Queen's Peril Needs to Take its Audience Seriously.

Padmé has always been one of my favorite characters from Star Was. While I enjoyed the previous book in this "Padmé Trilogy" of YA novels, Queen's Shadow, I did find it far from perfect. However, I was still interested enough in Padmé's early adventures in the Galactic Senate to keep reading. Queen's Peril is a prequel that is set just before the events of Star Wars The Phantom Menace and is meant to focus on Padmé's early days as queen of her home planet.

However, I was very irked by the way Padmé is portrayed in this story. Instead of showing how a teenage girl can still be a good queen despite her age and inexperience, this book shoes how a queen can still be a (stereotypical) teenage girl in spite of her responsibilities. The first 75% of this book follows Padmé and her teenaged handmaidens sneaking off and getting into shenanigans and spends more time focused on these misadventures instead of how these young ladies participate in the government.

Padmé does call a summit to meet with ambassadors from neighboring planets, but this quickly turns into a romantic subplot between one of the handmaidens and a teenage ambassador. (This ambassador also flirts with this handmaid during the summit in front of several other diplomats, which I found to be a bit awkward).

In The Phantom Menace one of Padmé's handmaidens switches places with the queen to act as a decoy during the invasion. That handmaiden in question is named Sabé, and this young woman was ready to die in her queen's place so I never found it hard to believe this was meant as a last resort. However, Queen's Peril treats this "decoy procedure" as a common convenience.

They employ this whole switcheroo several times before Naboo is invaded by the Trade Federation and everytime is for a stupidly trivial reason. The first time Padmé and her handmaiden switch is because Padmé was having some menstruation cramps and was not feeling up to making any public appearances so she had Sabé stand in for her. The second time the two switch, was because Padmé's hands got covered in glitter during a concert that she and the handmaidens snuck out to with the teenaged ambassador Sabé was flirting with. This glitter could not wash off and apparently it would be insulting to a certain ambassador if she showed up to the summit with this glitter, but it would be offensive to another ambassador if she wore gloves to cover this up, makeup is not working, and none of he official royal gowns have sleeves below the wrist.

To circumvent this Sabé and Padmé switch places and no ambassadors are offended. That is until that afformentioned teenaged ambassador approaches Padmé thinking she is Sabé and tries to kiss her so Padmé panics and quickly runs off. This ambassador thinks Sabé doesn't want to be with her and breaks things off with Sabé so now Sabé is angry at Padmé and doesn't want to be her friend anymore. Now, I know these characters are teenagers, but they are also teenagers who are participating in a planet-wide government, this just makes these kids come across as immature with terrible priorities.

Also, the last third of this book really relies on the reader having already watched and be very familiar with the plot of The Phantom Menace to understand what is going on as it really jumps around the plot. I think this book could have been much better if it were a story that stood on its own and ending as The Phantom Menace begins. It could start just before Padmé becomes queen and ends as the blockade is build around the planet.

As for the plot, I recall from previous Star Wars books, Padme's predecessor was very corrupt. This would have been an excellent challenge for a young queen to overcome, especially if an invasion from outside the planet arrives just as she is making progress with the problems at home.

However, instead of the tension of the story being whether or not the girls will be able to sneak off to concerts with ambassadors or if Padmé and Sabé will be able to reconcile their relationship following the ambassador drama, the tension would be from Padmé trying to restore sanity to a government that had spent a little bit to much time not functioning due to corruption. It would also have been a good mirror to the situation of the Galactic Republic at the time.

I have read in other reviews, that since Queen's Shadow is a YA book, the more childish elements of the story are understandable and that teens will not mind them. I disagree. I promise as a former teenager, that teen girls will be interested in stories that do not have dating drama and fallouts between friends because of said drama. Books that take their target audience seriously regardless of their age can and should be written. Both teenagers and Padmé's character deserve better.

Series I Probably Won't Finish

 

         Just because I read and even liked the first book or two in a series doesn’t mean I want to make the commitment to read the following books. Whether it was because I was no longer interested in the direction the story was heading, the plot’s progression came to a screeching stop, or because my favorite character died and I cannot bear to go on without him/her the result stays the same.

Snow Like Ashes

  I read the first book and thought it was okay, but it ended on a very different note than I was expecting. Spoilers for Snow Like Ashes ahead. I thought the entire trilogy would be about the Winter People taking back their home kingdom. Except that all occurred during the last quarter of the book. (It should not take a hundred pages to take back a country). The book also ended with what looked to be the set up for a love triangle which I have personally seen enough of, so I decided to call it quits.

Throne of Glass

  My favorite character died (won’t say who because spoilers) so I couldn’t go on without them. I wish I could say more, but there really is not much to it.

Heroes of Olympus

  I loved the Percy Jackson books in early high school. Percy’s first-person narrative was especially enjoyable including the modern take on classical mythology. After I closed the final installment in the Percy Jackson series, I jumped right into the sequel Heroes of Olympus. However, I forced myself to finish the first one, The Lost Hero.

  Now it should be noted that Percy is not a main character in that book so I assumed my lack of enjoyment was because of it. The Son of Neptune is the sequel where Percy returns as a major character. It had the same enjoyable take on classical mythology, but Percy’s first-person narration was gone, and I feel the series lost much of its charm because of this.

Legacy of the King’s Pirates

  I read this book in high school back when I was young enough to like things. (Please don’t take that too seriously as I still like things that I read and watch. It’s the things that I write that I don’t like.) However, my taste changed as I read the fourth book not realizing it was the fourth book. I found the other book in the series to not be as enjoyable and contained material that really irked me so I decided it wasn’t particularly worth it to continue if I wasn’t enjoying it.

          

A Series of Unfortunate Events

  I didn’t realize how many there were when I picked up the first book. I don’t’ not know if this says anything about me and my inability to commit. Then again, I finished all 12 volumes of the Jacky Faber series so there is that. However, I enjoyed Jacky’s voice in the narration much better than Lemony Snicket. I found him to be pretentious and talking down to the reader. Also the books kind of have the same set up. The kids move in with a new adult and everything goes wrong which some people love, but I found it to be a bit too repetitive. 

Conclusion

I want to say if I listed one of your favorite series here that does not mean I think poorly of your reading taste. The reason I do not like a story could very well be the reason someone else loves it. An example is how I listed that I decided not to read on after Snow Like Ashes because I saw a love triangle in the future, but other readers really enjoy love triangles and look for books that have them, and there is nothing wrong with this. 

What I learned from all of this is that I do not need to finish a series if I am not enjoying it anymore. When I was younger I felt I had to finish what I started no matter what and I wasn’t enjoying reading anymore. 

The Black Swan Might Go a Little To Far

(Warning, this review contains mention of Sexual Assault)

Black Swan is a retelling of the ballet Swan Lake that is unique by being written from Odile's point of view.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first hundred pages or so of the book. I especially loved Odile and her never ending quest to earn the approval of her father who does not deserve a child like her, Odile’s relationship with the flock (the woman cursed to take the forms of swans) and her practicing with magic. The chapters that were written from Queen Cothilde’s (The Prince's mother) point of view and her set up as a major and scheming villain were also intriguing. However, for a book titled The Black Swan she is not the focus as much as I feel she should have been with the narration focused a little too often on other characters, particularly Siegfried, who ruined the story for me.

We all love a good redemption arc, following an individual as they change their deep seated ideals. However, the thing about redemption is that someone needs to be in a bad place before it happens, otherwise there is nothing to redeem and atone for. I do believe that a character with past sins can still maintain readers’ sympathy, but there is  a point where only God can judge someone. If this is acknowledged in the texts I can move on. That is not at all that happened here in the Black Swan. 

Siegfried starts out as an obnoxious womanizer, and I heard he gets better going into the book so I was looking forward to this little turd getting called out on his bad habits. Then he rapes someone. He has a nightmare about the victim commiting suicide and then seeks to turn over a new leaf, and meets the love of his life and with help from Odile saves everyone from the curse, and everyone lives happily ever after. Unless you are the minority girl who was raped by a river side and probably driven to suicide with crime committed against you unpunished. At least you can find solace in the fact that the rapist was able to save other people and marry the woman of his dreams. 

This is enraging because they literally could have had Siegfried realize the way he talks to and about women is disgusting and try to change from that. A rape is too far and I really cannot enjoy the rest of the story.

The Black Swan is a good idea with some flawed, but human characters to follow in the story, except for the “redemption” arc that I feel went too far and sloppily wrapped up did not leave a good taste in my mouth.  

The Crystal Snowstorm is a Hidden Gem

I first read this book in middle school and it quickly became one of my absolute favorites. Even after nearly a decade  (and too many rereads to count) my love for The Crystal Snowstorm (and the following Letzenstein books) has not diminished. 

The Letzenstein Chronicles follows the happenings of a small European country on the brink of revolution. Catherine, an adolescent visiting her estranged Grandfather the Grand duke and ruler, finds herself caught in the crossfire of not only the revolution, but the feud within her own family. 

The relationships between the characters are genuine and natural. In the author’s note, Ms. Trevor explained when she writes stories about difficult topics for children (such as political turmoil and revolutions) she tries to focus on the adventures of the characters foremost and it works beautifully here. These are friendships that I could see happening in real life. These characters, Catherine, Yolande, Edward, and especially Rafiel LeMarre have  stuck with me the way Luke Skywalker, Samwise Gamgee, and Katniss Everdeen did. 

Our heroine, Catherine, is another highlight of the story. She would rather  live a quiet life and get to know her newly found family than be involved with the politics her Grandfather has ensnared her in. However, she still strives to do what she can to help even if what she does seems very small. Catherine does fail at times and feels hopeless and frustrated but she does not become apathetic. 

I also enjoyed seeing Catherine, a very quiet girl at the beginning, develop unique friendships with different people. She comes to love and care about Con, Yolande, Edward, and Raf, but each relationship does something different for Catherine and the story. I will give special notice to Catherine and Yolande’s relationship because it is a sisterly friendship between a young girl and a young woman, something I do not see very often in fiction.

My only complaint (if it could be called that) is, I would have liked it if Countess Imelda, the sister of our antagonist Duke Julius, had been a bit more involved in the story. She mostly acts as a messenger for other characters. However, Catherine and co. have more than enough problems and as I reiterated all the other characters are very developed and this by no means ruined the story for me. 

    Overall, the Crystal Snowstorm is a solid first entry in a series that satisfied but also left me curious for the next installment. I would recommend it for children (and adults) who enjoy historical fiction and character focused stories. I feel it is appropriate for kids 10 and up, but this is subjective to the individual child’s reading comprehension.

An Uncertain Choice by Jody Hedlund

As an avid reader of historical romance, I have accepted not every book needs to be 100% accurate to the time-period it represents. No one is perfect and no author, (and no reader) will ever know everything about a particular time in history. If the story and characters are well written small mistakes can and should be excused. However, there is a difference between having small mistakes such as a character mentioning a book that was written a handful of years after the story takes place and having a character use a piece of technology that was not only invented centuries later (if it even existed) they utilize it incorrectly.

An Uncertain Choice  unfortunately is the latter. As I said earlier if I find a book to be enjoyable, I can overlook inaccuracies. However, I did not find the story to be anything to write home about and the inaccuracies feel as if no research was done at all. 

The premise is that our heroine Rosemarie must become a nun when she turns 18 because of a vow her late parents made. The inciting incident is when Rosemarie’s godfather finds a loophole to this vow. Rosemarie must marry before her 18th birthday so her Godfather introduces her to 3 of his noblest knights to compete for her hand, but it quickly becomes clear that someone is trying to sabotage the knight’s efforts in wooing Rosemare. 

Rosemarie, is not that much of a three dimensional character. What I know about her is that she wants to be a good ruler, she is opposed to torture, and she cares a great deal about the poor. Rosemarie’s relationship with the poor and peasants was presented as one of her greatest virtues. The peasants all adore Rosemarie, but not a single one of them have names and anything more meaningful than a parasocial relationship with her. They only exist to ask Rosemarie for alms  so that she could come across as a kind person when she gives them donations. 

There is also a gratuitous usage of medieval torture and torture devices. Although Rosemarie has long since outlawed such cruel practices in her territory, the story opens with our heroine running into the square to save an old man from being boiled alive because the sheriff cannot be bothered to respect Rosemarie as a ruler. Now, punishment for crimes was brutal hundreds of years ago, I am not going to pretend they were not. However, many of what we think in pop culture as medieval torture were rarely used if they were actual medieval inventions. Also, the mention of torture was explicit and very detailed, which I found did not fit the tone of the book.

Like the peasants, the torture feels as if it is only in the story as a tool to make Rosemarie likable. Torture bad. Rosemarie does not like it. Rosemarie good. 

The romance was not all that interesting to me as I found it difficult to root for a character who I don’t care for to find true love.  I also struggled to root for one of the three potential love interests when it was likely one of them was actively trying to harm the others. On the other hand, this mystery of who was the one playing dirty kept me reading as I was thinking it would be resolved excitedly. I was wrong. The one who was guilty was obvious, but as I was reading, I was convinced they must be a red herring. 

If this book was not explicitly stated to be set during the 14th century in England and was fantasy, many of my gripes regarding the historical and religious inaccuracies would be irrelevant. But I still would not be able to say that I would recommend a book as the romance and the subpar mystery and tonal issues would still be present. I wish I knew of a book with a similar premise I could recommend instead, but I cannot think of one. If anyone does know of one please feel free to mention it in the comments.