Just an avid reader. Mostly SF/Fantasy, some hobbies, paranormal, urban fantasy and lighter, fluffier things.
This reader's personal opinion, ©2019, all rights reserved, not to be quoted, clipped or used in any way by goodreads, Google Play, amazon.com or other commercial booksellers*
Outright boring. Surprisingly disappointing. Surprising because I usually like this author and because the disappointment wasn't with some of my usual YA objections.
This just was not a paranormal series. Maybe if I hadn't been expecting a YA paranormal ...? Maybe if had just been billed as alternate history?
Pretty much take a 1970s historical romance about colonizing the Americas with an uneven heroine (sort of mail order bride-ish) mostly self-involved ... oh heck, it was so utterly boring and trope-y I'm not even going to waste more time on reviewing it. Prejudice and racism -- well yeah but even that was so utterly typical (male assholes wanting women in their place and assholes, mostly male, degrading a side character of color and all the women brought over to be brides treated like pieces of meat -- and even that was bland).
100% failed to live up to the hype and even the drama about whether or not was racist.
Drama? What drama, everything was so bland and forced and didn't flow. Even the sudden about face towards end chapters with our shallow heroine now becoming super pioneer hardworking wife-y was just boring and a weird twist on the character that already was uneven.
Doesn't sound like rest of series is exactly "series" although follows some of the characters. I am certainly not interested enough to try the next book.
*©2019. All rights reserved except permission is granted to author or publisher (except Penumbra Publishing) to reprint/quote in whole or in part. I may also have cross-posted on Libib, LibraryThing, and other sites including retailers like kobo and Barnes and Noble. Posting on any site does not grant that site permission to share with any third parties or indicate release of copyright.
Ratings scale used in absence of a booklikes suggested rating scale:
★★★★★ = All Time Favorite
★★★★½ = Extraordinary Book. Really Loved It.
★★★★☆ = Loved It.
★★★½☆ = Really Liked.
★★★☆☆ = Liked.
★★½☆☆ = Liked parts; parts only okay. Would read more by author.
★★☆☆☆ = Average. Okay.
★½☆☆☆ = Disliked or meh? but kept reading in hopes would improve.
★☆☆☆☆ = Loathed It. Possibly DNF and a torturous read.
½☆☆☆☆ = So vile was a DNF or should have been. Cannot imagine anyone liking. (Might also be just an "uploaded" word spew or collection that should not be dignified by calling itself a "published book." If author is going batshit crazy in the blogosphere over reviews -- I now know why they are getting bad reviews. Or maybe author should take remedial classes for language written in until basic concepts like using sentences sink in. Is author even old enough to sign a publishing contract or do they need a legal guardian to sign for them?)