DNF @ 19%

This review comes as a surprise to me. I didn't think I'd love this book, but I thought I'd like it well enough. And it started out on the path of 3 stars, which is good in my opinion. (4 is great, 5 is OMFGAMAZING.)

But it quickly lost steam. After Darius discovered his powers in chapter 1, nothing really happened. It was all very repetitive, with Darius getting angry thanks to his new powers, reacting and then regretting getting angry. I got so bored of him regretting everything.

I also didn't feel like the characters had fully fleshed out personalities. They were very 2D, with stated characteristics, but I didn't see them as real people. Kelln was a troublemaker, Christine was...nothing... Don't get me started on how condescending Darius was to Christine and other farmer families: "These were good, hardworking, simple people." *eyeroll* Darius wasn't exactly an inspiring character either, which isn't great for the MC of the book. I just couldn't connect to him at all.

I feel like the book could have had some editing from a third party to really tease out the plot, as well as to catch all the repetition of details and phrases. On one page, for example, the king is said to be wearing a crown twice. ("The King wore the royal crown", then a few paragraphs later: "A crown sat atop his brown hair.")

I think maybe others might enjoy this book, but it wasn't for me.