The Quilty Reader

I picked up the ebook for Falling Kingdoms because I am a much faster reader than listener, and the work week was over.

A few notes. I am honestly no longer sure that I finished book 1, because the ending was totally unfamiliar. I'm wondering if I didn't get really pissed off about killing off one particular main character and stop reading.

Anyway, I finished it this time around, and I am, in a word, underwhelmed with this series. But, I've previously bought the first three books, so I'm going to get to the end of the first three this weekend in an effort to decide if it is worth continuing with the final three.

When book 1 was released, it was billed as a YA Game of Thrones. Aside from basically hating the marketing thing where new series must be compared to an established, popular series, I understand why the marketing went this direction: Rhodes took the maxim of "kill your darlings" pretty well to heart, and the main villain is a sociopathic douchecanoe.

But it is all a bit heavy-handed, in my opinion. Sort of paint by numbers.

However, and this is on the good side, I really like Jonas, and Cleo has grown on me a bit. It is beyond obvious that they are going to fall in love, has been from the first chapter. All in all, I am absolutely willing to give this series the benefit of the doubt to the end of book 3, since I am already $30.00 in.  By tomorrow evening, I'll know if I am done, or moving on in December.