Things I Liked:
The ending was my favorite part of the whole book. I thought the intrigue and conspiracy at court was interesting (at least near the end). Aurelia was a fun character, headstrong and usually smart, but flawed. I liked the romance between Aurelia and Robert, though it didn't seem fully developed. I thought Osterlund raised some interesting issues for her main character to deal with in her position as future queen. However, I think the book would have been improved with some more development in everything - setting, plot, characters. As a side note, I was impressed, with all the whitewashing cover controversies, that this cover conveys the darker skinned Aurelia correctly.
Things I Didn't Like:
Most of the book I thought was a little bit boring. I was not very interested in the characters and story until near the end. It seemed predictable and dull, at least until the end when there were some surprises. But, I thought it was not quite enough to save the reading experience for me. A little too simplistic and some of the good issues Osterlund raised were not answered sufficiently for me, such as how Aurelia would deal with the discontented peasants. A good first book, and I'm hopeful Osterlund will have an even better second one.
Read-alikes:
Crown Duel and Court Duel by Sherwood Smith
Legacy by Cayla Kluver
BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: none
mrg-factor: none
v-factor: ->
a few minor incidents
Overall rating: ***
If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage
