A Crown of Wishes

“What was magic anyway, but the world beheld by someone who chose to see it differently?”

2.25/5 stars

Biggest lie of 2017 so far : “Hey Emi, read this book. It's as beautiful as its cover.”

To the person who told me this, and you know who you are, I don't know if I can ever possibly forgive you. Please send me pictures of Harry Styles and I might reconsider.

What's with me reading all these disappointing books lately? It needs to stop please. I don't have time for this.

It was actually painful for me to read this. So painful, in fact, I'm considering checking myself into the hospital bc my entire being hurts so much. And it wasn't that this book was bad, on the contrary, the writing and plot were quite good, but I just felt so utterly unattached to everything that I just didn't care. In the end, Guari and Vikram could have been struck by a giant meteor and been replaced with dancing ostriches and I still wouldn't have given two shits. I was so close to DNFing this, I am actually shocked that I pushed through till the end.



I think my first sign that I was going to hate this books was when, in the first few chapters, we are just thrown into two character's lives and expected to know exactly what is going on with them. Spoiler alert: I still have no effing idea what is going on with them. There was no detailed explanation about the events that had transpired before the beginning of this book. Perhaps it was explained in [b:The Star-Touched Queen|25203675|The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen, #1)|Roshani Chokshi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1446058438s/25203675.jpg|44916095] but that book was such a trainwreck as well, that I don't really remember anything that happened within it.

The book begins with Gauri, a princess of some country that I couldn't care less about, jailed and waiting for execution in some different foreign country, but why exactly? I know it was explained why, but I don't know whether that explanation was just really weak or I just so #done with this book that I just skimmed over the entire thing. All I could figure out is she's in jail and that's about it.

Then we have Vikram, a prince-who's-not-a-prince, who is suppose to execute Gauri, but instead decides that she'll be a great edition to his superhero team (sorry that's a lie: it's not actually a superhero team. This book isn't that cool.) and recruits her to go to some magical land of magic to compete in Caraval The Tournament of Wishes together. Because why wouldn't you want some potentially dangerous princess as a teammate? Makes excellent sense to me. And why was Vikram a prince, but not a prince? I'm not actually sure. It was something about his mother being crushed by rocks and the king, very graciously, adopting him. The details are still really hazy to me right now.

Those are pretty much the only two characters I know. Other than that, anyone else who showed up all seemed to blend together into one, boring, side character. I was pretty much like:



Also what the eff is The Tournament of Wishes? I just read almost four hundred pages about it and I still don't understand what it is. But let's be real here. By page 25 I literally had no idea what the hell was going on.

If someone came up to me right now, while I'm still fresh off of reading this book, and offered me a million dollars if I can name what Gauri and Vikram did to win the Tournament of Wishes I don't think I can answer them? I don't even think I could conjure up some elaborate lie.

The book is told from different perspectives, mainly between Gauri and Vikram. Which I'm usually cool with. Practically every book nowadays is told between a thousand points of view. But what I wasn't very cool with was the fact that Gauri's chapters were in first person, while Vikram's were in third. Just thinking about this is making me mad. I like my books to be consistent, thank you very much. Please choose a point of view and stick with it.



Then some of the things I do remember happening in this book are just sooo weird. Gauri walks around for like 50 pages with an apple stuck to her hand. Also they eat their fears? Whatever the hell that means. That's all I remember, tbh, I'm surprised how much I have already forgotten about this book. I think my brain is already trying to permanently erase it from memory. Which, I don't blame it. There are other books that deserve that space.

I literally wasted so much time reading this book, I think I actually lost ten years of my life instead of ten days. I feel so old and wrinkly. Has my hair gone thin and grey? I feel like it has.

There are quite a few good reviews praising this book, saying it is quite the step-up from TSTQ. I can kind of understand where those people are coming from. The writing, and cover, are both so gorgeous. However, sometimes I found the writing to be almost annoying. There was an entire chapter about birds with different wings and I will never understand the point of it. This just wasn't for me. I hated the execution of the plot and the characters too much to even try to like this. Honestly, I think I prefer TSTQ a lot more than this one. At least I knew what was going on in that book. And I can pass of what I didn't like from it as it being a debut. This book though, there's not excuse that I can muster to try to defend it.

I'm not saying you shouldn't read this book, you will probably like it tbh as my opinion seems to be an unpopular one, but if you are hesitant about picking it up then I'd say bypass it. There are much better fantasies out there.

A Crown of Wishes is the spellbinding sequel to the enchanting debut A Star-Touched Queen. Vikram is a young prince trying to prove himself to an unfriendly council, and Gauri is an enemy princess who trusts nothing and no one except her own fighting skills. When they are given a chance to compete in a magical tournament to win a wish, they must work together to survive and succeed. A Crown of Wishes is full of the same vivid description and imaginative characters that brought A Star-Touched Queen to life, and it continues the immersion in Indian culture. Fans of Stephanie Garber's Caraval and Sarah J. Maas' Court of Thorns and Roses series will enjoy this book.