A review by livinginsolitude
The Crimson Crown by Heather Walter

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

for a book this long, it should've had enough time to give us a good, progressive corruption arc. but it really didn't. we get glimpses of ayleth's possible corruption but at the end, it felt like she went from 0 to 100 in a snap and it's so FRUSTRATING, because the middle part dragged on and only showed us how hilariously incompetent the fmc was. while it may highlight her lack of knowledge about the court, it also makes her supposedly smart or cunningness absolutely null.

aside from that aspect, the story was interesting enough, but none of the characters really stood out except for the princess, and not even the sapphic romance was enough to make me swoon. they were exes, so there's plenty of complicated feelings there, but there was also barely anything about them that made me root for them to make up and it's so unfortunate because helloooo sapphic romance 😭