Well, that was disappointing. I would’ve DNFed it if it weren’t so short.

This is a typical case of a great premise but not so great execution.
The premise: One prince wants her out. Another wants her as a pawn. Someone wants her dead. And also: A badass female MC? A royal competition? Dark magic? Court games?
The execution: There are princes. And a female main character who suddenly starts crying every now and then. Also a competition and some magic. And everything is written like this. Very anti-climatic.

In this book we follow Zora as she cheats her way into the Royal Games as the ‘chosen’ champion to represent the Dark Valley and the only female in the competition. So full-on Throne of Glass vibes. Book one, that is.

The plot was pretty solid, but that’s about the only good thing I can say about this book. And that it’s short.

For starters, the writing was overly simple, which bothered me to no end. Most of it read like a middle-grade novel. I needed more descriptions, more depth, more background on the world, the Blood Cup, the magic system. The world-building was practically non-existent.

There was a whole lot of telling instead of showing, so I didn’t feel any real tension or development, things just happened and I felt absolute indifference throughout the story. Without depth, a lot of the scenes felt rushed and, without tension or a sense of struggle, it just looked like there were no stakes at all and the characters had nothing to work for or worry about, which in turn made it very difficult to connect with them.

Which gets me to my next point: the characters. They were all one-dimensional. We got no backstories, no character arcs, we didn’t even get to see their personalities. I still don’t know who these people are, their hopes and dreams, the reason that drives them to behave the way they do. Obviously, that makes it a little difficult to actually care for any of them. Larzen was probably the most interesting character, I could see a rough draft of someone along the lines of a gay version of Nikolai from Shadow & Bone in him but, like the rest of them, he needed a whole lot of development.

There was no actual foundation for the relationships either, friendly or romantic. They just happened out of the blue. Relationships need to be built. For example, the romantic relationship between Zora and her love interest could have been a great enemies-to-lovers slow-burn romance, but instead it just felt rushed, underdeveloped and totally anti-climatic.

And then we have the plot holes and inconsistencies, the main one being the games themselves. We are told over and over again how dangerous and life-threatening they are, but the challenges weren’t very impressive at all. Not to mention that we don’t even know who Zora is up against or what the Blood Cup actually is, so that sense of urgency and dire need to win the games is not conveyed at all.

I understand that there are things left open for future books to tackle, like who is this sun goddess Zora dreams about? But then there’s the issue of Seth. He just seems to be chillin in the dungeons and everyone just forgets about him. I get that he’ll be mad at her when she goes back home and all, but it was still a useless plot point.

Overall, this felt like a first or second draft of a great idea. It just needs more in every aspect: more world building, more character depth, more relationship development, more tension. Basically, more writing like this was meant for a YA audience and not for a 10 year-old. It had so much potential but it fell way short for me.

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange of an honest and voluntary review.