Review by Sara...
HEIR TO THE SKY
by Amanda Sun
Hardcover: pages
Publisher: Harlequin TEEN (April 26, 2016)
Language: English
As heir to a kingdom of floating continents, Kali has spent her life bound by limits—by her duties as a member of the royal family; by a forced betrothal to the son of a nobleman; and by the edge of the only world she’s ever known—a small island hovering above a monster-ridden earth, long since uninhabited by humans. She is the Eternal Flame of Hope for what’s left of mankind, the wick and the wax burning in service for her people, and for their revered Phoenix, whose magic keeps them aloft.
When Kali falls off the edge of her kingdom and miraculously survives, she is shocked to discover there are still humans on the earth. Determined to get home, Kali entrusts a rugged monster-hunter named Griffin to guide her across a world overrun by chimera, storm dragons, basilisks, and other terrifying beasts. But the more time she spends on earth, the more dark truths she begins to uncover about her home in the sky, and the more resolute she is to start burning for herself.
If you ignore the fact that this
cover looks *exactly* like The Accident Season, then it is a
beautiful cover and looks like a good story. I really was excited at the
idea of this book. Sadly, I struggled to get through this book and once I was
done, I wondered exactly what I read. I felt there is not anything positive I
can say about this book.
The protagonist, Kali, is the
daughter in a royal family and is betrothed to the son of a man she barely
knows. Her kingdom is on top of a small floating island with very defined
limits, such as getting to close to the edge for fear of falling off. Kali
accidentally falls off the edge of the island, survives, and wakes up to find
that humans are still alive and living on Earth. Kali find a human-monster that
she can put her trust in to help her get back to her kingdom. Along the way,
she encounters all types of mythical creatures and ultimately starts to learn
more about what her home in the sky is really all about.
Oh my stars. So many things were
wrong with this book. Let's go through each one:
Characters
The characters were not developed
well, in fact they were barely developed at all. Kali had so much potential but
never delivered on being a true protagonist. I found myself not caring what
happened to her. I kept hoping a dragon would eat her and the story be over
with. Griffin, the human-monster that Kali had befriended, was just as bad. He
was more like that goofy sidekick throw in to movies for comic relief. He was
one of the worst monsters in the entire history of monsters.
Plot
Plot? What plot. There was no true
plot to this story. There were holes so large you could drive a Mac truck
through. I believe the severe lack of world-building lead towards the lack of a
plot. Regardless, nothing happened. If something did happen, it didn't
make sense. It seemed like random events were thrown into the story to fill the
pages.
Pacing
Oh my gosh, the pacing! It was
sooooo bad. The pacing was off like I have never read before. Instead of trying
to help the reader imagine what was happening, the words "xxx number of
time has passed". UH... no. Don't do that. It shows more of a lack of
planning and plotting than anything else. Help me, the reader, understand what
happened. Help me understand or push me to figure out where they were going and
what they went through. Help me figure out how she healed so freaking quickly.
Did any of that happen? Nope. Not one bit and it left me so incredibly
confused.
That covers everything right?
Overall, I did not like this book.
I did not enjoy any of it. Maybe this should not have been a stand alone, maybe
it should have been a duology just so everything could be fixed or explained in
the second book. I should have DNF'd this book but for some reason I pushed
through. I'm kicking myself for doing that. I really do not enjoy writing
negative reviews but in my opinion, there were no redeeming qualities to this
story. I had a hard time giving this story 1 star but anything lower would have
been DNF.
@gingerlyreview
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