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incorgnito's review
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.5
This book made me want to flip a table. I don't have the energy to unpack all the parts of it that enraged me so here are some highlights (spoilers obviously):
- incredibly dumb mary-sue MC circa 2006 YA iykyk
- we love a story about an empowered female MC who passively witnesses and then actively engages in an incredible amount of violence against women/s
- the whole first half of the book is about her trying to save all the people still asleep, and then all the sleeping people die anyways and so there was no point to literally any of it. Not that it seems like she was doing all that much to figure out how to break the curse in the first place
- it felt like there was some hope at the beginning with the guy waking her up ending up not being the love interest as expected. I thought that was a good sign for this not being just another retelling of Sleeping Beauty but then it very quickly became just another retelling, true love breaking the curse and all
- the whole curse seems very arbitrary. she has a time limit to break it, except no she doesn't because the evil fae is going to ignore her own terms so she can kill everybody, and the other fae knows the entire time how to break it but despite her whole family being slaughtered and her and her charge's lives being in danger she's still just hanging out
- not a single character understands politics. not a one
- absolutely no explanation of this magic system
- the fae are apparently powerful enough to do whatever the fuck they want in the human kingdoms, and don't even see humans as intelligent creatures so??? why is the fae king bothering with this plot to place fae on human thrones
- "plot twist" of the love interest being a fae. be so serious with me rn
- the princess gladiator stuff was off the fucking rails. I don't even know what to say
- I feel like if all these princesses had been going missing all over the place over the course of centuries someone would've noticed?? I guess not??
- absolutely no explanation as to why the evil fae was so obsessed with the MC. all inquiry met with "she's just so obsessive idk". It ended up being her dad's fault but he was almost never mentioned before in the book so it felt unearned as a plot twist. the evil fae also said she'd been collecting princesses for centuries though so I'm not even sure why that's presented as an evil backstory when this fae has apparently just always been this unhinged
- character development? never met her
- feels like so much plot happened and yet no plot at all. an insane number of people died during this book for no discernable reason, even major characters
- I'll give some points for attempts at worldbuilding but even that fell way short of what I would've wanted to see. Lots of contradictions and not a lot of detail about the different countries and relationships between them
I guess I did have the energy to unpack it after all
editing to add: I just realized that this book is called To Wake a Kingdom. That title makes no sense bro everyone in the kingdom fucking died before they even got woken up
I'm gonna lose it
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Kidnapping, Death, and Torture
Moderate: Sexual assault and Trafficking
hiddenirises's review
dark
funny
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I was given the ARC for this story and it was one that I was hoping to get for the longest. After finishing it this morning this book was well worth the wait.
I devoured this book at record speeds. I will admit that I felt that the beginning was a tad bit slow in terms of pacing but, once we got to a little before the halfway point I could not stop even if the world were burning down.
I have never been a huge fan of the whole sleeping beauty storyline but this retelling handled that aspect of it so well that it kept me enraptured every step of the way. Thorne our FMC is such a sassy badass that was incredibly relatable. Unlike many other MCs in fantasy that I have read about in the past, I didn't find myself frustrated with her character at all and kept rooting for her the whole time. Our poor girl is the freaking picture of resilience and strength. She could not simply catch a single break and my heart broke for her almost every chapter.
This is without a doubt a new adult fantasy romance.
This book has so many swoon worthy romantic moments with just enough spice that will have you blushing. The romance was definitely a slow burn but so satisfying to witness.
The tropes included in this that I can remember are:
- Grumpy/sunshine + enemies to lovers
-found family
- one horse
-female villain
- diverse characters and representation.
The world building makes you feel like you are in the story and the descriptions did such a beautiful job of allowing the readers to imagine everything. There are Fae and a magic system that take from what we are familiar with and still manage to be unique. This book is certainly not for the faint of heart. I really recommend people to read the trigger warnings before reading. There are many scenes that are horrifying but really add to the severity of the stakes for our main characters. I legit stayed up till like 1am reading and could barely sleep from all the thoughts and theories that were going through my brain, I ended up waking early and finishing the book immediately.
After finishing I have so many questions. Even if the book didn't end on a cliffhanger, I can't help but wonder what's in store for Thorne in the following book. There is a certain silver haired Fae that I certainly hope we see more of because, he might just have my heart and I feel like there is so much more to uncover about his character:). I would honestly sell my kidney to be able to be a beta reader for the next book or whatever gets the second book in my hands faster , so if you are reading this Ms.Tuli, I hope you please consider taking my kidney ;).
I cannot wait for this book to come out officially so that I may begin to start discussions and see fanart of the characters.
I devoured this book at record speeds. I will admit that I felt that the beginning was a tad bit slow in terms of pacing but, once we got to a little before the halfway point I could not stop even if the world were burning down.
I have never been a huge fan of the whole sleeping beauty storyline but this retelling handled that aspect of it so well that it kept me enraptured every step of the way. Thorne our FMC is such a sassy badass that was incredibly relatable. Unlike many other MCs in fantasy that I have read about in the past, I didn't find myself frustrated with her character at all and kept rooting for her the whole time. Our poor girl is the freaking picture of resilience and strength. She could not simply catch a single break and my heart broke for her almost every chapter.
This is without a doubt a new adult fantasy romance.
This book has so many swoon worthy romantic moments with just enough spice that will have you blushing. The romance was definitely a slow burn but so satisfying to witness.
The tropes included in this that I can remember are:
- Grumpy/sunshine + enemies to lovers
-found family
- one horse
-female villain
- diverse characters and representation.
The world building makes you feel like you are in the story and the descriptions did such a beautiful job of allowing the readers to imagine everything. There are Fae and a magic system that take from what we are familiar with and still manage to be unique. This book is certainly not for the faint of heart. I really recommend people to read the trigger warnings before reading. There are many scenes that are horrifying but really add to the severity of the stakes for our main characters. I legit stayed up till like 1am reading and could barely sleep from all the thoughts and theories that were going through my brain, I ended up waking early and finishing the book immediately.
After finishing I have so many questions. Even if the book didn't end on a cliffhanger, I can't help but wonder what's in store for Thorne in the following book. There is a certain silver haired Fae that I certainly hope we see more of because, he might just have my heart and I feel like there is so much more to uncover about his character:). I would honestly sell my kidney to be able to be a beta reader for the next book or whatever gets the second book in my hands faster , so if you are reading this Ms.Tuli, I hope you please consider taking my kidney ;).
I cannot wait for this book to come out officially so that I may begin to start discussions and see fanart of the characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, and Body horror
Moderate: Torture, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content
Minor: Sexual assault
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