Personal Rating: 2.5 Stars Goodreads Rating (pre-release): 4.29 Content Rating: Strong PG-13 In the Alskad Empire, nearly all are born with a twin, two halves to form one whole…yet some face the world alone. The singleborn A rare few are singleborn in each generation, and therefore given the right to rule by the gods and goddesses. Bo Trousillion is one of these few, born into the royal line and destined to rule. Though he has been chosen to succeed his great-aunt, Queen Runa, as the leader of the Alskad Empire, Bo has never felt equal to the grand future before him. The diminished When one twin dies, the other usually follows, unable to face the world without their other half. Those who survive are considered diminished, doomed to succumb to the violent grief that inevitably destroys everyone whose twin has died. Such is the fate of Vi Abernathy, whose twin sister died in infancy. Raised by the anchorites of the temple after her family cast her off, Vi has spent her whole life scheming for a way to escape and live out what's left of her life in peace. As their sixteenth birthdays approach, Bo and Vi face very different futures—one a life of luxury as the heir to the throne, the other years of backbreaking work as a temple servant. But a long-held secret and the fate of the empire are destined to bring them together in a way they never could have imagined. (goodreads.com) Okay, first things first: I won a Goodreads giveaway and was sent an ARC of this book, so thank you very much to Goodreads and Harlequin Teen! The release date of the book to the general public is set for April 10th of this year (2018), so if this seems like something you’d be interested in be sure to be on the lookout for it. With that said let’s get down to brass tacks shall we? I love saying “let’s get down to brass tacks” because it makes me feel like a clever and suave business person or mob boss or something. But, I digress from the brass tacks so let’s get down to those. I love the concept for this book, it is really original and interesting. The idea that it’s more normal to have a twin than to be single born was fascinating to me, and somewhat funny because my two younger brothers are twins and they don’t get along near as well as most of the twins in this book. There were a few questions that I had that didn’t get answered in the book, like if triplets, quadruplets, etc. were a thing in this world, and what about conjoined twins? From what I could tell, it didn’t seem like giving birth to more than two kids was something that happened in this world, but they never touched on the subject and they also never mentioned if twins were ever conjoined. Maybe in the sequel? Regardless, it’s still a curious idea for a story. Did I think the plot of this story lived up to it’s intriguing synopsis? Eh… kind of. It wasn’t what I was expecting for sure. Well, in a way it kind of was. I sorta guessed the major plot twist just from reading the back of the book. And, to be sure, the plot had some really good points. There was adventure, fighting, explosions, rebels, and everything to make it exciting. But it was incredibly difficult for me to get into and I didn’t really start to get interested until, like, ten chapters in and even then there were some parts that allowed my mind to wander. I can say that things really picked up toward the end and we had several new developments thrown in at the last minute. This both had me reeling to keep all of the secrets and deceit straight and interested to see where the series will end up. The world building for the story was pretty good. Since I only have an ARC I don’t know what the final copies of this book will look like yet, but I hope they have maps. I would have really appreciated a map of Alskad and Ilor and the other countries mentioned in the book. Apart from that, Kaitlyn Sage Patterson painted a vivid picture of her world and she did it all without info-dumping, which was nice. I especially like how you don’t realize that it’s a matriarchal society and it just kind of starts to dawn on you as people make comments about how men shouldn’t be left in charge of finances and houses and ships and things. I liked how subtly details of the world were woven in. As you might have heard, a novel is only as good as it’s characters so let’s talk about the inhabitants of The Diminished: First we have Vi (or Obedience Violette Abernathy if you want to make her mad at you). She is our “diminished”, or “dimmy” as everyone decides to call the twin lacking people, and she has had a rough life as many YA protagonists have. She is raised by the temple and is basically a slave until she’s sixteen, at which point she faces a future of more back breaking labor as punishment for her actions. Scorned by society because they think she’s basically going to go nuts at some point, Vi only has one friend and another person who tolerates her and they are moving away at the beginning of the book. Vi is bitter about her rocky life and she is distrusting as she well should be. She is sassy and angry. She does have a strong personality, but something about her just grated on my nerves and unfortunately I can’t put my finger on what. There was something about her that bothered me, but I can’t pinpoint it. I am not supposed to take direct quotes from the ARC, since they might change by the time the book is published, but there was a part of the book where Vi was described as being dynamic. Personally, I don’t think you should ever use a compliment that reviewers give to characters to describe your character, but that could just be my opinion. Then we’ve got Bo (or Lord Ambrose Oswin Trousillion Gyllen if you wanna be fancy). I didn’t hate the guy. In fact, I probably liked him a little better than Vi. I liked that I could see some real development in his character and that he had flaws, such as being too trusting and occasionally being ignorant of important information or basic life skills. He started out as very whiny, but by the end of it he was significantly less whiny. Which was nice. I think he dealt with most of his problems realistically and he dealt with insufferable relatives in a relatable way (most of the time). Can I say something really nit picky? No? Too bad, I’m going to anyway. I didn’t think Bo or Vi’s name fit either of them. I felt like “Vi” was too elegant a name for her, especially if it isn’t her given name. I don’t think it’s the kind of name she would choose to call herself. I don’t know what she’d call herself, but in my head she seemed more like she should be named “Molly” or “Fiona” or something vaguely Celtic. Maybe because she’s from the north? I don’t know. And “Bo” wasn’t working for me either. I’m pretty sure it’s because when I hear the name I can only think of the character from Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke who is an adorable little boy. So I was picturing the guy in this book as, like, a ten year old at most. His full name “Ambrose” felt more fitting. Like I said, I’m being incredibly nit picky so don’t take any of the name business to heart. There is something else I feel the need to discuss that somewhat impeded my enjoyment of the book. This is a minor spoiler so if you don’t want to read it just skip ahead to where the words turn bold again. So… when it is announced that Bo is the heir to the throne, the first thing his mother does is ask the reigning monarch who he will be engaged to. The queen doesn’t hesitate with her answer of Bo’s cousin. And even though this is supposed to take place in a world reminiscent of Victorian England, no one batted an eye at this fact. Like, what? I get that it might fit with the world building, but even then I’d kind of prefer we steer away from the incest. Right? Am I the only one weirded out by the fact that everyone was totally okay that he was going to marry his cousin? And, sure, Bo was upset about it, but that was only because if he married his cousin, Penelope, it meant he couldn’t be with her brother. So the incest wasn’t the reason he objected to this match. I just… why? Why? Was that necessary? Really? I don’t… I just don’t understand. Even though they don’t end up together I just can’t wrap my head around it. I mean seriously?! Okay, rant over. End minor spoiler! Even though the plot was interesting, the characters tolerable, and the concept unique, I didn’t enjoy this book overmuch. It was fine, but it dragged on and on and with a cliffhanger ending I felt like three fourths of the book were just a load of details that had to be gotten out of the way before the rest of the series could progress. So, while I’m curious about what happens next, I don’t expect to read the second book whenever it comes out. I’m not sure that I would recommend this book, but it wasn’t a terrible way to while away my day off. From a conservative perspective I’d say probably stay away from this one. I was disappointed that it wasn’t something that I could give a really positive review to, but, like I said, it wasn’t awful. Well, since I’m a singleborn I’d best get back to my grand future of ruling Alskad. Later! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35140574-the-diminished
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