The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas

1.5 Stars

(The language used was this book's only redeeming quality)

OFFICIALLY FROM 60% IN AND A SKIM OF THE REST OF THE BOOK

Rating:  PG

Violence:  PG

Language:  PG (I think they use “bastard”)

Sex:  PG  (Titus talks about mediocre lovemaking from the prostitutes, he and Iolanthe kiss, as to be expected)

Drugs/Alcohol:  G

               I have desperately tried to like this book. I first started it in 2015, THREE YEARS AGO. Since then I have tried time and time again to pick up the book and like it, gall dangit! But the literary gods had other plans and it ended up just being a mess of a fantasy read. The problem is that this book definitely had potential; it had LOADS of potential. There was a diverse and complicated fantasy world, a prince, magic, a boarding school. This story literally had everything in place to make it great. Instead, it majorly exploded in a barrage of poor characterization, boring subplots, and underdeveloped fantasy contexts.

                I liked Iolanthe to start out. I liked how the book began with a strike of lightning caused by an elemental mage. I liked how Iolanthe hung out with her mentor, Master Haywood, in a little house settled into a little, woodsy town. I had hope. But how naïve I was. As soon as Iolanthe escaped and met Prince Titus, things went downhill. The problem with these characters is that I have read them all before. You have Iolanthe, the “chosen one,” the most powerful mage of her time who doesn’t believe in her own skillset and says time and time again that she’s nothing important so why would people want her? Then, there’s Titus, the love interest, the prince, the guy who seems to be good at everything but hides his tragic past behind a façade of sarcastic wit and a devil-may-care attitude. We then have the traditional villain and the Gandalf-like character and it just doesn’t settle well. There’s nothing about any of the characters that makes me care about them.

                I got 60% into the book and at the 60% mark I still had no idea why Atlantis needed a powerful mage or why they cared. They have an entire city of mages that go unchecked so why the heck do they desperately need Iolanthe? Sure, she can call down a bolt of lightning, but I’m unconvinced that she’s more powerful than anyone else. (I’ve come to accept that I will be eternally confused by the plot of this book, and I’m okay with that. But if someone would like to clarify Iolanthe’s superiority or would like to help me understand why Atlantis needs her so badly, please do, because I’m very confused). I felt like the world lacked in development. The only thing I can tell you for sure is that this fantastical world is set within the real world and there’s a High Inquisitor that runs basically everything and a Callista who is a bad guy (I think). There was also a whole ordeal with this book, The Crucible, that can take the mage to a specific place and time and give them tasks or obstacles they must overcome. This book came out of nowhere and I still am confused as to why Titus is adamant that Iolanthe practice inside of it. Is it to be at her strongest when she comes face to face with the Inquisitor who wants her for reasons unknown? If this world would have been better explained, if there had been more development, I guarantee that I wouldn’t have felt the way I do now.

                Several reviewers say to be patient with this story. I’d agree; it takes loads of patience. Enough patience to last you through 60% of the book and skimming the last 40% before deciding it’s not worth another minute of your time. The plot fell flat, the characters fell flat, and the world itself fell flat. This book did a lot of faceplants. Even if the world or the plot is underdeveloped, it would have been a saving grace if there was good development of relationships and of characters. I was supposed to want Iolanthe and Titus to succeed; I was supposed to want them to be together, but the whole dynamic felt forced and I just couldn’t take it anymore.

                I understand that many people have enjoyed this book. I’ve mentioned in other reviews that I have a bad habit of disliking books that others have loved and it seems the trend continues. I like my fantasy books well-rounded, others like theirs simple and to the point. This story just wasn’t for me.

“What kind of person are you to live without honor or integrity?”

His nails dug into his palm. “Obviously, the kind chosen for what others are too decent to do.”

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May Fortune walk with you,

Lauren

Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

Solid 3.5 Stars

MAYBE I DON'T WANT TO BE A PRINCESS

           

          This book wasn’t bad, it was actually quite interesting; but there were a lot of small things that added up into making it not worthy of over the three-ish star mark.

            The history in the book was interesting. I loved learning about the different princesses or anti-princesses that broke the common mold and paved their way to infamy through battles, sexual favors, or by direct infiltration of the monarchy. Many of the princesses I’ve heard of before and have even admired in the past, but many of them were also weird, wacky, and sometimes downright terrifying. Plus, the shortness of each story was really nice. It didn’t feel like an overload of information which was great for someone with my attention span.

            BUT. There were several small factors that just added up into a controlled mess. To start, there were minor typos. And when I say minor, I mean that they were very minimal such as writing Princess Elisabeth’s name as Elizabeth every once in awhile. They were so minor that it didn’t deter from the book that much; it was just an inconvenience.

            Secondly, for a book that is supposed to be celebrating women, the author used the word slut several times which rubbed me the wrong way. I feel like I would have been okay with it if it was a word that was used back in the early first century and the 1400s (the eras in which she used the word). I don’t know, I may be nitpicking here, but it would have been better to use words that were contemporary to the time. It would have been better if the author didn’t call these women out as “slutty” even when just using the term as an example of a common misconception. Again, this could be totally far-fetched. I was talking to my mom earlier about my dislike for its use in the book (because it’s also not very academic) but she didn’t see a problem with it, so it could just be me.

            Finally, when I was reading through the references in the back of the book, I decided that I didn’t know how many of the stories I could believe. The author used many academic sources for her research, but she also used many non-academic sources such as blog posts, The BBC, and The New York Times. Now, these publications are generally accepted as viable sources for information, but they weren’t written by experts in the field who know exactly what they’re talking about. The articles were written by journalists—and while journalists are good at writing and research, the articles could also be full of bias which makes the information in the book itself less reliable. (I guess it makes sense, though. The author is a journalist herself).

Don’t get me wrong, it’s alright to take information from magazines or newspapers, but take it lightly. For instance, I would have been alright if the author used only newspaper and magazine articles for her stories about the modern day princesses that were all over the press in their times. The press was how information got out during the 1900s and 2000s. I just wish she would have used only academic sources and not magazine and newspaper articles for princesses from 500 to 1000 years ago. It would have made the stories much more believable, at least for me. I found myself just kind of reading, but not having any wow moments because it was information you could find if you did a simple Google search.

            I also wasn’t a fan of the author’s attempts at witty interjections. It ruined the flow of the information. I think the author is a very talented writer and could have just written out the history without trying to modernize it by her wit because it kept my interest even when it was just an outpouring of information. It was an entertaining and easy read; not to mention that the flow from subject to subject was generally smooth (when the author didn’t provide interpolations, of course).

            I’d recommend this book simply because it is full of good stories and it really piqued my interest into discovering more about many of the princesses I read about. Besides, who didn’t want to be a princess at some point in their life? This book simply satisfied my childhood interest (but also made me think that maybe being a princess isn’t all the great!).

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Long live the queen,

Lauren