“Her whole life they have thought her a failure, yet at the first hint of hope, they move to follow her, as if it is what they wanted all along.
Perhaps it was.”
*2.5/5
I don’t hate this book completely. I felt like it was going in a direction that i enjoyed, but the content presented in this particular book wasn’t good. I will definitely pick up the next book, but it won’t necessarily change my opinion on this one.
The pacing was my biggest issue, and I think it is the biggest issue for many other people who have read this book. The author basically spent the entire time explaining everything, from the sister’s powers, to their new families and so on. But there isn’t really a plot. The actual competition mentioned in the synopsis starts like in the last few chapters of the book. Everything before is dedicated to explaining everything, which I think is the main reason why this book is so incredibly slow. When the actual competition happens however, the pacing starts to speed up a little which is why I’m sort of excited for the next book.
Besides the pacing issues, I also feel like the story is pretty predictable. Once all the characters, setting, etc. is laid out, the story starts to unfold but it’s so easy to predict what happens.(mini spoiler ahead) Just to illustrate, once we see that Katherine is like falling in love and what not, we can kind of tell that the love interest would betray her (and he does). There are many other scenes and big moments I could predict too, which made the story way less exciting than it should’ve been.
All these things aside, the story was enjoyable. I love the concept of sisters competing, and even though it isn’t original whatsoever, I feel like the way the author wrote it made it seem more original. The powers and such that every character had was unique and beneficial in its own way, which is why I really don’t know who will win. That’s the main part where it actually wasn’t predictable in the story, since there are so many plot twists that always prompts you to think someone else will win.
The characters themselves were only okay. They definitely could’ve been better. Katherine is unrealistically weak and stupid. She is so naive to the point where I think it’s almost unrealistic that she is so stupid. Arsinoe was probably my favorite character, since she was actually okay and wasn’t so stupid. Mirabella was ehh she was kind of selfish and annoying, but a good character structure and such wise. The only side characters that played a semi-large role in the story were Pietyr, Joseph, and Jules. I don’t like Pietyr or Jules at all, but I do like Joseph. I think he played a good role in all the character’s lives, and I’m excited to see what side he will take.
This entire is book is basically building up to something in the second book. Although practically nothing happens, I think that the author meant for this book to introduce everything (the plot, the characters). That is probably why this book is so incredible slow and literally nothing happens, but all this suspense and building just makes you overly excited for what is yet to come.
Overall, this particular book I strongly dislike. However, I’m excited to pick up the sequel and see the ending to this exciting plot. Hopefully, the next book won’t disappointment! I personally can’t say if I recommend this series or not, but I will warn anyone that reads this book that it isn’t that good, but it is mainly the sequel that I’m relying on to bring the rating back up.