December 2019 Mini Reviews

Review: Reverie by Ryan La Sala

*We received this book in exchange for an honest review.*

Kane wakes up in the hospital unable to remember how he got there. He was found almost dead in a river and has no idea why. Now, he has to face police questioning and psychological evaluations.

He’s prepared for this when Dr. Posey comes into his hospital room. Only, Dr. Posey isn’t there to question or observe. He gives Kane a dream journal and tells him everything will be okay, in a cryptic manner.

As Kane gets back to his normal life, a few strangers act as if they had been his close friends all along. As he tries to piece together what happened that fateful night, he gets sucked into a fantasy worlds. 

When we received Reverie we had high expectations because the plot sounded creative and unlike any YA book we’ve ever read. Unfortunately, it missed the mark for us.

First, we couldn’t connect with Kane and the other characters felt forgettable. Kane also treated people badly most of the time. 

Next, this fantasy world felt lackluster. We enjoyed the idea of the Reverie, but the world building fell flat.

The main reason we couldn’t get into this book was because of the writing. Sometimes La Sala used too much description leading to many of the chapters dragging on. There was nothing offensive or wrong about the story, it just felt boring.

Unfortunately, we had to DNF this one— which is unusual for us. We have a long TBR list and it was taking us too long to try to read the entire novel. 

Rating: DNF

Review: The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White 

The Guinevere Deception is a re-imagination of the Arthurian legend. When Princess Guinevere arrives in Camelot to marry the illusive King Arthur, she must adapt to life at court. Guinevere was chosen by the great wizard, Merlin, to marry Arthur and become his protector after magic threatens his kingdom and rule. Except Guinevere is harboring a secret. She is really a changeling, and her name is not really Guinevere. While at court, Guinevere must navigate the kingdom’s politics and keep Arthur out of harms way as a magical force tries to reclaim his kingdom. 

We were super excited to read this book, but sadly have to mark this one as DNF. The plot was promising, and we love when authors put their own spin on classic stories, but this book fell flat. The main character, Guinevere, was boring and lacked personality. There were brief moments where she showed promising character development, and there were a few witty one-liners between her and Arthur. Sadly, these small moments weren’t enough to keep us engaged. 

Moreover, the narrative was bland and, while we enjoyed learning about the Arthurian legend, the actual characters were lackluster. We will be honest: we only made it about 100 pages in, so we cannot comment on the romance or plot development. But the fact that we made it 100 pages and nothing particularly awe-inspiring happened indicates that this book lacked pizzazz. 

Let us know if you had similar issues getting into the book. If you loved it, let us know if we should give this book another shot! 

Rating: DNF