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Midnight Queen, The (2014)

by Sylvia Izzo Hunter(Favorite Author)

3.44 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1480592080 (ISBN13: 9781480592087)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Brilliance Audio

series

Noctis Magicae

review 1: I picked this up on a whim because It sounded interesting, and I am fond of books featuring magical schools. I wish there would have been more time spent at the school, as it seemed an interesting place. I like starting with positive things, and the best thing about the book is its readability. It was a nice diversion and some of the concepts in it are really neat taken on their own and the plot, though nothing extraordinary, was paced pretty well. It was something you might find in a historical romance novel with some magical twists. (And no love scenes.) I did like the magic. It was not groundbreaking, but it was consistent and occasionally quite clever and interesting. Unfortunately the interesting concepts and magic were utilized by the utterly bland, flat characters. ... moreEven the protagonists Sophie and Gray never feel really fleshed out. We are told they are madly in love, but they never have any actual chemistry. It just doesn't feel believable. The other characters are even weaker. Sophie's younger sister has potential for a lot of resentment and angst, considering that she was unwanted by either of her parents for being a female with no magic, but she ends up just a stereotypical younger sister character. She has a speck more personality than either of the protagonists, but that doesn't take much. The antagonists have virtually no character or, seemingly, much intelligence, either. The world is a kind of alternate history where Europe is still Pagan. However other than having pantheistic rituals and priests for multiple gods, the culture is pretty much exactly the same as historical Europe with different names. Again, it is lack of development that is the problem.It is a first novel, and perhaps the solid, inoffensive and safe blandness is result of a new author just wanting to get published. (Or an over-cautious editor.) Hopefully this series will improve with subsequent sequels, as there are some good ideas in it.
review 2: This is really maybe more of a 3.5 star book, but it's hard to say. The writing interfered with the story for me at times, and I'm not sure the changing point of view was always necessary (often I couldn't think why a scene was from a particular point of view) and even with the shifts, there were surprising gaps in information. For instance (no spoilers) toward the end Sophie is panicking about revealing something she remembered, and the tension is built up, and then the reveal happens off screen (such as it were) and the situation is never mentioned again. Very strange.That said, I was intrigued by all the main characters, save for perhaps one. It was a book that was a bit slow for me toward the beginning, but I kept coming back to it, and didn't want to put it down. I like looking at the gender issues, and I liked how they were woven in so nicely to the world; the story never felt didactic. I will gladly read the sequel. less

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