ASIN: B013CCV6HSPublished: August 2nd, 2015
Publisher: self-published
Read from August 29th to September 4th, 2015
Synopsis from Goodreads:
A clumsy step, the wrong branch to hold on to and a bump on the head to leave her unconscious – no more than that causes Eryn’s life to turn upside down and to suddenly find herself in the capital city as a prisoner to the king.
She is determined to keep her magical abilities a secret in a kingdom where magicians have only ever been male as long as anyone knows. That doesn’t work out that well, though. The Order, the governing body for magicians, and the king seem to have their own plans with her, none of them caring in the least that she just wants to leave that blasted city behind and return to the peace and quite of her profession as a healer.
And then there is Enric, a high ranking magician in the Order thanks to his considerable strength, who seems to find watching her struggles an amusing diversion.
Review:
This isn't going to be a full-fledged review. I want to be upfront about the fact that I put this book down at the 53% mark on my Kindle. I couldn't finish it, but I'm going to go ahead and give an explanation as to why I couldn't finish it.
Right away, I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing style in this book. The thing that pulled me out of the story the most was the dialogue. The majority of it felt very unrealistic, and I had a hard time believing that anyone would actually talk like that in real life. It took me out of the story and made reading difficult. It was one of those things where reading the dialogue out loud especially made you realize how off it was, but even just reading, so much of it didn't feel real. That was the first thing that made me start disliking the book, but it's not why I couldn't finish.
Several other annoyances built up as I read, but I was still determined to keep reading. Until Enric just went too far. I hated Enric from the time he first appeared. I think he's supposed to be a type of bad boy character, one of those who's a jerk but girls fall for anyway. I hate those types of characters to be honest, but I can read books with them in it if it's handled in a certain way. I couldn't read about Enric.
First of all, there's being slightly a jerk and there's being a downright despicable human being, and Enric fell in the latter category. He was absolutely terrible, and you can tell right away. I struggled to find even one redeeming quality about him, and even the few qualities stuck in to clearly try to convince readers that he is a good person deep down didn't manage to convince me. I knew he wasn't going to be redeemable from me after one scene where he touches Eryn even though she's resisting. He actually backs her up against a wall and forces her shirt up as she struggles to get away. I think it was supposed to not be all that bad because he doesn't go further than that, but no. No. I was done with him from that point on, and that was the first time where I seriously considered putting the book down.
But even though Enric made me beyond angry, I thought I could make it through the book once I'd calmed down a bit. Until one particular scene. This scene occurs almost halfway through the book. Enric has taken on Eryn's training, but she refuses to do what he's telling her to do. And Enric, as he clearly revels in doing things against Eryn's will, decides to forcibly rip her shirt open a little at a time until she obeys him. He actually starts ripping her shirt off, and it's very obvious that he would have ripped it all the way off if she had kept resisting. That was when I knew I couldn't stomach the book anymore. I did keep reading about a chapter or so past that to see if I could, but I just couldn't. I was scrolling through pages more than anything because it was like I mentally could not bring myself to focus on the words anymore. I was done.
It's worth noting though, that these two instances I specifically mentioned weren't the only things that Enric did over the course of the first half of the book that caused me to have such a strong reaction. They're just the two that stood out most strongly and caused me to have the biggest reaction.
I don't know what happens in the second half of the book, but I'm never going to find out. I honestly cannot stomach anymore of that book or Enric's character after what I read. And as I know Eryn and Enric are going to end up together (That much is obvious, but again, it's worth noting that I didn't actually finish reading to have that confirmed for me.), I cannot bring myself to read about that. Enric passed the point of no return for being redeemable to me in any way far too early in the book for me to be able to get behind their relationship in any way.
I received this book from Story Cartel in exchange for a review.
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