Title: The Stolen Elixirs
Author: Monique Bird
Page count: 324 (ebook)
Publishing: Monique Bird (self-published)
My rating: 1.5/5 Stars
Synopsis: "For the past two years Katrina’s had a crush on Henry. So she's devastated when he uses her to steal some powerful elixirs. They’re so dangerous that Katrina has to do whatever it takes to get them back and right her mistake.
The fastest way out of town finds her traveling with a prince in disguise whose bad luck gets them thrown into a river which leads them to the mansion of a madman. When the prince is kidnapped, Katrina adds another note to her to-do list: stop her crush from doing evil and save her new friend Prince Fitzwilliam. The clock is ticking and she must succeed before Henry worms his way into the royal family.This book is really fast paced and kept a reader turning pages; however, this fast paced story caused me to get confused really easily. I found myself having to go back and read sections over again and then sometimes I wasn't sure what the author had intended for me to get from it.
The characters were the main reason that I held onto this story. In the beginning, Katrina was whiny and easily manipulated, but as the story went on she got better. She accepts that she makes mistakes, and she tries to fix things. She goes out of her way to make things right, and every time we are introduced to a new situation that doesn't go as planned she tries to fix it and nothing gets in her way. I also enjoyed Tai a lot. I enjoyed reading from his perspective the most of all the characters, and I wish I could have gotten more from him. I don't know what it was about him, but I liked his personality and actions the most."-Goodreads
*I received a copy of this book for an honest review.
Okay where do I start...
First, I'd like to say I LOVED Katrina. She was funny, sassy, and interesting. She makes bad choices and then try's to fix the problems she's created. She goes out of her way to make her mothers life easier. She has lost a parent. She has depth, and I felt connected to her. I also like Tai. He was so interesting. Reading from his pov was my favorite. He made me look at different parts of the story and I just enjoyed it.
However, the rest of the story was not for me. I had a lot of problems with this book, and I want to start by saying that I hated how the book went straight into chapter one and introduced way too many characters. Jumping into this story there were already character relationships being formed and I was so overwhelmed with the character names I had to remember within the first 20 pages, and that caused me to not care about any characters that were introduced later.
There was no world building and no cultural background. I didn't understand why some of the things that were happening were going on and I had to reread it over and over. I felt drained trying to reading this story, and understand the smallest of plot events.
I feel like the author wrote this in a lazy way, and used words that middle schoolers would find more appealing. An example of this was poop and fart. I was so angry while reading one section of this story because it was a repetition of the phrase "flaming bat poop," in as many ways as the author could say it.
I truthfully dragged through the last 20% of this book, and I dreaded picking it back up. I found myself bored, unamused, and irritated. I thought because I loved Katrina I could read it and enjoy it, but I was wrong.
The world this author has created has the potential to be complex, but it doesn't feel like fantasy. It feels like just a story with some magic thrown in. If you like character driven books then you'll have a much better time reading. I don't recommended.
*I hate to come off negative. I want to be clear that I treat review books the same way I would treat a book that I would buy with my own money. I can't justify giving a bad review to a book that I hated and I bought, and not doing the same to a book sent to me. It is not fair to readers. If I do not like a book then it doesn't mean that someone else wouldn't.
The fastest way out of town finds her traveling with a prince in disguise whose bad luck gets them thrown into a river which leads them to the mansion of a madman. When the prince is kidnapped, Katrina adds another note to her to-do list: stop her crush from doing evil and save her new friend Prince Fitzwilliam. The clock is ticking and she must succeed before Henry worms his way into the royal family.This book is really fast paced and kept a reader turning pages; however, this fast paced story caused me to get confused really easily. I found myself having to go back and read sections over again and then sometimes I wasn't sure what the author had intended for me to get from it.
The characters were the main reason that I held onto this story. In the beginning, Katrina was whiny and easily manipulated, but as the story went on she got better. She accepts that she makes mistakes, and she tries to fix things. She goes out of her way to make things right, and every time we are introduced to a new situation that doesn't go as planned she tries to fix it and nothing gets in her way. I also enjoyed Tai a lot. I enjoyed reading from his perspective the most of all the characters, and I wish I could have gotten more from him. I don't know what it was about him, but I liked his personality and actions the most."-Goodreads
*I received a copy of this book for an honest review.
Okay where do I start...
First, I'd like to say I LOVED Katrina. She was funny, sassy, and interesting. She makes bad choices and then try's to fix the problems she's created. She goes out of her way to make her mothers life easier. She has lost a parent. She has depth, and I felt connected to her. I also like Tai. He was so interesting. Reading from his pov was my favorite. He made me look at different parts of the story and I just enjoyed it.
However, the rest of the story was not for me. I had a lot of problems with this book, and I want to start by saying that I hated how the book went straight into chapter one and introduced way too many characters. Jumping into this story there were already character relationships being formed and I was so overwhelmed with the character names I had to remember within the first 20 pages, and that caused me to not care about any characters that were introduced later.
There was no world building and no cultural background. I didn't understand why some of the things that were happening were going on and I had to reread it over and over. I felt drained trying to reading this story, and understand the smallest of plot events.
I feel like the author wrote this in a lazy way, and used words that middle schoolers would find more appealing. An example of this was poop and fart. I was so angry while reading one section of this story because it was a repetition of the phrase "flaming bat poop," in as many ways as the author could say it.
I truthfully dragged through the last 20% of this book, and I dreaded picking it back up. I found myself bored, unamused, and irritated. I thought because I loved Katrina I could read it and enjoy it, but I was wrong.
The world this author has created has the potential to be complex, but it doesn't feel like fantasy. It feels like just a story with some magic thrown in. If you like character driven books then you'll have a much better time reading. I don't recommended.
*I hate to come off negative. I want to be clear that I treat review books the same way I would treat a book that I would buy with my own money. I can't justify giving a bad review to a book that I hated and I bought, and not doing the same to a book sent to me. It is not fair to readers. If I do not like a book then it doesn't mean that someone else wouldn't.
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