To save a kingdom, Zara must choose between a prince who could be the answer and a rising rebellion that threatens to take control.When Zara Dane is chosen to marry Prince Sebastian Hart, son of the man who ordered her father’s capture, Zara knows she must fight to save everything she loves from ruin.
Being betrothed to the prince means a life trapped behind the towering stone walls of the Camelot-forged realm. Under the watchful eye of the prince's first knight, Sir Devlan Capra, changing her future becomes difficult.
When an unlikely rebel reveals the truth about the deadly secrets that fuel King Hart’s twisted world, Zara’s path to rescue her father becomes clouded by deception. The Rebels clear her path by forcing Zara’s hand with an ultimatum: sway Prince Sebastian to join the Rebels, convincing him of his father’s evil nature, or they will take him out.
But Zara is uncertain about a future under the Rebels’ command and where the prince’s heart truly lies. She must decide who to trust, what to believe, and what she’s truly fighting for before the king destroys all of Karm, including her heart
The Cover Contessa's Review:
I want to thank Spencer Hill Press, Patchwork Press and Net Galley for providing me with an eARC of this book to read and give an honest review. Receiving this book for free has in no way influenced my opinion or review.
I was really excited to read this book. Forget that the blurb pulled me right in. Forget that the theme was Medevial times. Just the cover itself made me want to read this book! I mean look at that cover. it's so pretty. the colors are amazing. And it totally makes me want to be in that time period, watching what is going on.
Unfortunately for me, this book did not hit the mark. I had high expectations after reading what it was about and talking to a few friends who really seemed to enjoy it. I thought for sure it would pull me right in and I would not be able to put it down. But this was not the case. While the plot has much potential, the execution just did not pull me in enough to hold my interest throughout the book.
First we have the characters. They were fairly interesting. Zara is an ordinary citizen who is elevated to a princess after the prince chooses her as his betrothed. But this happens almost immediately and we don't really get to see Zara in her real setting, to feel what she feels, to understand her life before being at the castle.
Then there's Sebastian, the prince. I wasn't sure what to think of him. I'm sure the author meant for us to feel sorry for him, but also not like him at the same time. But I just didn't have enough background to like or dislike him enough to even care.
Devlan is by far my favorite character in this book. He is swoon worthy. And you can tell from the beginning that he really feels a strong pull towards his beliefs and towards keeping the princess safe (though you are kept in the dark for a while as to why). But, once again, he wasn't fleshed out enough to make me totally care about him.
All in all the characters leave much to be desired. They are very underdeveloped. I felt no uniqueness sot them at all. I just didn't know them well enough to understand how committed or not committed they were to the cause of this book. I needed more background from them all. I needed more information as to why I should care about them, but it never came. I honestly felt little connection to the characters and didn't understand why I should care for them at all. They lack depth and are fairly generic.
The plot had much potential. I love the idea of having this as a dystopian, but there wasn't enough world building to make me understand how things came about. Why was the Outside so dangerous, in other words how did it come to be as it was. The author briefly touches on an apocalyptic event, but it's never really talked about by the characters and we never really understand why they are so concerned with going back to the way things were or at least trying to recapture the prior world. And the utopia that is created is interesting, but there are so many inconsistencies in how it is presented. The characters are living in a world that dates back to King Arthur, yet they are using more modern language mixed in with the medieval times language and it just seems out of place. And the pacing was totally off for me. I was drawn in at the beginning, I really felt I wanted to know what was going to happen. Then Zara got to the castle and I was bored. Nothing seemed to happen, nothing to pull me in at least. Finally at the end (probably the last 20%) I felt the action happening and wanted to get to the end. It was inconsistent and I just didn't care much except I felt I'd invested enough time to need to know what happened. Wolf does put an interesting spin on the fantasy aspect of this book, but it just wasn't enough to really keep me interested.
And worse off is that I read the novella when I was about 4 chapters into this book. While it gave me a better understanding of the book in general, and the rebel cause, it totally ruined the twist for me at the end. I kept waiting for something to happen (after all my friends said there was a twist I would never see coming) yet this twist was revealed in the novella. It just made no sense.
I will say that Wolfe is a good writer. I think she has a good way with words, even if those words seemed out of place in the book at times (the cursing totally pulled me out of the story, especially when Zara was brought up so proper, why would she use words as she did?).
Finally, I don't understand the title to the book. The name comes from Devlan's horse, Fireblood. But I just don't understand how it is relevant to the story.
Would I recommend this, I'm not sure. I gave it three, but really hovered over a 2 star rating. It has so much potential but for me just really missed the mark. And the more I thought about it, the worse I felt about it. So I won't drop to a 2, but know that my rating of a three is on the very low end of the three. With work, this book could certainly be a great success but I would say as is, it's not something I would necessarily recommend to my fellow readers. Then again, everyone is different so I say read for yourself and see how you feel.
I was really excited to read this book. Forget that the blurb pulled me right in. Forget that the theme was Medevial times. Just the cover itself made me want to read this book! I mean look at that cover. it's so pretty. the colors are amazing. And it totally makes me want to be in that time period, watching what is going on.
Unfortunately for me, this book did not hit the mark. I had high expectations after reading what it was about and talking to a few friends who really seemed to enjoy it. I thought for sure it would pull me right in and I would not be able to put it down. But this was not the case. While the plot has much potential, the execution just did not pull me in enough to hold my interest throughout the book.
First we have the characters. They were fairly interesting. Zara is an ordinary citizen who is elevated to a princess after the prince chooses her as his betrothed. But this happens almost immediately and we don't really get to see Zara in her real setting, to feel what she feels, to understand her life before being at the castle.
Then there's Sebastian, the prince. I wasn't sure what to think of him. I'm sure the author meant for us to feel sorry for him, but also not like him at the same time. But I just didn't have enough background to like or dislike him enough to even care.
Devlan is by far my favorite character in this book. He is swoon worthy. And you can tell from the beginning that he really feels a strong pull towards his beliefs and towards keeping the princess safe (though you are kept in the dark for a while as to why). But, once again, he wasn't fleshed out enough to make me totally care about him.
All in all the characters leave much to be desired. They are very underdeveloped. I felt no uniqueness sot them at all. I just didn't know them well enough to understand how committed or not committed they were to the cause of this book. I needed more background from them all. I needed more information as to why I should care about them, but it never came. I honestly felt little connection to the characters and didn't understand why I should care for them at all. They lack depth and are fairly generic.
The plot had much potential. I love the idea of having this as a dystopian, but there wasn't enough world building to make me understand how things came about. Why was the Outside so dangerous, in other words how did it come to be as it was. The author briefly touches on an apocalyptic event, but it's never really talked about by the characters and we never really understand why they are so concerned with going back to the way things were or at least trying to recapture the prior world. And the utopia that is created is interesting, but there are so many inconsistencies in how it is presented. The characters are living in a world that dates back to King Arthur, yet they are using more modern language mixed in with the medieval times language and it just seems out of place. And the pacing was totally off for me. I was drawn in at the beginning, I really felt I wanted to know what was going to happen. Then Zara got to the castle and I was bored. Nothing seemed to happen, nothing to pull me in at least. Finally at the end (probably the last 20%) I felt the action happening and wanted to get to the end. It was inconsistent and I just didn't care much except I felt I'd invested enough time to need to know what happened. Wolf does put an interesting spin on the fantasy aspect of this book, but it just wasn't enough to really keep me interested.
And worse off is that I read the novella when I was about 4 chapters into this book. While it gave me a better understanding of the book in general, and the rebel cause, it totally ruined the twist for me at the end. I kept waiting for something to happen (after all my friends said there was a twist I would never see coming) yet this twist was revealed in the novella. It just made no sense.
I will say that Wolfe is a good writer. I think she has a good way with words, even if those words seemed out of place in the book at times (the cursing totally pulled me out of the story, especially when Zara was brought up so proper, why would she use words as she did?).
Finally, I don't understand the title to the book. The name comes from Devlan's horse, Fireblood. But I just don't understand how it is relevant to the story.
Would I recommend this, I'm not sure. I gave it three, but really hovered over a 2 star rating. It has so much potential but for me just really missed the mark. And the more I thought about it, the worse I felt about it. So I won't drop to a 2, but know that my rating of a three is on the very low end of the three. With work, this book could certainly be a great success but I would say as is, it's not something I would necessarily recommend to my fellow readers. Then again, everyone is different so I say read for yourself and see how you feel.
I’m the author of the YA Steampunk DESTINY'S FIRE (Omnific Publishing), ASTARTE'S WRATH NA Historical/Supernatural, and the upcoming YA Utopian FIREBLOOD from Spencer Hill Press, October 2013. My NA Dark Fantasy OF SILVER AND BEASTS available May 2013.
I’m the creator of YA Bound, a promotional site for the Young Adult genre. Also a member of SCWW and The Apocalypsies.
A proud business owner, I'm partnered with my partner, my husband. When I’m not busy doing all of the above, I’m a wife and the mother of a gorgeous teen boy who's the sounding board for my male characters.
Check out the rest of this website for more on my books and bonus material. Follow me on Twitter @TrishWolfe
No comments:
Post a Comment