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A review by bea_sb
Clue and The Shrine of the Widowed Bride by Wendie Nordgren
1.0
Just finished reading this book at work (such a naughty girl) and I had to write this review straight away.
It hurts my soul to give such a low rate. If you track my reading record, you’ll see how hard it’s for me to rate below 3 stars. Seriously, I can always find something to enjoy in a book, could be the plot, characters or worldbuilding. Anything really.
Saying that, I can totally assure you that there was nothing for me in here and since my opinion is a clear minority, I’d tell you to read it anyway. I’d rather believe there was no chemistry between me and this book, thn accept the fact that it was just bad. Like really bad.
PLOT
The authenticity of this author really caught me at first, but the writing didn’t work for me. It was confusing from the beginning and the lack of details put me off straight away.
I was bored out of my mind from chapter 3, but all the good reviews made me keep going. Not worth it.
Weird events happen to the heroine, with no further explanation, like a major coincidence. She’s walking at the beach and BAM, goddess from the sea in your face. Everything just felt forced and poorly executed.
The storyline was all over the place and I just felt something was missing.
WORLDBUILDING
Worldbuilding is ALSO lacking.
The world could have been extremely interesting, and I’d love if the author actually gave it a chance to develop even a little bit of my imagination. The world was vaguely described in the first 2 pages of the book. Yep. That was it.
Why are people living in a Space Station? Is it normal? Where is it exactly? Why’s Scorpius’ prone to magic? The characters seem to believe that the culture, climate and environment of Eris is very different from other places, care to elaborate?
Apparently our MC is from the Eris Space Station. Where it is, how far to her current location or ANY MINIMAL DETAIL is left out. Then she moves to a new…country, planet? (Well, we also don’t know) called Cassini.
The heroine is also a lonely wolf, she’s got no family, since her mother’s passed away one year ago, and no friends either. Her life’s just as miserable as it comes. After one year studying in a small college, nothing changes, she moves to a different city without a second thought. No goodbyes to a dear friend or even an acquaintance. There’s no feeling towards that place, like she didn’t have a life before arriving in the city where the story actually happens.
Okay, so we get to Scorpius, a city “several hours” away from her previous home. How far is it? We don’t know either. Is it in the north, or east? Again, no idea. Later on we discover it’s by the ocean, but if it’s a small town or a full-on busy New York city look alike we’ve no clue.
CHARACTERS
I didn’t see any character development the entire book. They were all one dimensional, hence why I couldn’t sympathise with none of them.
The heroine was a doormat, who couldn’t make any simple decision when it came to shirtless guys kissing her without permission.
Clue: that’s our main character and pretty bleh. The only good thing I can actually say about her is that she runs away from people when situation gets pretty heavy, other than that, she could probably be a fridge and it wouldn’t make any difference.
She meets a guy on the street, “pre-dawn” as the author describes, and accept a lift from him, a stranger. Right on.
Than another guy, she doesn’t know the name, tells her “you’re a gonna be my future wife”, she blushes, says nothing, he kisses her, they hold hands, and that’s it. Instant love. There’s no argument from our heroine. No no.. She loves him forever and ever without a proper conversation.
If you’re reading this review and you got to this point, let me ask you. Are you married? Would you marry someone you just met? After like...days?
If your answer is yes, I’ve got a few things to tell ya: marriage’s no flower my love bird.
All the other characters: Seriously, the only person with a slight background story was Mrs. Stone (cute lady that one, and loved her little love tree story). All the others’ only purpose were to fill the blank and fall in love with the MC.
The romance between Clue and the little wolf shifter felt just wrong and unbelievable. There was more “tell than show” in their relationship. Like they stayed together in a room for three days. What did they talk about? Why are they so grossely in love with each other after that? Are they compatible?
Anyway, I’m not saying every book should’ve a slow-burn romance, insta-love is totally unacceptable for me though.
I really tried to like this book, but maybe it wasn’t for me.
Anyway I gotta go back to work, if I have the time I can review my review later. K
It hurts my soul to give such a low rate. If you track my reading record, you’ll see how hard it’s for me to rate below 3 stars. Seriously, I can always find something to enjoy in a book, could be the plot, characters or worldbuilding. Anything really.
Saying that, I can totally assure you that there was nothing for me in here and since my opinion is a clear minority, I’d tell you to read it anyway. I’d rather believe there was no chemistry between me and this book, thn accept the fact that it was just bad. Like really bad.
PLOT
The authenticity of this author really caught me at first, but the writing didn’t work for me. It was confusing from the beginning and the lack of details put me off straight away.
I was bored out of my mind from chapter 3, but all the good reviews made me keep going. Not worth it.
Weird events happen to the heroine, with no further explanation, like a major coincidence. She’s walking at the beach and BAM, goddess from the sea in your face. Everything just felt forced and poorly executed.
The storyline was all over the place and I just felt something was missing.
WORLDBUILDING
Worldbuilding is ALSO lacking.
The world could have been extremely interesting, and I’d love if the author actually gave it a chance to develop even a little bit of my imagination. The world was vaguely described in the first 2 pages of the book. Yep. That was it.
Why are people living in a Space Station? Is it normal? Where is it exactly? Why’s Scorpius’ prone to magic? The characters seem to believe that the culture, climate and environment of Eris is very different from other places, care to elaborate?
Apparently our MC is from the Eris Space Station. Where it is, how far to her current location or ANY MINIMAL DETAIL is left out. Then she moves to a new…country, planet? (Well, we also don’t know) called Cassini.
The heroine is also a lonely wolf, she’s got no family, since her mother’s passed away one year ago, and no friends either. Her life’s just as miserable as it comes. After one year studying in a small college, nothing changes, she moves to a different city without a second thought. No goodbyes to a dear friend or even an acquaintance. There’s no feeling towards that place, like she didn’t have a life before arriving in the city where the story actually happens.
Okay, so we get to Scorpius, a city “several hours” away from her previous home. How far is it? We don’t know either. Is it in the north, or east? Again, no idea. Later on we discover it’s by the ocean, but if it’s a small town or a full-on busy New York city look alike we’ve no clue.
CHARACTERS
I didn’t see any character development the entire book. They were all one dimensional, hence why I couldn’t sympathise with none of them.
The heroine was a doormat, who couldn’t make any simple decision when it came to shirtless guys kissing her without permission.
Clue: that’s our main character and pretty bleh. The only good thing I can actually say about her is that she runs away from people when situation gets pretty heavy, other than that, she could probably be a fridge and it wouldn’t make any difference.
She meets a guy on the street, “pre-dawn” as the author describes, and accept a lift from him, a stranger. Right on.
Than another guy, she doesn’t know the name, tells her “you’re a gonna be my future wife”, she blushes, says nothing, he kisses her, they hold hands, and that’s it. Instant love. There’s no argument from our heroine. No no.. She loves him forever and ever without a proper conversation.
If you’re reading this review and you got to this point, let me ask you. Are you married? Would you marry someone you just met? After like...days?
If your answer is yes, I’ve got a few things to tell ya: marriage’s no flower my love bird.
All the other characters: Seriously, the only person with a slight background story was Mrs. Stone (cute lady that one, and loved her little love tree story). All the others’ only purpose were to fill the blank and fall in love with the MC.
The romance between Clue and the little wolf shifter felt just wrong and unbelievable. There was more “tell than show” in their relationship. Like they stayed together in a room for three days. What did they talk about? Why are they so grossely in love with each other after that? Are they compatible?
Anyway, I’m not saying every book should’ve a slow-burn romance, insta-love is totally unacceptable for me though.
I really tried to like this book, but maybe it wasn’t for me.
Anyway I gotta go back to work, if I have the time I can review my review later. K