Thank you Netgalley for providing me with this ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.
Unfortunately, this book wasn’t for me. I felt it read a little younger than Young Adult readers at times. I will admit I skimmed some parts of the story as well, mostly about the sky boarding, but we'll talk about that later. I also found some parts of this book confusing and couldn’t quite figure out how we got there.
But first what is this story about? It is about Kira a 16-year-old girl with a special ability. She has a 3rd eye, one that can sense people’s feelings, and other things she is still learning about. But everything is not all fun and games, she didn’t know her third eye worked until she saved the life of a highborn boy during a sky boarding incident. Once the father of this boy learns of her abilities, he gives her a very important mission of being his son's personal bodyguard. Now she has been moved to a new city, attending a new school, living in a new house, and has found some new friends and enemies.
Part of the plot that didn’t work for me was the heavy focus on the sporting aspect. There are so many pages giving so much extra detail of this sport that like I said above I skimmed most of it, I just found it to be filler that didn’t add anything to the story itself. Another component that seemed to put the story off for me is the timeline. At the start of the story, the school year went from starting in a few weeks to them missing multiple days with nothing happening in between. The timeline skipped around too much and doesn’t add up to the events happening in the plot.
Now let’s talk about Kira’s third eye. It never worked before now all of a sudden, it works, and she abruptly knows how to use it. There was no lead up to her being able to learn and discover this ability. We went right from her and her father scamming people for "healing" to her being this highborn boy's bodyguard. I need some background information and history of this ability, like where did it come from, did her mother have it, things like that.
The one thing I liked about this story was the friendship. I am glad Kira got to have a strong female friendship. Too many times we see girls put against one another, Sarita was a nice addition to this story. We could have used more conversations that weren’t just about boys but that is forgiven.
The villain, how many times do we have to read about the tyrannical male dead set on overthrowing a female-run monarchy. Don’t get me started, this is Game of Thrones “because he is a big strong man” all over again. Women in a power roll is not a bad thing. Women who care about children, and the people of their country before war and politics is not a bad thing. Let us run a country you will be shocked what a female can do.
I enjoyed the authors writing style, I found it to be a very quick and easy read. I think the storyline flowed well, there was a good sequence of events leading up to the finale in the last few chapters. I also found the idea of the world (a high tech Indian inspired kingdom) to be very unique and interesting. I feel like the author had a clear vision of what she wanted to create, but I kind of wanted more. I wanted more descriptions of the palace, the clothing, and the landscapes. I think the reason I found this story to felt younger than Young Adult was the characters. I found that even though they were 16-17 years old they often acted more like 12-13-years old. Our main character Kira would be serious, independent, and strong-willed one second and then the next page has a complete change in demeanor, I found that to be confusing at times. In the end, I wish the story didn't focus so much on the school sports aspect of the storyline. I wish it paid more attention to politics both of the country and the school. It did end on a high note, I will keep my eye out for the second book and may give it a try.
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