haven ⋄ f (hiatus)'s Reviews > The Betrothed

*** under further reflection I have lowered the rating down ***

2 -

Most of the book is written Kiera Cass's formula. It reminds me of her "The Selection" series all too much. But then pages 224 on happened and gave the story some much needed variety. For the first section of the book, I would rate it a solid 1.5 stars.

I was quite disappointed in how the royalty acted, politics, etiquette, and in the commentary of the main character.
• Royal actions: The author needed to brush up on her history and read books about and by royalty. That would have made it more bearable.
• Politics: Little to none. If the author would have included more, it would be much more interesting. They were included in such a brief way too. She just really brushed aside worldbuilding in favor to her “story.”
• Etiquette: Little to none. What there is doesn't match the setting. Author needed to do research.
• MC commentary: 100% unneeded. She is rude to everything that she doesn't approve of. People from other countries, foreign clothing, even her own friends. One of the worst parts about this book is this.

I like two things about the main character.
1) Her name, Hollis.
2) After a long while of thinking, I finally decided that her choice to tell people what she did after the crowning ceremony was a good choice.

I don't like the main character Hollis. She's rude, spoiled, and racist. She rubs me the wrong way. The king is little better. The foreigner love interest is sort of interesting, but wasn’t fleshed out enough.

The writing style still needs some work. It is written to middle school girls, even though the content within should probably go for an older age group.

I separated the story into two sections, the first of which being "The Selection" near replica. The second is the new stuff.

Section 1) Fluffy. A lot of times that were pretty pointless in the long run. Hard to get through.

Section 2) Action. The start of character development. Actually interesting and new stuff.

Thanks to the second section, I will be reading the second book. I’m not sure if it will be any better though.