Once again it became All About True Love and while some books can sell that, it feels very much as if the pursuit of True (straight) Love above all else, damn the torpedoes, damn the consequences to everyone else and entire nations, is what is being pushed as the ultimate right and good course.
Hollis, despite living her entire life at the capital, seems surprised every time she learns that as queen she would be expected to do things. She's surprised at the idea of political marriage. She's surprised people are angry that she has the queen's rooms without being queen. It doesn't make any kind of sense for her to not know these things, just as she doesn't know or care about 'boring' unprovoked border raids where her citizens die. She won't listen to any of her lessons, she doesn't even know her best friend speaks four languages, and she routinely mocks the culture of a family of refugees in public. She then goes on to mock the culture of a visiting monarch, pretend to be ill to avoid having dinner with one, and then blatantly throws a party in her rooms.
THEN she decides to elope with a boy she's known for an unspecified but short period of time after I think five conversations, because he is a Beautiful White Man who wants to Pull His Noble But Now Refugee Family Up By Their Bootstraps.
Oh right did I mention that Hollis' country is a country of brown people and her personal cross to bear, despite routinely being called beautiful even by her detractors, is that she is Just Too Blonde?
Anyway her solution is to tell the king who she and everyone else knows was going to propose to her that night that actually she's running away with the boy she's talked to five times. She expects no consequences. I found myself muttering under my breath at different points in the narrative 'that's what the boleyns thought' (when Hollis was sure no harm could befall her and everyone would have to love her once she married the king) and 'that's what kathryn howard thought' re: any king ever being remotely chill.
And then everybody gets murdered by The Darkest Knights! Presumably The Dark Knights were taken by a basketball team idk. Everyone seemed to get over the murder of an entire household pretty quickly, and for some reason Lady Eastoffe thinks that she and Scarlet will be totally fine now because the boys are all dead, but they have to leave Hollis for Holllis' safety. Obviously our intrepid heroine won't be having with that, why would she use her connections and now vast wealth to assist, she must run away with the Eastoffe's and her two-hours-married sadly deceased husband's cousin. My YA experience indicates that in the sequel she's gonna bang a man who is now legally her cousin.
Anyway, as usual this author can't write politics and doesn't seem to understand things like common sense or caring about other people. You'd think she'd have improved somewhat after all these books about royal politics, but then again, Sarah J Maas just backslid so I guess this isn't the worst case scenario.
The Good
I thought the premise had promise, though my faith in this author to carry out a story based on the book of Esther with any kind of nuance or understanding was low. I also appreciate that what Hollis wants evolves through the book, which shows character development even if I don't care for the direction.
Lady Eastoffe was kind of cool.
The Meh
I am convinced DG and Hollis at least wanted to explore each other's bodies. IDK where that should go because obviously it didn't happen, I am aware that with this author it is poor writing rather than purposeful subtext, and of course it was because DG almost snagged the king before Hollis did.
The Ugly
This book was not good. Hollis' motivations were confused, especially at the beginning, and I don't think they were meant to be. Once again it became All About True Love and while some books can sell that, it feels very much as if the pursuit of True (straight) Love above all else, damn the torpedoes, damn the consequences to everyone else and entire nations, is what is being pushed as the ultimate right and good course.
Hollis, despite living her entire life at the capital, seems surprised every time she learns that as queen she would be expected to do things. She's surprised at the idea of political marriage. She's surprised people are angry that she has the queen's rooms without being queen. It doesn't make any kind of sense for her to not know these things, just as she doesn't know or care about 'boring' unprovoked border raids where her citizens die. She won't listen to any of her lessons, she doesn't even know her best friend speaks four languages, and she routinely mocks the culture of a family of refugees in public. She then goes on to mock the culture of a visiting monarch, pretend to be ill to avoid having dinner with one, and then blatantly throws a party in her rooms.
THEN she decides to elope with a boy she's known for an unspecified but short period of time after I think five conversations, because he is a Beautiful White Man who wants to Pull His Noble But Now Refugee Family Up By Their Bootstraps.
Oh right did I mention that Hollis' country is a country of brown people and her personal cross to bear, despite routinely being called beautiful even by her detractors, is that she is Just Too Blonde?
Anyway her solution is to tell the king who she and everyone else knows was going to propose to her that night that actually she's running away with the boy she's talked to five times. She expects no consequences. I found myself muttering under my breath at different points in the narrative 'that's what the boleyns thought' (when Hollis was sure no harm could befall her and everyone would have to love her once she married the king) and 'that's what kathryn howard thought' re: any king ever being remotely chill.
And then everybody gets murdered by The Darkest Knights! Presumably The Dark Knights were taken by a basketball team idk. Everyone seemed to get over the murder of an entire household pretty quickly, and for some reason Lady Eastoffe thinks that she and Scarlet will be totally fine now because the boys are all dead, but they have to leave Hollis for Holllis' safety. Obviously our intrepid heroine won't be having with that, why would she use her connections and now vast wealth to assist, she must run away with the Eastoffe's and her two-hours-married sadly deceased husband's cousin. My YA experience indicates that in the sequel she's gonna bang a man who is now legally her cousin.
Anyway, as usual this author can't write politics and doesn't seem to understand things like common sense or caring about other people. You'd think she'd have improved somewhat after all these books about royal politics, but then again, Sarah J Maas just backslid so I guess this isn't the worst case scenario.