Personal Rating: 2.5 Stars Goodreads Rating: 4.03 Stars Princess Taoshira of the Blue Crescent Islands is appalled when she is ordered to marry Prince Ramil of Gerfal. And he's not too pleased, either. She is used to a life of discipline, ritual, and splendor. He is used to hunting and carousing. They hate each other on sight. But both of their countries are under threat from a fearsome warlord, and the only chance of peace is to form an alliance. When Tashi and Ram are kidnapped, they fear there's no escape--from their kidnappers or from each other. Can they put aside their differences long enough to survive ambush, unarmed combat, brainwashing, and imprisonment? And will the people they meet on their adventure--including a circus strongman, a daring rebel leader, a sinister master of spies, and the best female fighter they have ever seen--help them or betray them to the enemy? (goodreads.com) I hate to say it, but, apart from the strange religions and romantic scenes in this book, it seems like something I could have written in eighth grade (no offense to eighth graders, I was just an awful writer at that age). The plot was exciting, but the characters and writing style were really boring. It seemed like it dragged on and on with weird descriptions and awkward POV changes. While I was held in suspense by the actual story line, I found myself not caring about what happened to the characters. Tashi is… okay. She is strong and courageous for the most part. She’s kind and gentle on a regular basis. There’s really nothing wrong with this character, but for some reason she annoyed the heck out of me (pardon my language). You know those people who you know, and there’s nothing wrong with them, they’re nice and they’ve never done anything to you, but for some reason you just cannot bring yourself to like them? I know, it’s awful to admit to, but I know we all do it (or maybe it's just me and I'm not a very nice person). Anyway, Tashi is one of those characters to me. I just did not like her at all. I knew nothing about her past except that she came from a farm and even though she stuck up for herself in some situations, in others people just plowed over her and she was fine with it. Don’t get me wrong, if I did like her then she’d probably be an awesome character. However, there is that inexplicable dislike. Ramil is an idiot. He was pretty much just a toddler with a crown and excellent horse riding abilities. Undiplomatic, rude, bratty, and drunk, this prince just bothered me. Luckily, he ended up changing some of his ways and by the end of the book he was tolerable. Going through just enough development that I didn’t hate him anymore, but he was still pretty high on the stupid-o-meter. On the other hand, I think his father was probably one of my favorite characters. You know who else I didn’t like? The villain. He was boring and sort of cliché. His sister was disturbing. What am I saying? They were both disturbing! They created a religion based on murder! They are the kind of villains who are so weird and gross that you don’t really even hate them, you just want to sit them in time-out and find a better antagonist for the book. One fun thing about him was that I imagined him to look just like Lord Dingwall from Pixar’s Brave and it was hilarious. In conclusion, it wasn’t the worst book in the world, but I don’t really recommend it. The cover is pretty fantastic though so I can see why anyone would be drawn in by it. That about wraps this up. Have you read this book? Do you plan to? Do you think I gave it an unfair review? Tell me what you think in the comment section below! I’d love to hear about this book, another book you want me to talk about, or ways I can improve my blogging! Thanks! Image Sources: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6449920-dragonfly?ac=1&from_search=true
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