I've previously read and reviewed books by Jennifer A. Nielsen. I'll only link one to put you on the right track: THE SHADOW THRONE. It's the third one in the series, but ...as per usual, I link everything. You'll be fine to choose your own adventure.
Even though this is now a published book, I read an advanced reader's copy of this book. Undoubtedly there will be differences between the version I read and the published version.
ANYWAYS, the amazon summary, "Jennifer A. Nielsen's New York Times bestseller The Traitor's Game, which Entertainment Weekly called "the next big YA fantasy," is perfect for fans of the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard and the Throne Of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas.
Kestra Dallisor has spent three years in exile in the Lava Fields, but that won't stop her from being drawn back into her father's palace politics. He's second-in-command to the cruel king, Lord Endrick, which makes Kestra a valuable bargaining chip. A group of rebels knows this -- and they snatch Kestra from her carriage as she reluctantly travels home.
The kidnappers want her to retrieve the lost Olden Blade, the only object that can destroy the king, but Kestra is not the obedient captive they expected. Simon, one of her rebels has his hands full as Kestra tries to foil their plot, by any means necessary. As motives shift and secrets emerge, both have to decide what -- and who -- it is they're fighting for." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
I've read other books by Jennifer A. Nielsen, so I was kind of excited to pick up another book by her! It also seems to be the start of the series too, bonus!
...except maybe not so much. This story is told from two narrators, alternating chapters, the usual in these situations. Not the issue. Kind of.
So Kestra is the daughter to the second-in-command of the cruel king who holds the kingdom in his very evil, yet magical, grasp. She's been ostracized to the Lava Fields (which are a little misleading of a name I felt), where she's supposed to work on her behavior and be less of a strong willed embarrassment to her father.
The rebels have other ideas.
In swoops Simon with rebels & co to kidnap Kestra and force her to help them find the Olden Blade. They take two of her servants captive and basically tell her to help us or we kill your servants. Kestra is pretty pissed, because if she helps the rebels and her father or the cruel king finds out, she's essentially toast. Kestra agrees to help them because she's strong-willed, not heartless.
So they start their journey of traveling through the country to her father's home, Kestra starts getting all aware of what the kingdom is really like, etc. Simon learns things, character growth. Riveting stuff.
Why am I being so bland and boring about this summary? Well, my book reading friends, the dual narrators talk about each other, wondering if the other person likes them, EVERY CHAPTER.
So here you are in the middle of this black mail, treason, magical story, and you're basically interrupted all the time by thoughts of, "His gaze lingered on me, do they like me? Do I like them?" (Not an actual quote from the book.) Which, should be endearing. It should feel like a reasonable romance is developing. It feels so force fed though. Like, DID YOU KNOW THEY'RE THINKING ABOUT EACH OTHER AGAIN. LOOK THEY ARE. CAN YOU FEEEEEEL THE MAYBE LOVE TONIGHTTTTTTTTT
....
Not quite the writing I was expecting from this author.
However, the overall book was mostly okay. ...if my 'to read' stack gets low, I might pick up the sequel. But there's currently like 40 books in it, so I doubt that'll happen in the next year and a half.
Don't get me wrong, all the other stuff that didn't involve the romance was pretty on point, great even.
...yep.
Happy reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment