Okay.. the concept generated some interest at first, but the execution is terrible, the characters are flat, and by the time the obligatory 'girls are mean' scene rolled around, I was about to tear my hair out.
Basically Tea (I'm not sure whether to laugh or rant about that name) is a super-speshul bone-witch that no-one likes, and in the blandest ever opening sequence, a wannabee famous bard seeks her out. Tea tells her back-story, which is a gender-flipped Sparrowhawk from Earthsea (man I'm so speshul, I raised my bro from the dead, and rather than suck up my lessons and learn, I'm going to bitch that I'm not being shown magic) Leaving aside her complete lack of reaction to like, raising her freaking brother from the dead, Tea is whiny and boring.
The world building is...gahh. It's a world with magic, but somehow the most powerful, actually useful practioners of magic are hated and feared (cos reasons - even though everyone with more than a copper to rub together uses them)
I got as far as the bullying sequence and switched off my kindle in disgust. Yes there are no original plots in the world, and even fewer original characters, but there are ways of writing tropes, that don't make me want to bash my head against a metal desk.
DNF because I couldn't take it anymore
PS. Cover was cool, and thanks Netgalley for the chance to review.
Basically Tea (I'm not sure whether to laugh or rant about that name) is a super-speshul bone-witch that no-one likes, and in the blandest ever opening sequence, a wannabee famous bard seeks her out. Tea tells her back-story, which is a gender-flipped Sparrowhawk from Earthsea (man I'm so speshul, I raised my bro from the dead, and rather than suck up my lessons and learn, I'm going to bitch that I'm not being shown magic) Leaving aside her complete lack of reaction to like, raising her freaking brother from the dead, Tea is whiny and boring.
The world building is...gahh. It's a world with magic, but somehow the most powerful, actually useful practioners of magic are hated and feared (cos reasons - even though everyone with more than a copper to rub together uses them)
I got as far as the bullying sequence and switched off my kindle in disgust. Yes there are no original plots in the world, and even fewer original characters, but there are ways of writing tropes, that don't make me want to bash my head against a metal desk.
DNF because I couldn't take it anymore
PS. Cover was cool, and thanks Netgalley for the chance to review.
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