Prince's Fire
3 starsSPOILER ALERT. This is an honest and highly subjective review, proceed with caution. You have been warned.
It's a story about Prince Rayn of Inya and Princess Celeste of Kjall (she's sister to Lucien the Kjall emperor).
I was glad I lowered my expectation with Prince's Fire.
What I liked.
1. Another new place called Inya in the imaginative world created by the author
2. Celeste for her intelligence and loving
3. When Lucien has no mercy on those who wronged his family
4. Patricus the adorable sea retriever
5. Rayn when he's not being an arse
What I didn't liked.
The plot twist wasn't strong to my liking. The idea of assassination attempt was brilliant but the way they uncovered the truth and the assassin was easily killed is too easy.
Rayn was ridiculous at the beginning of the story. One moment he said he liked Celeste and then, he changed his mind and judged her because of her father's wrongdoing in the past. And then the next, they fucked. Seriously, the instant attraction was so sudden it was unbelievable and didn't make sense.
Romance was to be expected but too much of it got me bored. That's the cost of giving me suspense and I don't like being mid-pause with romance in the midst of crucial state. Hello, twice of assassination attempts - overload thrill!
Baby Princess Aderyn illegitimate daughter of Rayn might as well no need to be included in this book because she is a stranger to me despite her importance involvement in the plot cause. Her father and soon-to-be-mother didn't show me how much they love the baby princess. The interaction felt forced and awkward to the extreme.
Their form of transportation has two; through land and sea. So it may take days to send urgent messages. Even their network signal takes a few hours and the fastest is within an hour. It was exasperated and madness to read when they wanted to warn Rayn of the threat yet they lack of advanced transportation and communication. You see, in logical sense of thinking, assassin wouldn't want to wait to kill his/her victim. Since this is already a fantasy book, I would love the author to add dragon serves as transportation, message carrier AND weapon (I'm obsessed with dragons, yep).
......
There's a mention of the great lizard called besarkadal in the book and it's plant eater yet I cannot help myself but imagine its a scary, dangerous meat eater Komodo dragon.
Oh, this is my favourite part which made me laugh out loud.
It was one thing to take my [Lucien] ship. But did you have to take the dog [Patricus]? [...] Never take the dog.
Last but not least. Dear author, I really love this unique world, languages, and diverse cultural that you've created in Hearts and Thrones series. Can you provide a map, glossary, and small part with brief introductions to Kjall, Inya, Sardos, Dori, and Riorca. Please?
Anyway, on second thoughts, I decided to not want to make sense of everything because this is fiction. I'll go for whatever flow the author's desire it to be. Overall, it was a good read.
Read on your own peril.