carolesrandomlife

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life

This was fantasy? I would hardly call this fantasy. The books does take place in an imaginary place but that is as far as the fantasy goes. I really thought that it read more like a historical romance than anything else. Except it wasn't as good as most historical romances that I have read. I found this one really pretty easy to put down. I thought it was an okay story in the end but that is really about it. My three star rating is really pretty generous.

This book really seemed to have its roots in historical romance. Adelaide, as she is called for most of the story, is a countess. She is being pushed into an arranged marriage for financial reasons. (Hmm...I think I have read that one before). She poses as her servant to escape the marriage and to join the Glittering Court. The Glittering Court trains women to act more like upper class ladies so they can be sold enter an advantageous marriage. There is talk of pretty dresses, balls, chaperones, and dances.

I pretty much guessed how things would work out for Adelaide early in the book. I didn't figure out exactly how things would happen but there wasn't really any huge surprises in the story either. I liked Adelaide well enough but I really didn't feel much of a connection to her either. She didn't make a lot of sense to me in a lot of ways. She fled an arranged marriage....to join a group that would help her enter a marriage with a wealthy man. Wait, isn't that why she fled in the first place?

I did have a lot of hope at the beginning of the book. I liked that she didn't just do as everyone told her and she seemed somewhat smart about remaining undetected until she decided not to. The boat ride to then new world was pretty exciting and I was looking forward to more action once the group made it to the new world but I was disappointed for the most part. I liked the book a lot better during the parts when she was away from the city and proper society.

I do think that this book will appeal to a lot of people. I think that my teenage daughter will probably love it. I just couldn't make myself care all that much about anything going on in this story. I did think it had a lot of potential but it fell flat for me. I am really undecided about whether I will read future installments in this series. Time will tell.

I received an advance reader edition of this book from Penguin Group - Razorbill via Penguin First to Read for the purpose of providing an honest review.

Initial Thoughts
I would hardly call this fantasy. In many ways it read more like a historical romance but in an imaginary setting. I thought it was okay in the end but nothing spectacular.