*Spoiler free*
When King Jameson declares his love for Lady Hollis Brite, Hollis is shocked—and thrilled. After all, she’s grown up at Keresken Castle, vying for the king’s attention alongside other daughters of the nobility. Capturing his heart is a dream come true. But Hollis soon realizes that falling in love with a king and being crowned queen may not be the happily ever after she thought it would be. And when she meets a commoner with the mysterious power to see right into her heart, she finds that the future she really wants is one that she never thought to imagine.
While I wasn’t as avid a fan of The Selection as some people, I did still like it. I also liked the sequel series and The Siren. So, I was looking forward to seeing what she wrote next. And The Betrothed sounded pretty good. A king wants Hollis’s hands, but her heart is being captured by a commoner. Definitely sounded like something I would like to read.
The marketing for this book said that it would be a steamy new duology from Kiera Cass. To me, steamy means sex scenes. So, I thought this book would be Adult, New Adult, or maybe even upper YA. Though, I have come to the conclusion that EpicReads does not quite understand what steamy means. There are about four kisses and all of them are brief. It is definitely YA, which I would usually appreciate, I was just something expecting different. I don’t know why I’m talking about this first, but I’m unnecessarily bitter about it haha.
Speaking of the romance, it progressed shockingly fast. I’m trying to be more open minded about insta-love type situations, but I felt like there was very little development. There were a few conversations, but that’s it. I felt like there wasn’t that big of a connection or enough time to really develop them. I did love the male love interest, he was a sweet guy, but it’s like I blinked and everything happened. I would have liked for their connection to deepen more throughout the book. I was expecting more angst than there was.
There was also an aspect of the romance that I’m so mad about. I don’t know if something is true or not and I’ll have to wait for the sequel to find that out. But, it definitely is looking like it’s going towards the true side. And I have a sinking feeling about where the romance is going to go and I just want to ugh in anticipation. Staying in the true lane, I just don’t get why that route was taken. It makes me so frustrated because I don’t understand why things were added. It makes the things that felt rushed feel all the more rushed. I dunno, it just didn’t really work for me.
I was completely prepared to love Delia Grace, who was Hollis’s best friend. Wow, was I very wrong. I don’t get why that story took the route it did. It felt like bitterness was created between them just to create bitterness. I don’t think women have to be friends just because their women, but I’m not a fan of pitting women against each other for something that feels like the sake of bitterness. I felt like there was a great storyline right there, one that would have fleshed out the romance as well, but it went down a different route for some reason.
Kiera Cass has such a unique writing style and this was one of the things that I liked about the book! It’s so light and fluffy. It sort of feels like it’s infused with sunlight. It allowed me to move through the book at a really quick pace!
The lightness and fluffiness of this book is another thing that I liked. It’s sweet. Hollis is a sun ray and it’s always fun to read about kings and queens and falling in love with commoners. There’s flowers and pretty dresses and crowns. There’s so much light in this book.
I think this book would have been a fantastic standalone. There’s this deeper plot that I felt could have been completely removed. It was included to make the book a duology I’m pretty sure, but I think if it was taken out and more focus was put on the budding romance and more angst was added, it would have made a really amazing standalone.
I don’t want to persuade anybody to not read this book. I’m sure people will love it! It was wasn’t for me. It had a good amount of things that frustrated me and that I wasn’t a huge fan of. But, I did enjoy reading it and there was enough that I liked about it that I didn’t want to throw it across the room. So, it was alright.
The Betrothed comes out May 5, 2020! You can add it on Goodreads and pre-order a copy in the meantime!
Thank you for reading!
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