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A review by anacarter
The Guard of Adriane by Audrey De Leon
2.0
2 stars - dnf 45%, full Review on my blog!
The Guard of Adriane, is set on an alternate Earth, and the city of Adriane is said to probably be in Europe, as per the author's note at the beginning.
While the initial concept showed potential from the description, the execution didn't quite live up to the anticipated excitement. This reads like a children's book rather than YA, interactions between characters felt contrived, lacking authenticity with noticeable inconsistencies in character development and believability during key events. Also, the dialogue felt very childish and the pacing was awkward.
Anyways!
What I want to talk about is how this book begins. I don't understand why this started the way it did, surely this could have been different.
This starts... in a very strange and honestly it gave me the ick and made me feel uncomfortable.
We meet our fmc Princess Diana, yes exactly like Princess Diana - that's all I could think of the entire time I was reading this - also I want to add her mom is literally Queen Victoria - I'm sorry but no, it just feels weird to read and it makes me cringe.
Diana is a 12-year-old princess. She is having trouble sleeping and walks in on her parents reading comments about her in the Adriane Weekly-the newspaper; these comments were of the 12-year-old Princess Diana's ‘developing breasts’ and how people would like to fuck her. Which is a very WEIRD and uncomfortable way to start a book, and is not something I want to visualize. Mind you this was within the first 4 pages and just no thank you, I was just done with this book at this point.
But I tried to give this a chance since the author sent me an ARC; thank you so much but it wasn't for me!
It soon gets ridiculous. When the Princess and her best friend go on a small shopping trip to the mall (disguised of course), someone spots her and attempts to kidnap her. All of a sudden a mysterious stranger (Rick) saves her, and when he is brought to the castle, her parents ask him "how he can be repaid" for saving their dear daughter.
His response:
The Guard of Adriane, is set on an alternate Earth, and the city of Adriane is said to probably be in Europe, as per the author's note at the beginning.
While the initial concept showed potential from the description, the execution didn't quite live up to the anticipated excitement. This reads like a children's book rather than YA, interactions between characters felt contrived, lacking authenticity with noticeable inconsistencies in character development and believability during key events. Also, the dialogue felt very childish and the pacing was awkward.
Anyways!
What I want to talk about is how this book begins. I don't understand why this started the way it did, surely this could have been different.
This starts... in a very strange and honestly it gave me the ick and made me feel uncomfortable.
We meet our fmc Princess Diana, yes exactly like Princess Diana - that's all I could think of the entire time I was reading this - also I want to add her mom is literally Queen Victoria - I'm sorry but no, it just feels weird to read and it makes me cringe.
Diana is a 12-year-old princess. She is having trouble sleeping and walks in on her parents reading comments about her in the Adriane Weekly-the newspaper; these comments were of the 12-year-old Princess Diana's ‘developing breasts’ and how people would like to fuck her. Which is a very WEIRD and uncomfortable way to start a book, and is not something I want to visualize. Mind you this was within the first 4 pages and just no thank you, I was just done with this book at this point.
But I tried to give this a chance since the author sent me an ARC; thank you so much but it wasn't for me!
It soon gets ridiculous. When the Princess and her best friend go on a small shopping trip to the mall (disguised of course), someone spots her and attempts to kidnap her. All of a sudden a mysterious stranger (Rick) saves her, and when he is brought to the castle, her parents ask him "how he can be repaid" for saving their dear daughter.
His response:
"I want to live in the palace," Rick said. "My folks want me to move out of the house now that I'm twenty, but I don't have anywhere to go. And what better place to live than here? I could do odd jobs around the palace, to earn my keep."
AND HER PARENTS AGREED?? WHAT - but of course only with a background check.
This leads to her parents wanting to up her security, 3-4 guards are chosen to compete for the role, unsure why there had to be a weird sword fight/battle thing, especially when Diana already has her eyes set on Eric - the 16-year-old guard, and thus begins their forbidden romance.
I love a good forbidden, close-proximity romance but this just wasn't it, and I'm so sad because the description holds so much promise. 😭
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