I noticed his eyes. They were blue, sharp and intense. Despite the youthful glows of his suntanned face, his eyes were cold and unfriendly, suggesting he had great experience in the world and was now expecting the worst.
In her seventeenth year, Princess Alera of Hytanica faces one duty: to marry the man who will be king. But her father's choice of suitor fills her with despair.
When the palace guard captures and intruder—a boy her age with steel-blue eyes, hailing from her kingdom's greatest enemy—Alera is alarmed…and intrigued. But she could not have guessed that their clandestine meetings would unveil the dark legacy shadowing both their lands.
In this mystical world of court conspiracies and blood magic, loyalties will be tested. Courage won't be enough. And as the battle begins for everything Alera holds dear, love may be the downfall of a kingdom.
Release Date: June 21, 2011
Age Group: Young Adult
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Source: NetGalley
Review:
I'm going to be perfectly honest here: I thought that I would never finish this book. It was long. Really long. And not a lot happened for a long time. It was too long to wait for action when the book is almost 500 pages. In all fairness, I probably should have stopped reading Legacy when I first started to get bored. But, I kept going in the hopes that the story would pick up. It picked up at the end, and I mean the very end, when things started to get interesting.
I think my other main problem with Legacy was that I did not like the main character, Alera. I thought she was a tattle-tale and while I understand that her actions were central to the book's plot, I couldn't believe that she did what she did at the beginning of the story.
In addition to the problems I had with the length of the book and not liking Alera, I did not like Kluver's overuse of adjectives. They were thrown in willy-nilly and it made for a plodding read. I got the feeling Kluver ended up with a dog-eared thesaurus by the time she got through writing Legacy. My last problem was that there was too much emphasis on what the characters were wearing and what their hair and jewelery looked like. Now I like fashion as much as the next girl, but the long and numerous descriptions got old for me.
There were some good elements to this story: I liked the fantasy world and the air of mystery surrounding Narian. I liked London and his devotion to Alera. And I liked Miranna and her shy suitor Temerson. Overall, though, my problems with the book overshadowed what I liked about it and I won't be reading the second book in the series. Maybe someone will fill me in as to what happens with Alera and Narian.
I'm going to be perfectly honest here: I thought that I would never finish this book. It was long. Really long. And not a lot happened for a long time. It was too long to wait for action when the book is almost 500 pages. In all fairness, I probably should have stopped reading Legacy when I first started to get bored. But, I kept going in the hopes that the story would pick up. It picked up at the end, and I mean the very end, when things started to get interesting.
I think my other main problem with Legacy was that I did not like the main character, Alera. I thought she was a tattle-tale and while I understand that her actions were central to the book's plot, I couldn't believe that she did what she did at the beginning of the story.
In addition to the problems I had with the length of the book and not liking Alera, I did not like Kluver's overuse of adjectives. They were thrown in willy-nilly and it made for a plodding read. I got the feeling Kluver ended up with a dog-eared thesaurus by the time she got through writing Legacy. My last problem was that there was too much emphasis on what the characters were wearing and what their hair and jewelery looked like. Now I like fashion as much as the next girl, but the long and numerous descriptions got old for me.
There were some good elements to this story: I liked the fantasy world and the air of mystery surrounding Narian. I liked London and his devotion to Alera. And I liked Miranna and her shy suitor Temerson. Overall, though, my problems with the book overshadowed what I liked about it and I won't be reading the second book in the series. Maybe someone will fill me in as to what happens with Alera and Narian.
I agree about Alera and the overuse of descriptions. I think the book could have easily shed half its pages if a good editor had cleaned up all those overly long sentences. I liked London a lot though.
ReplyDeleteI keep reading about these two complaints about the book. I have requested it from Netgalley but I think I'll wait to read this one when my tbr pile isn't so big. I can't enjoy a book where I don't like the MC.
ReplyDeleteI hate slow books and the main character sounds awful. I have been interested in this book and thought about getting it, but based on your review, I will probably not. Thanks for saving me time and money. LOL =)
ReplyDeleteI have to say I admire your ability to stick with the story in hopes that something would happen. I would have give up, especially if I didn't care for the MC. Can't stand being bored while reading. It puts me to sleep.
ReplyDeleteI hope your next read is much better. :)
Alera, UGH!!!! That is a series I will not pick up again.
ReplyDelete