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A review by darkclouds
Crown of Dust by C.F.E. Black
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.0
I am angry.
I'm actually fuming.
What in tarnation was this? How did we go SO wrong? I felt like the writing dwindled down to an embarrassing degree. Poor is not even a strong enough a term.
Don't give me 18+ aged characters if they're going to act and speak as if they're in grade school. Aly's description of her stamping her foot in a tantrum just had me cackling because WHY IS THIS SO UNSERIOUS? Purely felt secondhand embarrassment reading this.
I'm not sure why I continued this. Maybe for the false hope it could get better? That the slow burn crumbs we had would work to appease me? Even that was wasted. The biggest betrayal. We had all that tension, all this promo about this being some forbidden swoony romance to be reduced to having one single line about Red kissing Aly and the chapter - the WHOLE SCENE, ends. That's it. We don't address it again. It's mentioned in passing but there's no talk about their feelings. We are just forced to accept they love each other apparently. Then everything they've been working for suddenly gets flipped and now we are all about THE ROMANCE. Red would do absolutely anything to not lose Aly. He's fighting to defend his crown to keep her. What happened to doing what's right for your people? For your love for them? It became a cringey mess of a story that dragged and infuriated me to no end.
How has one man swayed an entire Kingdom to turn against their King and they just took his word for it? How in the fuck did Red's prized Mother who is SO ADORED by the public, did absolutely NOTHING for her son? Not once did his family do a thing to defend and actually protect Red. There's all this talk of powerful people, threats of harm but literally it feels like a sad joke. There is nothing threatening about the "bad people" of this book. There's not enough evidence, no character building or examples that would prove to me Aly and Red should have bowed down and given into this weak threats when all Red talks about is how Aly has the strongest magic and power.
Ridiculous. Purely a waste of time.
You know who else was a waste of time? Elise. If I could erase her entire existence we'd be a degree happier. Nothing about her descent into being a cold, malicious bitch made any sense. Yes she was fooled again by giving into a toxic man to then suddenly entering her "villain era". She decided to be a "spy" for her brother and family and yet she's absolutely malicious against them? Literally why? For what purpose? There were no explanations. Nothing to ease a reader into being forgiving towards her and see why she is doing what she is doing. She became a spy to help her brother yet did absolutely fuck all to help him. If anything she threw him and his best friend Seb into the hell fire. What a loathsome vile human I found her to be. Her change was so jarring and uncalled for.
The end quarter was a rushed botched job with lots of sparkles because *magic*, silly decisions and convenient realisations - it was a shambles.
I have absolutely no desire to finish this series. There is not a single redeeming quality left for it.
I'm actually fuming.
What in tarnation was this? How did we go SO wrong? I felt like the writing dwindled down to an embarrassing degree. Poor is not even a strong enough a term.
Don't give me 18+ aged characters if they're going to act and speak as if they're in grade school. Aly's description of her stamping her foot in a tantrum just had me cackling because WHY IS THIS SO UNSERIOUS? Purely felt secondhand embarrassment reading this.
I'm not sure why I continued this. Maybe for the false hope it could get better? That the slow burn crumbs we had would work to appease me? Even that was wasted. The biggest betrayal. We had all that tension, all this promo about this being some forbidden swoony romance to be reduced to having one single line about Red kissing Aly and the chapter - the WHOLE SCENE, ends. That's it. We don't address it again. It's mentioned in passing but there's no talk about their feelings. We are just forced to accept they love each other apparently. Then everything they've been working for suddenly gets flipped and now we are all about THE ROMANCE. Red would do absolutely anything to not lose Aly. He's fighting to defend his crown to keep her. What happened to doing what's right for your people? For your love for them? It became a cringey mess of a story that dragged and infuriated me to no end.
How has one man swayed an entire Kingdom to turn against their King and they just took his word for it? How in the fuck did Red's prized Mother who is SO ADORED by the public, did absolutely NOTHING for her son? Not once did his family do a thing to defend and actually protect Red. There's all this talk of powerful people, threats of harm but literally it feels like a sad joke. There is nothing threatening about the "bad people" of this book. There's not enough evidence, no character building or examples that would prove to me Aly and Red should have bowed down and given into this weak threats when all Red talks about is how Aly has the strongest magic and power.
Ridiculous. Purely a waste of time.
You know who else was a waste of time? Elise. If I could erase her entire existence we'd be a degree happier. Nothing about her descent into being a cold, malicious bitch made any sense. Yes she was fooled again by giving into a toxic man to then suddenly entering her "villain era". She decided to be a "spy" for her brother and family and yet she's absolutely malicious against them? Literally why? For what purpose? There were no explanations. Nothing to ease a reader into being forgiving towards her and see why she is doing what she is doing. She became a spy to help her brother yet did absolutely fuck all to help him. If anything she threw him and his best friend Seb into the hell fire. What a loathsome vile human I found her to be. Her change was so jarring and uncalled for.
The end quarter was a rushed botched job with lots of sparkles because *magic*, silly decisions and convenient realisations - it was a shambles.
I have absolutely no desire to finish this series. There is not a single redeeming quality left for it.