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therobinjoyce's review
2.0
After spotting the cover of this book on my amazon recommendations I though that a boon with such a dazzling, elegant cover could only hide similar gems within its pages. I was, unfortunately, very much mistaken.
I was impressed with the inisital story idea and the first 2 chapters really intrigued and thrilled me. However I felt very let down by the rest of the book. The "big reveal" was - I felt - introduced and far too walry and the whole suspense of the book seemed to vanish from that moment on. I only slugged on for the rest of the book as it was so short and if it had been longer, I would have put it down after chapter 4.
The only redeeming part was chapter 7, the descriptions and dark turn chapter 7 took really thrilled me and caught my attention and made me feel that maybe the main character wasn't as limp as she appeared but then the whole dark and powerful aura vanished for the rest of the book.
I felt the idea had merit and could have been executed much better, leaving us wanting more at the end of each chapter and making us feel for the cast of characters but honestly, the whole cast felt limp and even when "twists" were introduced they didn't feel thrilling or clever but rather predictable and unimaginative.
The relationship between Yasha and Nagu was pointless IMHO. Too coincidental and not explored enough. It felt he was only introduced to further her own means and not a realistic enough situation. I was prepared to overlook it with the hope he would play a bigger part later on but then he vanishes from the book and his whole appearance feels pretty pointless.
I did like the few short scenes between Yasha and Rav but would have liked it explored more. And the whole scene with her mother and brother at the Bure Sapane... Anticlimactic and ridiculous. I mean, you kill the king of theives, your brother calls you Yasha (a girl's name) in front of them all (when your name is supposed to be Yaksha) when you're supposed to be a boy, and then all the bure Sapane just kneel to you when the author made it clear that they did not tolerate women and they were not allowed in the brotherhood...?
So either they realised she was a girl and their whole ideology of "no women" was just extinguished in one fell swoop by a wimpy teenager, or they were all oblivious to her brothers comment and the brotherhood of thieves is nothing more than a band of mindless sheep following whatever leader came along no matter how unqualified or pathetic they are. And THAT is what threw the believability of the situation out of the window.
Oh and don't even get me started on how unnecessary Ahd and his "very-well-thought-out plot twist" was to this whole story. Just no.
And that ending... anticlimactic as hell, I am so disappointed. The cover is beautiful but I felt very unfitting for the whole feel of the book. I think it should have really portrayed the physical way Yasha looked in her role as "Queen of theives" and the use of purple felt really off looking back at the whole aura and feel of the book. I have no negative comments on the cover itself but feel a different one would have better portrayed the themes of this book clearer.
The formatting inside was also very off. I'm unsure if C. J. Kavanaugh hired a formatting editor but if she did... Oh boy! I purchased this from amazon so know I have an official copy but the page and paragraph formatting was waaaaay off. Several sentences cut off abruptly and incorrectly set as a new paragraph as well as many instances of dialogue between 2 people being merged in to 1 paragraph instead of a new line for each new characters stream of speech. Just needed a lot of work done to fix it. This too added to the feel that it was a rushed 1st draft and had not been edited or tightened properly.
I really did want to like this book, and it did have a few good bits of dialogue, narration, or plot points, but in the whole it felt like I was reading a rough first draft of a book and could have done with a lot more editing to tighten up the story.
I was impressed with the inisital story idea and the first 2 chapters really intrigued and thrilled me. However I felt very let down by the rest of the book. The "big reveal" was - I felt - introduced and far too walry and the whole suspense of the book seemed to vanish from that moment on. I only slugged on for the rest of the book as it was so short and if it had been longer, I would have put it down after chapter 4.
The only redeeming part was chapter 7, the descriptions and dark turn chapter 7 took really thrilled me and caught my attention and made me feel that maybe the main character wasn't as limp as she appeared but then the whole dark and powerful aura vanished for the rest of the book.
I felt the idea had merit and could have been executed much better, leaving us wanting more at the end of each chapter and making us feel for the cast of characters but honestly, the whole cast felt limp and even when "twists" were introduced they didn't feel thrilling or clever but rather predictable and unimaginative.
The relationship between Yasha and Nagu was pointless IMHO. Too coincidental and not explored enough. It felt he was only introduced to further her own means and not a realistic enough situation. I was prepared to overlook it with the hope he would play a bigger part later on but then he vanishes from the book and his whole appearance feels pretty pointless.
I did like the few short scenes between Yasha and Rav but would have liked it explored more. And the whole scene with her mother and brother at the Bure Sapane... Anticlimactic and ridiculous. I mean, you kill the king of theives, your brother calls you Yasha (a girl's name) in front of them all (when your name is supposed to be Yaksha) when you're supposed to be a boy, and then all the bure Sapane just kneel to you when the author made it clear that they did not tolerate women and they were not allowed in the brotherhood...?
So either they realised she was a girl and their whole ideology of "no women" was just extinguished in one fell swoop by a wimpy teenager, or they were all oblivious to her brothers comment and the brotherhood of thieves is nothing more than a band of mindless sheep following whatever leader came along no matter how unqualified or pathetic they are. And THAT is what threw the believability of the situation out of the window.
Oh and don't even get me started on how unnecessary Ahd and his "very-well-thought-out plot twist" was to this whole story. Just no.
And that ending... anticlimactic as hell, I am so disappointed. The cover is beautiful but I felt very unfitting for the whole feel of the book. I think it should have really portrayed the physical way Yasha looked in her role as "Queen of theives" and the use of purple felt really off looking back at the whole aura and feel of the book. I have no negative comments on the cover itself but feel a different one would have better portrayed the themes of this book clearer.
The formatting inside was also very off. I'm unsure if C. J. Kavanaugh hired a formatting editor but if she did... Oh boy! I purchased this from amazon so know I have an official copy but the page and paragraph formatting was waaaaay off. Several sentences cut off abruptly and incorrectly set as a new paragraph as well as many instances of dialogue between 2 people being merged in to 1 paragraph instead of a new line for each new characters stream of speech. Just needed a lot of work done to fix it. This too added to the feel that it was a rushed 1st draft and had not been edited or tightened properly.
I really did want to like this book, and it did have a few good bits of dialogue, narration, or plot points, but in the whole it felt like I was reading a rough first draft of a book and could have done with a lot more editing to tighten up the story.
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