18 January 2017

Review #581: Reign of Shadows (Reign of Shadows, #1) by Sophie Jordan



My rating: 2 of 5 stars


“Real love ought to be more like a tree and less like a flower”

----Mya Robarts



Sophie Jordan, the New York Times bestselling author, has penned a young adult fantasy series called, Reign of Shadows and the first book in the series with the same name is a modern-retelling of the most popular childhood fairy tale, Rapunzel. This story revolves around a teenage heroine who is an orphan royal princess, protected and sheltered by two caring and loyal couple in an abandoned and hidden tower, but this teenage princess longs to be free from the mundane life of the tower and roam freely into the darkness ruled by some dangerous blood thirsty creatures. And not long into the story her dream actually comes true but nothing good comes into life without paying a hefty price for it.


Synopsis:

Seventeen years ago, an eclipse cloaked the kingdom of Relhok in perpetual darkness. In the chaos, an evil chancellor murdered the king and queen and seized their throne. Luna, Relhok’s lost princess, has been hiding in a tower ever since. Luna’s survival depends on the world believing she is dead.

But that doesn’t stop Luna from wanting more. When she meets Fowler, a mysterious archer braving the woods outside her tower, Luna is drawn to him despite the risk. When the tower is attacked, Luna and Fowler escape together. But this world of darkness is more treacherous than Luna ever realized.

With every threat stacked against them, Luna and Fowler find solace in each other. But with secrets still unspoken between them, falling in love might be their most dangerous journey yet.



Luna, the seventeen year old royal heir to the throne of the Relhok kingdom, has forever been living in a tower since her birth with her two carers who protect and shield the girl as well as her identity from the mad chancellor, who murdered her parents, and also from the Outside. But Luna craves for the Outside and to face the challenges that the 17 years ago eclipse brought along with itself, the night dwellers, that prey upon human beings, more like zombies. Luna's dream of facing the Outside all by herself comes true one night when she ventures out all by herself, only to find herself face to face not only with night dwellers but also with a pack of innocent looking human beings of her age. She bravely guides the pack of wanderers into the safe cocoon of the tower, but soon the location of the tower gets discovered by the new ruthless king's soldiers and Luna must get away leaving behind her carers and also with the leader of the pack, Fowler, whom she had already begun to fancy with all her soul. Together, Luna and Fowler, embark upon a quest to the land that is safe from everything but away from where they belonged from. With a sparkling chemistry, they begin their journey but little did anyone can guess about one another's complex secrets that can destroy the bond they are longing to have among themselves.

So that actually sounds more like a love story, rather than sounding like an exciting and adventurous tale about fantasy and magic filled with twists. And I really want to blame the synopsis for it, since it sounds extremely gripping and encouraging enough to pick a copy of this book. Beware, do not pick up a copy of this book based on what is written on the synopsis, you will be left fooled by the synopsis. I've never read anything such corny and distasteful like this book, where everything is about cheesy dialogues and predictable plot line. I mean, all through out the book, I thought that maybe after this chapter I would get to read about some risky and twisty challenges clawing upon both the main characters. Instead the story is all about stupid chemistry between Luna and Fowler.

The world building is very weak. I mean nothing justifies the world that the author has tried to manifest through this book. The fantasy world building is bleak, out of depth or any logic so I could not ask my mind to accept the world of Luna, which has been shadowed by an eclipse and now the long deep and dark nights are ruled by some human-flesh-eating zombies, whereas on the other hand, a mad king is on a crazy man-hunt to get his hands on the royal princess who survived. Then people use magical herbs to cure ailments whereas the protagonist has no magical power yet a supersonic power that makes her more able than a normal human being, in short, the girl is flawless to the very core. Also there are plenty of loose ends about the world that the author has projected into this story.

The author's writing is good but not that strong. The dialogues lack emotional depth thus they fail terribly to make the readers actually feel the rush of the emotions between the central characters. The prose is articulate but not well developed, hence the readers will fail to connect with the story line. The pace is super fast, somewhat rushed, especially near the end and not to mention with a cliffhanger like that, readers are going to bang their heads against the wall.

The characters, especially the main characters are very blunt. Well there are no such characters to write about except the main characters like Luna and Fowler, since the supporting ones just take a once-in-a-while-peek before disappearing into nothingness. Luna is unexceptionally gifted and proficient despite her one minor (actually its major, but sounds like minor!)shortcoming and her mind, body and soul behaves like some super human being, although the author constantly tried to depict her as someone humble and normal. Fowler is a typical teenage hero, whose demeanor is foreseeable and there is nothing interesting about him. Although his back story sounds enchanting, but the story is much more focused on the chemistry between the two young souls.

In a nutshell, this is a simply boring YA fantasy novel that gave me never ending yawns all through out the story line.

Verdict: Lands straight on my de-clutter piles of books!

Courtesy: Thanks to the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author Info:
Sophie Jordan took her adolescent daydreaming one step further and penned her first historical romance in the back of her high school Spanish class. This passion led her to pursue a degree in English and History.
A brief stint in law school taught her that case law was not nearly as interesting as literature - teaching English seemed the natural recourse. After several years teaching high school students to love Antigone, Sophie resigned with the birth of her first child and decided it was time to pursue the long-held dream of writing.
In less than three years, her first book, Once Upon A Wedding Night, a 2006 Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Nominee for Best First Historical, hit book shelves. Her second novel, Too Wicked To Tame, released in March 2007 with a bang, landing on the USA Today Bestseller's List.
Visit her here


Book Purchase Links:

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for your feedback!