From Goodreads: The first boy disappeared on the day of his birth, on a night when the pale yellow moon of the nighttime sky turned red and bathed the heavens in the ghastly color of blood, on the same night the Kingdom of Cokyri abruptly ceased its merciless attack. Across the land of Hytanica, under the shadow of the crimson moon, infant boys continued to vanish. Not until the blood had faded from the sky did the disappearances stop and the bodies of the murdered infants were found outside the gates of the city, a final word from the greatest enemy Hytanica had ever known. For the next sixteen years, peace reigned, but one mystery remained unsolved. The Cokyrians had abducted forty-nine newborns, but returned only forty-eight bodies.Now, as seventeen-year-old Princess Alera of Hytanica is besieged from all sides by suitors vying for the Throne, a teenage Cokyrian boy, Narian, is encountered within the walls of her Kingdom, a boy who will show Alera a world where women serve a purpose and not just a husband. As Narian helps Alera find her voice, she struggles against an arranged marriage that will shatter the life she has scarcely begun to live. And when Narian's shocking past is uncovered, and war with Cokyri looms once more, he must fight to defy a fate ordained at his birth.
Thoughts on the Novel: I have a weakness for princess stories and with a gorgeous cover like that on Cayla Kluver’s Legacy; I knew I had to read the book. The writing was nicely paced and with elements of action, duty, betrayal, love and family, the story kept me engaged until the end.
One of the things I noted though was that there is a lot of description about the food, setting, clothes, etc. As someone who is bad at visualization, this made it easier for me to imagine stuff, but at times even I found all the descriptive passages bothersome.
One of the things I noted though was that there is a lot of description about the food, setting, clothes, etc. As someone who is bad at visualization, this made it easier for me to imagine stuff, but at times even I found all the descriptive passages bothersome.
In terms of the characters, I felt like I only knew them in a superficial way. Alera, as crown princess, wishes that she could have more input but is hindered by her patriarchal society. She spends little time with her mother so readers don’t really get to know the queen, and although Alera and her sister Miranna are close, Miranna seemed friendly but kind of shallow to me. As for Alera’s dad, I disliked him because he was putting immense pressure on his daughter to marry Steldor just because he wants to abdicate.
While Alera doesn’t like Steldor as a person, she thinks he is handsome and so in a way there is a love triangle. Her romance with Narian – he and Alera’s bodyguard London were the two people I thought were really interesting – is sweet and I liked that they got to know each other a little bit before hooking up. I’m interested to see what’s going to happen with Alera’s (romantic) life considering the ending.
Legacy is a little unpolished but it’s obvious that Kluver is talented. With some editing, I think the Legacy series has the potential to become great.
Legacy is released by Harlequin Teen today!
Comments About the Cover: The cover reminds me of The Luxe series, which also had amazing covers. I love the colour scheme, the choice of the font, the pose and am a big fan of extravagant dresses being worn by the cover model.
In exchange for an honest review, this ARC was received from the publisher (Harlequin Teen) for free via NetGalley.
I'm curious about this one:) I've heard there's a lot of unnecessary description and that it gets a bit wordy at times (isn't it like 400 or 500 pages?) so I can see how that would slow things down some, but overall it sounds like an interesting read. Really nice review Zahida!
ReplyDeleteThe first few reviews I read for this book were glowing with high star ratings.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to come across your because it seems more objective. To be honest, those descriptive passages would probably be irksome to me too.
Still seems like a very interesting story, and I've got it on the wishlist.
I agree, with a little more editing I think I would have really enjoyed this book a lot more. Still, I'm glad I read it and I'm looking forward to the sequel. Maybe there will be fewer descriptions for everything? :)
ReplyDeleteMost of the reviews I have read said it need some editing too. That it was a bit long in parts. And I agree the covers look like the Luxe series but in a good way. Great review :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting that it went though Harlequin and still needs editing. Hopefully the following books won't have that problem.
ReplyDeleteThe reviews I've read about Legact said that it felt long winded in parts too. For the cover, I always thought that it didn't match with the story.
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