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mickachoo's review against another edition
1.0
I came so close to not finishing this book. I'm proud of myself for just forcing myself to finish it so I could say I did and not waste the money I spent on it.
I didn't see a plot. I didn't hear a plot. I didn't smell a plot. I don't believe there was a plot. If there was on, I completely missed it and it sucked.
The characters were so incredibly bland. I hated Cyrene. She was an incredible bitch. Entitled, selfish, nosy, and just annoying. She was also pretty stupid too.
No one was entertaining, no one was enthralling, no one garnered my attention long enough to make me care about them. The prince and king were two horny dumbasses, the queen was cliche, the consort was just plain weird, Cyrene's friends were so one dimensional and just worshipped the ground she walked on, her siblings were assholes. And, for the love of god, what are these names and spellings?
The world building was boring, nothing made sense, the society, the monarchy, nothing. Things just kept happening and happening and I was left sitting there like "WTF?? Is that allowed?" Nothing made sense or seemed relevant. It was incredibly slow and mediocre and just dumb. I don't like this book. Goodbye.
I didn't see a plot. I didn't hear a plot. I didn't smell a plot. I don't believe there was a plot. If there was on, I completely missed it and it sucked.
The characters were so incredibly bland. I hated Cyrene. She was an incredible bitch. Entitled, selfish, nosy, and just annoying. She was also pretty stupid too.
No one was entertaining, no one was enthralling, no one garnered my attention long enough to make me care about them. The prince and king were two horny dumbasses, the queen was cliche, the consort was just plain weird, Cyrene's friends were so one dimensional and just worshipped the ground she walked on, her siblings were assholes. And, for the love of god, what are these names and spellings?
The world building was boring, nothing made sense, the society, the monarchy, nothing. Things just kept happening and happening and I was left sitting there like "WTF?? Is that allowed?" Nothing made sense or seemed relevant. It was incredibly slow and mediocre and just dumb. I don't like this book. Goodbye.
litwallflw3r's review against another edition
This book need some serious editing. It does a lot of telling instead of showing and the words don’t flow. I’d love to take a red pen to this book and fix it.
foxgame's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
devansbooklife's review against another edition
5.0
This book is wonderful. It's such a creative and unique fictional realm. It's mystical and mysterious. I am in serious book hangover mode. I need more from this series. My mind is trying to piece together the fragments of information I've gathered, but I'm coming up confused and eager. Eager because there is so much promise. I loved it.
jnwunder's review against another edition
2.0
What on earth was that ending, lol. All the build up and set up... and then bam, you need to buy the next book to get any kind of satisfaction? Nah.
This book had a lot of potential but not worth it.
This book had a lot of potential but not worth it.
caseroo7's review
3.0
Find this review and more at Ramblings From This Chick
I am not a huge fan of fantasy books, and I think a lot of that is because I have the same problem with them as I do with a lot of paranormal stories. The world building usually loses me and I find that most of the time I just get lost in the details. But I have to say that I knew I would have to read this series when I saw K.A. Linde was writing it. I absolutely love her writing, and she has created some of my absolute favorite books and characters ever. After reading this book, I am interested to see where the series goes and I am glad that I took the chance on this series.
Cyrene Strohm is chosen as an Affiliate to the Queen on the day of her Presenting in front of the Byern Court and her family. She thinks that all of her dreams are about to come true and can't wait to finally travel the world. But not everything is as it seems, and Cyrene quickly finds herself in the middle of a very dangerous situations. Not only does she have a mysterious letter and an unreadable book that everyone else sees as blank, but she finds herself drawing the attention of the King himself. While Cyrene tries to put the pieces together of what is happening around her, she begins to develop feelings for King Edric as well and she can't deny the connection they share. Can Cyrene unravel what is going on around her and what it all means, while also deciding what to do about her connection to the King?
There are a ton of players here, and it was hard to keep everything straight at first. Those who are familiar with Linde's work know that she tends to write love triangles. For those worried about that here, let me put your minds at ease. This story is primarily a fantasy with some romance aspects, and as Linde has said herself, though there are more than one interested in Cyrene it is very clear who her feelings are for. But that isn't the focus here at all, and actually I would have preferred it play a much larger part. I felt like the romance that was in this book was told more than it was shown. We see very little interaction or dialogue between Edric and Cyrene, but rather are told that they spent time together and grew closer. I would have liked to have seen some of that connection forming, because I really feel like I wasn't very invested in them or finding their feelings to be as real or believable as they could have been. Also it seemed as though they weren't really together much because of themselves, but rather because of the Consort's constant manipulations.
The other thing that I had some issues with was the world building and story itself. It was very confusing at times, especially at the beginning of the book. I also found the entire King/Consort/Queen/Mistress situation very hard to grasp. I felt like it wasn't explained at all, and that the reader was left to guess what the dynamics there were. It was made to seem as though King Edric had at one time been physically involved with Consort Daufina and that it ended because she only wanted his power, thus ending up as his adviser. While it was also made to seem as though the King was never interested in the Queen other than the few times he had been with her to try and produce an heir. He was so opposed to the idea of a mistress, yet the more he spent time with Cyrene the more he wanted her. Though to be honest that whole relationship developing also seemed to be far fetched because the driving force behind it was actually the Consort Daufina pushing them together. I am curious to see where this series goes, and I did like a lot of the characters. But I have to admit that I was confused for much of this book, and I felt like there were so many things that were never fleshed out. I am hoping that we get more information in the next book, as I still feel like I really don't know a lot of what is going on. There is so much to the past and history here as well as so many different players and agendas that I really just don't know which way is up or down, and I feel like after reading the entire first novel in the series that I should have a better idea of what is going on. I still love K.A. Linde, but I am still a bit up in the air on what i'm feeling here.
**ARC Provided by Inkslinger PR**
I am not a huge fan of fantasy books, and I think a lot of that is because I have the same problem with them as I do with a lot of paranormal stories. The world building usually loses me and I find that most of the time I just get lost in the details. But I have to say that I knew I would have to read this series when I saw K.A. Linde was writing it. I absolutely love her writing, and she has created some of my absolute favorite books and characters ever. After reading this book, I am interested to see where the series goes and I am glad that I took the chance on this series.
Cyrene Strohm is chosen as an Affiliate to the Queen on the day of her Presenting in front of the Byern Court and her family. She thinks that all of her dreams are about to come true and can't wait to finally travel the world. But not everything is as it seems, and Cyrene quickly finds herself in the middle of a very dangerous situations. Not only does she have a mysterious letter and an unreadable book that everyone else sees as blank, but she finds herself drawing the attention of the King himself. While Cyrene tries to put the pieces together of what is happening around her, she begins to develop feelings for King Edric as well and she can't deny the connection they share. Can Cyrene unravel what is going on around her and what it all means, while also deciding what to do about her connection to the King?
There are a ton of players here, and it was hard to keep everything straight at first. Those who are familiar with Linde's work know that she tends to write love triangles. For those worried about that here, let me put your minds at ease. This story is primarily a fantasy with some romance aspects, and as Linde has said herself, though there are more than one interested in Cyrene it is very clear who her feelings are for. But that isn't the focus here at all, and actually I would have preferred it play a much larger part. I felt like the romance that was in this book was told more than it was shown. We see very little interaction or dialogue between Edric and Cyrene, but rather are told that they spent time together and grew closer. I would have liked to have seen some of that connection forming, because I really feel like I wasn't very invested in them or finding their feelings to be as real or believable as they could have been. Also it seemed as though they weren't really together much because of themselves, but rather because of the Consort's constant manipulations.
The other thing that I had some issues with was the world building and story itself. It was very confusing at times, especially at the beginning of the book. I also found the entire King/Consort/Queen/Mistress situation very hard to grasp. I felt like it wasn't explained at all, and that the reader was left to guess what the dynamics there were. It was made to seem as though King Edric had at one time been physically involved with Consort Daufina and that it ended because she only wanted his power, thus ending up as his adviser. While it was also made to seem as though the King was never interested in the Queen other than the few times he had been with her to try and produce an heir. He was so opposed to the idea of a mistress, yet the more he spent time with Cyrene the more he wanted her. Though to be honest that whole relationship developing also seemed to be far fetched because the driving force behind it was actually the Consort Daufina pushing them together. I am curious to see where this series goes, and I did like a lot of the characters. But I have to admit that I was confused for much of this book, and I felt like there were so many things that were never fleshed out. I am hoping that we get more information in the next book, as I still feel like I really don't know a lot of what is going on. There is so much to the past and history here as well as so many different players and agendas that I really just don't know which way is up or down, and I feel like after reading the entire first novel in the series that I should have a better idea of what is going on. I still love K.A. Linde, but I am still a bit up in the air on what i'm feeling here.
**ARC Provided by Inkslinger PR**
stassi444's review against another edition
5.0
**4.25**
This is one of the books I recommend to folks who enjoy a good fantasy novel.
Going into this book, you need to know that this is very much set up to be a series. The Ascension series is a pentology, so this story has five books. The Affiliate builds up the world of Byern, Many people may not like the world-building, but trust me when I say it is essential for this story. You need to understand who all the players are so that you will understand the dynamics at play moving forward.
I finished this book and IMMEDIATELY got the second book in the series.
The reason I took away .5 in my rating is that even though this is categorized as a YA novel, I would consider it to be more so in the category of New Adult because even though Cyrene starts at the age of 17 in this series, she is of adult age in this series and goes through a great deal of more adult trials and tribulations that someone who is in the early to mid-20s can relate to more, wI took away .5 of a start because I would have rather Cyrene had been about 21 when this story started. After all, it would have been more understandable of the trials and tribulations she experienced.
K.A. Linde has become one of my favorite authors because of the story she created with The Affiliate.
This is one of the books I recommend to folks who enjoy a good fantasy novel.
Going into this book, you need to know that this is very much set up to be a series. The Ascension series is a pentology, so this story has five books. The Affiliate builds up the world of Byern,
Spoiler
a land where their magic and its users have been eradicated and enters Cyrene, who discovers she has charm.I finished this book and IMMEDIATELY got the second book in the series.
The reason I took away .5 in my rating is that even though this is categorized as a YA novel, I would consider it to be more so in the category of New Adult because even though Cyrene starts at the age of 17 in this series, she is of adult age in this series and goes through a great deal of more adult trials and tribulations that someone who is in the early to mid-20s can relate to more, wI took away .5 of a start because I would have rather Cyrene had been about 21 when this story started. After all, it would have been more understandable of the trials and tribulations she experienced.
K.A. Linde has become one of my favorite authors because of the story she created with The Affiliate.
anbananova's review
dnf at 59% right on the moment when underage fmc was committing adultery with a married king.
why were they acting like rhea died when she was assigned to the second class?
i didn’t understand the setting. it was some kind of circus or a cult where the “royalty” did whatever they wanted and called it “rules”. there weren’t enough of likable characters.
who was the true love interest? fmc was flirting with the king but he was married to a queen lol. i hoped it was none of the court. king and prince seemed douchey. i didn’t like both of them courting her (if it could be called that), it felt icky. especially the king who was also trying for a baby with the queen. and let’s not forget fmc’s age - 17yo child.
it was obvious that fmc had some kind of powers - did they sense it so they made her the queen’s affiliate? what was the purpose for affiliation ? was it like an internship?
ashley_2409's review
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0