I was dying to get my hands on this book, so much so that I preordered one of the alternative covers from Waterstones, specifically the one with the flaming crown. The premise sounded kickass, a dark and twisty battle between three sisters, each with her own power. With such high expectations, the reality was made just that much worse for me. Guys, I was bored.

Which is why I DNF’d at 36%. Honestly, now that I’m studying, I have very little time for reading, and I decided it was better to spend that time reading books I was actually enjoying, not just ones I wanted to enjoy. (And guys, I really, really wanted to love this.)

First, the good. I loved the powers. There were five different types of gifts: naturalist, elemental, poisoning, war and sight. The latter two were rare, so when each queen gave birth to a set of triplets, they would typically consist of a Naturalist, an Elemental and a Poisoner. I also liked how none of the powers were good or evil in essence but could be wielded to do good or do evil. Personally, I was torn between having the ability to control elements (YESSSS FIRE) and talk to animals, something I’ve wished I could do since I was young. (Actually, that’s a lie. Elemental control beats all.) Before going in, I couldn’t see how naturalists (who can talk to animals) or poisoners (who can withstand any poison) could win against the elementals.

BUT. This book was slooooow and really confusing at times. I expected a lot more action a lot quicker, but nothing happened for so long. Too much time was spent illustrating that all three girls were either too weak or too nice to kill others. The chapters about Arsinoe were the worst, with really bizarre tangents that didn’t seem to fit into the overall tale for a long time. The POV didn’t help either, as chapters kept switching focus on the three queens, but not from the queens’ perspectives necessarily. I found myself starting chapters thinking they were from a queen’s perspective only to find out they were from her friend’s. The sheer number of characters didn’t help either, as names were briefly introduced one chapter, and by the time they were mentioned again later when returning to that queen, I’d forgotten who they were, made worse by the way the author seemed to expect us to know the character intimately.

Oh, and the romance was Not Good. I didn’t buy the whole Jules/Joseph thing. I felt NADA. In fact, it felt like really bad insta-love even though they’d known each other as children. I imagine something was also brewing on Katherine’s front, but I didn’t like that either. Basically, there was no book boyfriend potential in the first third of the book, even though people were supposedly falling in love with each other. And you know I usually go easy on the romance because I love me some loving.

When things started getting just a bit too wacky, confusing and outlandish, I gave up. Other books and schoolwork suddenly outweighed my need to know what happened in the rest of the book, so I asked Jamie for a spoiler summary and decided I was done. And honestly, based on what Jamie told me, even though she liked the book overall, I think it would have been too much for me.

(BTW, THIS NEVER HAPPENS. At least with fantasies. Jamie is usually more picky than I am!)