Dividing Eden

"I liked the first third of the book pretty well when we were getting to know the characters and the kingdoms. There was a king and queen, their heir, and then a set of twins that were prince and princess, but they’re not anticipated to inherit the throne.<br/><br/>One of the twins Andreus has what seems like asthma and the Queen believes he is cursed so his sister Carys is taught from birth to do everything she must to protect her brother so no one finds out about his curse. Carys causes distractions whenever Andreus begins to have an attack so that he can slip away unnoticed and she gets punished for acting out—punished severely—like she literally gets whipped in the dungeons.<br/><br/>This dynamic makes up their entire identity and everything the twins do revolves around it. They’re extremely close and trust each other like they trust no one else... until Andreus has sex once with the seer of the kingdom (whom his brother then announces he’s betrothed to) and literally their entire lives go out the window.<br/><br/>This is the main reason why I rate this book 2 stars. I believed the characters at the start of the book and even liked them. They were smart and kind and truly desired simply to help the kingdom.<br/><br/>After the king and first-born heir are brought home dead, it’s announced that the twins will have to go through trials to decide who will take the throne. It’s at this point that the seer barely suggests to him that his sister has a nefarious plot against him and Andreus suddenly believes his sister is a total liar and out to steal the throne at all costs. He starts doing all he can to destroy her, he loses all his prior empathy and starts harming citizens of the kingdom to gain favor, and becomes obsessed with this seer who he’s now believed is in love with him for literally like two days.<br/><br/>All the lame tropes come in and, while I believe in a young boy being infatuated and having such a weak personality that he’s easily swayed, the absolute shift in personhood in a matter of hours was just unbelievable and his character becomes absurd and annoying.<br/><br/>I continued liking Carys and her character staying loyal to her brother despite his obvious shift into absurdity actually made sense because of how she grew up to suffer to protect him. It also turns out that she’s the one who is cursed and in a cool sort of magical way which was probably the most intriguing bit of the book, but barely got any time in this first in the series.<br/><br/>I did end up finishing the book because it was a quick and easy read and didn’t take much paying attention to guess everything that was going to happen. I don’t know, I could see how this would be an easy one to read and enjoy just for some political intrigue, but there’s not much else going on here. Won’t continue the series."

"One of the best books I've read all year! Devoured it in hours!"

"I don’t know why I got this book…"

"A suspenseful read that will have you questioning the true motives of every character. The first in a two-book series."

"Kinda confusing, and many in unanswered questions. But good"

"A dark kingdom full of secrets, not even close to the typical princess story you’ve read before"