Review: A Princess's Duty

A Princess's Duty by Sloane Murphy
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Sloane Murphy is an author who has caught my attention on numerous occasions, with The Immortal Chronicles leaving me more than a little bit curious and desperate to read. When the chance came about to read A Princess’s Duty, I opted to start my introduction to Sloane Murphy through the Of Fire and Frost series. After all, a good fae story – especially one labelled as ‘dark’ – is sure to grab my attention.

Unfortunately, I found A Princess’s Duty extremely difficult to work through. It’s a short book, one I should have completed in a single sitting, and yet I had to force myself to continue reading it. I seem to be in the minority with my view, but to me the book felt all over the place. Things weren’t clear, characters were incontinent, and things seemed to appear out of nowhere. In many ways, this felt like a first draft. In fact, it felt as though there were many ideas thrown together into one story preventing any idea from being given the attention it deserved – thus, something that could make a wonderful series instead made a messy book. The fact there are future books to come, that this is only the first book in the series, leaves me unsure of what to expect from the future books.

I was intrigued at first. We were introduced to a world and characters that had a lot of potential. We were thrown straight in the deep end, and I loved this. However, I feel as though the world building that should have occurred failed to. I expected some explanation of things after the intensity of the start, yet things were never explained. There were drops of information here and there, but it was never enough for the world to develop in my mind. I had too many questions, too many things I longed to understand. As someone who loves world building, who loves to dive into the minutiae, I found this one to be lacking.

However, I persisted as I was curious as to how things would come together. There were elements of the storyline that did interest me. There was a point where things did hold my interest – hence the two-star rating – but this was quickly lost as too many things were thrown together. There were storylines introduced from every direction, with things seeming to come out of nowhere. I love intricate storylines, I love it when a story intertwines many elements, but in this case it felt rushed. Everything was thrown together, when things could have been spread out. There was no chance to appreciate what was happening, as you were quickly thrown into a new thing, preventing any kind of emotional response.

Add in the fact I did not like the characters – felt them to be inconsistent, if I’m honest – and I had a very hard time with this one. As I’ve already stated, though, I’m in the minority. I think I went in expecting something very different, thus preventing me from falling in love with this one.

For those who do enjoy the story, however, I’m sure they’ll be all over book two considering the cliff-hanger of an ending.

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