Ughhhh, I will tell you right now that I am in a foul mood right now, but did the book do that to me? Or is the book suffering because of it instead? Probably both. I don’t honestly care. Soooo cranky. And this book is such a waste, in my opinion. Waste of a good premise. I’m at the point now where the only thing I care about in this series is the lore and the flashbacks to the other queens. The only character I like is Braddock the bear. Most of them are lucky if I just feel neutral about them.
The author is clearly obsessed with Jules, even though she is the most irritating character in the book by a large margin. And the author is also clearly obsessed with the last name she created for her, because 99% of the time characters don’t just call her Jules, they call her “Jules Milone” or “Juillenne Milone”, and same goes for her mother Madrigal. There’s a scene near the end of the book where Katharine calls her “Madrigal Milone” and I was so irritated by this at that point I threw the book across the room. This is something I have only done to books on very special occasions.
And given that a large portion of the book is taken up with Jules’ plot, which I very much disliked, any potential in the other two storylines (Katharine coming to grips with being queen, and Arsinoe learning about the last Blue Queen from 400 years before) was squashed for me.
I’m going to finish out this series because I’ve already read three of the four books and they are fast reads, but I’m not holding out hope it’s gonna be a winner for me. Maybe I will be surprised.
[2.5 stars]
