‘Get ready for some pretty dresses!’
Summary
Meet Hollis Brite, a girl that grew up in Keresken Castle like all the other daughters of the noblemen in Coroa, forever trying to catch the attention of King Jameson. His Highness was never really looking for a queen until Hollis came around. He confesses his love for her through gifts and silly remarks, hinting at a possible engagement. Hollis, filled with glee, tries to prove to Jameson and the rest of the court that she will make a fine queen, until a new household from another country, Isolte, arrives at Keresken Castle. From the first time she locked eyes with the black-haired stranger, Hollis just knows he’ll bring nothing but trouble. She tries to hide her feelings for the boy, but how far will Hollis actually go to ensure her place next to the King? Would she really deny true love?
Review
I’m just going to go ahead and say that I didn’t like this book. It’s a fact. I had high expectations (maybe too high), which were, unfortunately, not met. I enjoyed a few parts, but this book was in general pretty frustrating to me. I will elaborate about the latter, but I want to focus on the good first.
So, what I can remember from The Selection, Kiera Cass really mastered the art of describing dresses. Her way of writing swept me off my feet and made me feel like I was the one dancing through an abandoned court, light fabrics swirling around my feet. And those moments were also present in The Betrothed, thank god. It definitely eased my pain a bit.
But now let’s move on to the infuriating part. I am afraid it will sound a little vague because I can’t give you the examples I want to give because I’m afraid I’ll spoil you. But I’m going to try. My biggest issue with this book lay within its characters. They were flat as hell. I don’t remember anything about any of the character’s personalities. Like, it’s just blank. There were no flaws, no struggles and no resistance whatsoever. So then it kind of makes sense that the relationships also didn’t speak to me. They felt very rushed and not natural at all (if you did read it, I think you know what I’m talking about). In consequence: I didn’t feel anything for the characters, I didn’t care for their relationships, so I wanted to like the plot. Sadly, that was not the case. Literally nothing happened for more than 60% in, then everything changed at an incredible speed. So yeah, I guess you could say that was not the book for me.
Conclusion
I hope I didn’t scare you away completely by all this fury that is inside me at the moment. I’m just frustrated, that’s all. I’m not sure how to recommend this book if I’m being honest. I guess if you recognised the amorous feeling I tried to describe earlier, you might like this book. Kiera Cass didn’t lose that power yet, fortunately. But make sure you are a fan of instalove, or else you probably won’t like this one.
| Product information: |
| Written by: Kiera Cass |
| Pages: 320 |
| Publisher: Harper Collins |
| ISBN: 9780062291639 |
| Interested? Buy it here |