She says things like, “But every last piece of me wanted to wear that necklace set with rose-tinted jewels and diamonds.” She is vain when we are supposed to think she is humble. Sure, she feels like it will up her station, but all she talks about is how lucky she is to be marrying a king. Their relationship is one sided: Hollis is obsessed with him just because she wants to be a royal and wear fancy jewelry.

We don’t get to see Hollis fall in love with the king or him fall in love with her. Half of the book is Hollis, the main character, telling you how life is in Coroa rather than us just seeing it through how she is treated by others. So let’s start with Hollis, the main character that you are supposed to love but drove me crazy.

The plot was boring, the characters were stiff and unrelatable, and there was instant romance, my absolute LEAST FAVORITE THING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. This entire story felt told rather than lived in. It was a discombobulated bunch of dumb events that made little sense to me. I think if that was Cass’s jumping off point, there was so much more she could have done in the story to make it rich.īut this book wasn’t rich. But that story is beautiful to me, about two inter-generational women supporting and caring for each other. If you’re unfamiliar, beware that this is a tiny spoiler. In hind sight, to me this book is a retelling of the book of Ruth in the Bible. So, I’m going to start this review with the one aspect of it I enjoyed. Your feelings from start to finish of this book

Kiera cass books the betrothed