JJ

Ultimately underwhelmed by this one. Too close to insta-love. I almost gave up in the middle, but it got interesting again near the end. Even so, I felt emotionally disconnected from them; I was being told they were crying but their actions and words didn't really match up with that. It also made their reactions to certain events feel unnatural.

Absolutely brutal. Tore my heart to shreds. It forces you to acknowledge the reality of the unspeakable horrors of war. I've never cried so frequently throughout an entire book. Henry and Sidney are precious to me, and will forever remain in my heart.

DNF @ 26%

If this book still hasn't interested me after 109 pages, I don't think it's going to happen. The writing is fucking awful, and I'm reading the edited version. The constant and simplistic inner monologue of every character made me want to bang my head against the wall.



The fact that they were in both italics and quotation marks irritated me to no end. When the characters were speaking aloud, the dialogue was a weird mix of fantasy-appropriate (“Madam, you will kindly refrain from barging into my council, yelling like a common fishwife”) and modern speech (“Yeah”, “I'm on it”).

It seemed like a new made up fantasy name was introduced in every paragraph of the book. I appreciate the effort to build a complex world in which the story takes place, but it just didn't work.

The plot didn't interest me, and the behavior of the characters was so unrealistic that it was eyeroll-worthy. Even if they were being devious, as I assume Anaxantis was, it didn't make sense that his brother would be so easily fooled. I'm pretty sure I know where the story is going, but I can't be bothered to continue and find out if I'm right.

2023 Reread:

Still so good! Finished it last night and watched the movie today. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't do it justice because they cut out/changed too many key parts that I feel are pretty central to the MCs and plot, but it was cute in parts. I at least enjoyed reading the book again! It really was perfectly timed when I first read it, and I remember how good it was for my mental health during such a stressful year.

Original 2020 review:

With the US election days away and the pandemic ramping up yet again all over the world, I desperately needed an escape from this shitshow of a year. This book gave me the perfect escape into an alternate timeline where Trump doesn't exist, covid is not a thing, and the president's son falls in love with a prince.

The writing is the kind I love most. Fanfic style, meaning present tense with clever snarky humor. It could have been smuttier, but it was still quite hot. I laughed so much while reading this, and I loved all the characters.

It wasn't super believable, but you know what? Our current reality wasn't very believable just a few years ago, yet here we fucking are. So I enjoyed pretending I lived in an equally unbelievable, but much better timeline, just for a little while. Did wonders for my mental health. That was the authors intention, and I for one am grateful!

Boring AF, too much of the plot was not believable/didn't even make sense, too much unnecessary filler. Also, I'm all for a slow burn, but nothing was even lit in this book. Apparently I have to slog through book 2 just for a kiss, and I'm not sure I can do it. Can someone please give me a hint of whether it's worth it to read the other 2 books? Does it get more interesting?