Not enough "salt"...
Arc provided by Mcmillan-Tor/Forge
I've just finished reading this story, and although it ended being better than what I expected, considering the first twenty percent of it _in which I seriously doubted I would be able to finish it _ this just had a lot of issues for me to give it a full three star rating.
In the end if you ask me, if I liked it... I'll have to respond with: "parts of it..."
Here's the thing _for me_ this story worth is in its plot, because character wise _especially if we're talking about the main characters _ this crashed and burn.
This starts out as if were reading the "old fashioned" fairy tale type...the ones in which we don't get a whole lot of information besides... the point.
In this case we are summarily "introduced" to a royal family who has twelve daughters _not that we get to know them...besides the main character in this one _and who has a somewhat different view on what the royal heirs should do, when they reach majority (in this case the contemporary notion of eighteen years old).
It basically goes a little like this: So, we (the King and Queen) here in this"insert place with the too complicated name to memorize" are a small kingdom, and since we breed like cats, we now find ourselves in the situation of not having the money to all you girls dowry's...Solution: when you reach eighteen we'll boot you out of the house (_small castle) _ in order for you girls to find your fortune!
What say you?
Daughters: Hooray!!
Okayy....lol
If the princes have been doing it all their lives ( stories), why not the princesses?
Right? Gender equality.
So, our oldest princess Clarisse turns eighteen, and there she goes, seeking adventure and wealth!
Of course certain things never change, and it is best if the girl tries to pass out as a boy...a clean shaved pretty boy.
Everyone believes in her "disguise" (dressed as a boy and wearing a hat), and "fiddle dee dee" everything turns out smooth.
Then comes the boring, boring part.
I'll confess that I am not crazy about nautical adventures, and this one, during that first part proved me right, in not changing my view of it. We basically get long descriptions of what life used to be on board of a ship. As we can well imagine, it was boring.
Luckily there's a mutiny, lol, and things get a little better, because a conspiracy is unravelled.
Like I said: The plot kept the thing afloat!
The characters, I am afraid continued to be their same boring, undeveloped selves.
All of a sudden we had a mysterious medallion, a mysterious island, and characters that couldn't be more distant from Jack Sparrow and his band of.....ah....misfits...because Sparrow has more personality in one lock of his unwashed air, than all of these together!
It was embarrassing.
Then there was the...romance. Oh, boy :/
It appeared because the authors _or author _ whoever wrote that part of the story, decided to make it appear. Just like a rabbit. Look: A rabbit!
Applause.
There was no development of a relationship between them. Nothing. And one day, Clarisse decides that she's in love with the young Captain.
Who thought she was a guy. lol
I didn't thought that the magic part of the story was all that well developed. Sure there were some nice parts with the enchanted spoiler and bewitched spoiler, but besides that, the whole thing was very undeveloped.
I keep using that word a lot.
The evil enchantress was a bit too generic, and there was a moment in which due to the outfit description, it was as if I was seeing Angelina Jolie in her evil...fairy tale...thing role. lol I guess all evil characters shop in the same place!
Towards the end, the action picks up a little, and there were some nice and creative bits added to the story, but the writing was not that great o_O. I mean I could read it, and there was a part in which I was interested in seeing what was going to happen, but it was not that memorable.
Not the writing, not the story, and definitely not the characters! Sorry.
Mercedes Lackey' Official Site
Buy " The House of The Four Winds"
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