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431 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 6, 2020
Love made fools out of all of us. It lulled you into a false sense of security, and then it left you to burn.
When I started the reading my first thought was "Did I miss something?"
From the beginning, it had seemed like I had started reading the story from the middle. It was like I was thrust into the world without a proper introduction to the story, setting, characters or what had been going on in the opening.
There was a mention of a fable about two Goddesses across the story and how the two Kingdoms came to be, but it was never explained properly for me to grasp the concept. I would have preferred to have a Prologue that started with this fable. It could have been properly fleshed out so that we could get the first level of the foundation for the story to build on and maybe I wouldn't have been so confused during the majority of the book.
There was a severely lacking in the development aspect. There was no proper background or context given about anything.
One of the most important aspects of a Fantasy is to have a solid foundation and if you have failed in laying a proper base then I'm sorry but the story is always going to fall short.
As I mentioned in the first point, there are two Kingdoms — The Sun Kingdom which is in a desert and it is hot all around the year and The Moon Kingdom which all cobblestones and it is cold all year round. Both the Kingdoms come with their specific setting, colour scheme and powers.
The problem with this? There was no adequate description of any of the places and what we did get was not enough.
The castles and the powers introduced were grandeur and it could whisk the reader away but the lack of specification of situations, setting and the powers that were manifested by the three main characters just didn't create that awe-worthy atmosphere.
Of course, if there is no evocation then the reader is bound to have a problem in visualizing anything that is happening in the story.
The castles, the powers, the rich clothes, the contrast in the Kingdoms, the huge-ass bird that Queen Audra would fly upon to travel swiftly — these are some of the multiple instances where I would have loved in-depth descriptions.
I couldn't picture the bird, I had a next to impossible time trying to visualize the clothes or the castles.
How can I enjoy and tell about something when I am not even able to paint half a picture of what the author is describing?
The story was long, wordy and distracting.
Did I get what the author was trying to convey or tell us? I did, but it took me a while to catch on and even then it felt like what I knew was incomplete, and this is just the thing. I shouldn't have to catch up or feel like I'm feeling left out.
The words used in the dialogues were a mix of your everyday language (minus the slang) and the rich language you would expect the royals to use and it just didn't seem in sync. The switching from one speaking style to the next and the mixing of both the styles deviated me from concentrating on what was happening.
This was one of the major issues for me because it just wasn't convincing enough. Who did the author want me to root for? Am I rooting for the right couple? Is there anything solid? I am confused by the relationships.
A quick background — Raiden, the Prince of the Sun Kingdom and Audra, the Princess of the Moon Kingdom had to be married out of convenience but it quickly turned into love before they were married to unite both the Kingdoms.
It was on the day of their wedding, after all the celebrations, Audra's father was accompanying the newlyweds to a cottage when Raiden's betrayal was brought to light. Raiden's guards along with his parents not only killed the King but also tried to kill Audra. In revenge, Audra exiled Raiden to The Edges with no memory of who he was and what they once meant to each other.
Zaddicus is introduced as Audra's bed mate. Her consort, if you will. He tries to guide her when it comes to handling the Kingdom and her powers since she is much younger than him and doesn't possess the patience or the experience. (He fails in both. Oh, also, they are immortals.)
Part 1 of the story initially focused on Zad and Audra and their very physical relationship and I had faith that I would come to love their relationship.
Enter Raiden. Audra brings him out of The Edges, wanting to know what happened before she killed him. It was when Raiden was brought to the castle and kept in the dungeons that we got the flashbacks and finally, little by little, we read about what went that night.
And now started my issue — Raiden and Audra or Zaddicus and Audra?
In the beginning, I was rooting for Zad and Audra's relationship to take shape and bloom because they had that chemistry that could have grown and had that spark as well as have that deep-rooted respect, power and oodles of fire.
When Raiden was introduced and I got to read their past, I found that these two had more chemistry, spark and a dash of recklessness that just made them more appealing.
I know this might be a highly unpopular opinion, (since I'm already on this train why not go all out?) but I found Raiden and Audra to have had a far better relationship build-up, progression and pull towards each other that was far more convincing and believable.
Zaddicus was a great character, and if the end game was for Audra to have him, I'm sorry to say but it failed and tragically, might I add. Honestly, Zad deserved so much better than what he ended up with.
Hell, all the three characters deserved better than what they ended up with.
Be it Audra, Raiden or Zaddicus, neither of the characters had depth. They were too one-track and single-minded for them to have room to grow and become well-rounded characters that one usually expects from characters set in the Fantasy domain.
I've learned that the original title was 'A Queen So Cruel' and I honestly have no idea why the decision to change was made. This is a far more fitting title than what we have now because this is Audra's story.
We do have Raiden and Zaddicus' point of views and not for a second did either of the Kings come off as cold. For all their faults both of them weren't cruel.
This story was all Audra. The cruel, cold and bitter Queen of the Moon Kingdom.