Fates of Ruin

Jahna Mornglow is a thief and a liar, and also a half breed of the Narcean race, in this the first book of the Ardentia Saga by Jo ??? Anne Tomlinson. The story centres around the three main characters of Jahna, Lilac and Silko.
The land of Ardentia is threatened when the King becomes gravely ill with a mysterious sickness. This sickness affects all the land as it is attached to the fate of the line Ardentia. However, the king has no male heirs and his daughter is being manipulated by the evil Queen Regent.
Jahna and her friends journey back to the village that they grew up in for some kind of annual reunion.On top of that, Jahna???s mother has some information that she needs to tell her which results in Jahna???s life been changed for ever and leads her on a journey to change her destiny.
Yep, pretty standard fantasy fare with very few surprises. Now, don???t get me wrong, I wanted to like this book, I really did but it just did not happen for me at all. I am not above ditching a book if I don???t like it and it has not caught my attention, but like I said, I wanted to give this book a chance and there were many times that I thought ???Bugger it, I have had enough???, but I didn???t. I persevered.
And the main thing that put me off was that I was merely persevering with this book rather than enjoying it.
I was hoping that at some point in the book, the story would take off, but it just didn???t. The book lurches through a series of situations that the characters find themselves in, rather than drawing on a cohesive narrative that moves the plot forwards. There seemed to be no impetus at all for the characters lurching from one dangerous situation to the next.
I think the main thing missing for me was a sense that something was threatening the characters or even just making them a little bit scared might have given the story something to work with. I didn???t even know who the bad guy was and it only alluded to the Dark Star on a couple of occasions.
I didn???t gel with the characters at all. I had read reviews that said that Lilac was funny and added to the story, but I didn???t see it, and I was waiting for her to be funny. She just wasn???t!
All in all, I found the main characters to be one dimensional, and well frankly a little boring.
At some points in the story, it does tend to alight to the gender politics of the world that the author has built, but even that got lost to the normal fantasy tropes.
I think one of the worst problems that I had was with the dialogue. Particularly when the story tries to inject some political intrigue into the story to move the plot forward. At times it was clunky and at others downright incomprehensible and I was just going Ugh, what does that mean? For example when the Royal - advisor? Friziel was talking to Jahna???s mother in some weird hive mind that the Narcean race have (I didn???t quite get to grips with what that was).
Friziel scoffed. ???I am sure you are well versed in the history of the Dubraycon Kings. They are just and lordly men, but their hearts are cursed with the lusts of their sire. A lust you have known first hand.???
What does that mean? I have no idea
There were other things too but I haven???t got the strength to bother writing them down.
I think it is pretty fair to say that I won???t be reading the rest of the series, even with big cliffhanger at the end.