MeowMeow
Part of me wants to give this a 1-star. Man, I hardly know what to say. Two books – this one and Wintersong – that have similar subject matter (a girl is kidnapped and married/bonded to a goblin/troll in order to fulfill a prophecy, living underground, etc. etc.) ... both are just disappointing. Wintersong was boring, Stolen Songbird is cringe-inducing with the characters. Their love was barely believable, they acted like idiots, on and on it goes. Not going to finish the rest of the series, sorry.
The main character is a woman so mind-numbingly STUPID and easily manipulated that she is an incompetent CIA agent who lets her emotions get the better of her. Of course duty and oaths mean nothing, because apparently you just throw all that by the wayside for the sake of a handsome face and to avoid potential hardship. Russia doesn't need all those sleeper cells if the USA is full of emotional, incompetent agents like this.
Before the main character does something stupid yet again, she reminisces about being there for her kids' little moments, like losing their first tooth or soothing them from nightmares. And then she thinks, “this will mean the Bureau won't catch sleepers it otherwise might have. But in the scheme of things, how much does it matter?” ... Really? This is someone who works in counter intelligence, a CIA agent? So willing to throw national security out the window because she wants to hear her kid say “love you mommy.”
That's the sound of my vomit hitting the floor.
Apparently when push comes to shove, women just turn into traitors.
I am so sick of women being shown this way. This is the kind of book that certain jackasses would use as proof that women aren't as good as men, that we can't be trusted to do a good job. That when push comes to shove, we'll just throw country and loyalty and oaths overboard for the husband or kids. WHY WHY WHY do we have to be shown in such a light all the time?!
Can I please for once read a book with a competent, strong woman who doesn't just do idiotic things?
Got about 65% of the way through the book and just couldn't freaking take it any more. The sheer STUPIDITY of the main character (and his wife) really grates, and the fact that the book is simply reaction after reaction to circumstances makes for tedious reading. The whining, the idiocy – oh good freaking lord, the IDIOCY – became too much.
Holy crap this book. I had high expectations from everyone's lofty reviews. WRONG WRONG WRONG. I am so angry that I wasted time on this horrible drivel.
Honestly speaking, this was a disappointment after reading the very beautiful Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher. That was a portal fantasy worth reading, with a journey filled with things to see and do. The characters in Beneath the Sugar Sky go on a quest too, but ... it falls flat, and it just doesn't make you FEEL satisfied.
