Author: Richelle Mead
Narrator: Kristen Sieh
Series: The Glittering Court
Volume: 1
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: April 15, 2016
Goodreads
A Quick Introduction: Elizabeth's family fortune is failing- the only way to save it for her to marry into a family with money. After meeting her fiance, she decides that this is a fate she'd rather avoid and, passing herself off as one of her maids, joins the Glittering Court. The Glittering Court grooms lower class girls for marriages in the colonies across the ocean... and Elizabeth, now going by Adelade hopes that it will give her more choice in her own life.
Out of Ten: 1/10
Review at a Glance: Nothing about the plot, characters, or writing of this book made it interesting or remotely believable to me.
Review: Ugh. No. I started off vaguely unimpressed and progressed to very unimpressed as time went on. The thing with this story is that it's, well, boring. There's nothing about it that draws the attention, and I think Richelle Mead's writing really doesn't work for me. I came so close to DNFing this one.
I think the frustrating part with this story was that so much of it was TELLING rather than showing- something that was exacerbated by the fact that I listened to it as an audiobook. Most often we are told that a character displays a certain personality trait, rather than seeing it. I grew weary of the way descriptions were carried out... for all that telling, the world of the story was barely built and felt drab. It almost read the way a historical fiction novel would, had someone done no research on the era they were writing about, and just vaguely borrowed the aesthetic.
I have never really found myself hoping for a love triangle. That is not what I do. At all. But there were moment while listening that I idly wondered "oh, is this character going to come and be love interest number 2, so that I don't have to deal with her moping about what's his name again?" (Cedric. His name is Cedric, Kelly, at least remember his name.) This was a romance with absoloutely zero chemistry... they were just so boring together. Like, what do they even talk about? How hard it is to be the privileged children of members of the conquering nation? The price of silk? How intensely unexciting their secrets are? I just didn't get why they liked each other- I didn't like either of them, and didn't care about them together.
The whole concept of this frustrated me, too. If she was really that desperate to have choice in her own life, surely she could have come up with a better way than essentially putting off being married to someone she doesn't know for another year or so? We are told that she is a very talented artist, surely she could have found a way to do something with that which was less convoluted and fraught with room for error than her plan with the Glittering Court?
The narrator did an alright job. It was nothing fantastic, but I don't think it was her fault I didn't enjoy the book. I think the book wasn't enjoyable in any format.
Overall, I just didn't GET this book. I don't know why anyone thought it was a good idea. The prose lacked any vibrancy, the story had no flow, and the characters and plot appeared to be having a contest to see who could be LEAST interesting.
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