This was okay. I actually had a lot of fun with the main character. I support women's rights, but most importantly, I support women's wrongs.
Alessandra was strong, ambitious, smart, and lethal. She knew what she wanted and she wasn't letting anyone get in the way of it. I found that I liked her ambition and her desire for power even if she was not a very good person at all. I also liked watching her fall in love with the king. It gave her depth that she definitely needed in order to be more likable and less one-dimensional. Her feelings were always genuine which helped her be more gray than the initial introduction as well. If she likes someone, she will protect them and help them with their goals and ambitions as well. It was nice to see.
She was probably the best thing about this book because the rest of it was very.... underdeveloped.
First of all, the king had no personality. He wanted to hold onto his power and therefore held everyone at a distance and even though Alessandra was starting to fall in love with him, I didn't really see anything about him to fall in love with. I can't think of one personality trait to describe him. He's not particularly smart, he isn't humorous, he's not charismatic or humble or friendly or anything. The author tried to paint him as tyrant king but even that is told to us rather than shown on the page. His only motivations were to find who killed his parents and to hold onto his special power. I don't know. He was just boring.
And the world building in this book was nonexistent. I don't think they even name the kingdom that they're in? Why is this shadow king taking over all of these other lands? Just because he wants the power? What power can they give him? Also where does his magic come from? Why is his family the only one that has any kind of magic and why was that never a concern for anyone? Why did he had this magical ability but his brother didn't? In magical worlds like this, it is highly unlikely for only one family to have magic, or if that's the case, there's usually some magic inherent in the land itself or something. It doesn't just come from nowhere. None of these questions or any like them can be answered in this book which is a basic necessity of the fantasy genre.
I did have fun with this book but I think it was only because of Alessandra and enjoying her character. There really wasn't much else here to like. And I listened to the short excerpt of the next book at the end and it switches to a story about her sister and I didn't enjoy her as a character as much, so I will not be picking up the second one.