(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
So… the blurb of this book made it sound really intriguing, but having reached the end, I feel like I’ve missed a lot about what this story was about.
One of the biggest issues I had with this book was that I felt it took a long time to get to the actual plot. Apart from a strange dream, no mention at all was made of the Queen until about 40% of the way through the book. I felt a lot of the first part could have been condensed down. I wasn’t able to connect with the POV character very well and I got very confused about what time period the book was set in. The speech was, at times, quite formal – more suited to Victorian times than modern day.
The use of history wasn’t too bad, though there was a summary of the monarchy that I found was quite boring to read. There was also a lot of summarising of conversations and things. Once they found the body, the story moved a bit faster, but up until then, I felt that a lot of the book was unnecessary – especially the car accident that seemed to have no further relevance. Also, I was more than 50% of the way through the book before finding out the name of the main character.
I did find some of the books to be quite contradictory. For instance, the group is medically trained enough to perform certain procedures, but don’t use the correct term for medical instruments.
I was a bit disappointed by how hard this book was to read. It did have one of my pet peeves – switching between first and third person. I think this book could have been improved greatly, but I didn’t feel any emotional connection to the characters. There was too much telling rather than showing and not enough character development.
There are some positive reviews for this book, so if you’re interested in checking it out and making your own mind up, here are the links to buy it:
Propinquity
Ink of Blood 