Dance of Thieves
by Mary E. Pearson
I had to sit on this book for a while because it gave me very mixed feelings. At the beginning it all seemed like a great story, and the world building grabbed me at first. However while I continued to read it a lot of problems emerged.
I do not think the characters were written in the way they were intended to. What we were told about them was not the way that they acted. Jace especially, one of the main characters, was supposed to be cool and collected, good at seeing through and reading
people. However time and time again he does things that completely contradict it. The same thing happened with Kazi, the other main character. They both were only true to what we were supposed to think about them when the story called for it
Also, both characters were extremely hypocritical, and got mad about things that they themselves were doing throughout the whole story. I think that this was the most annoying part of this book. There was a lot of stupid drama that was created for no reason and could have been so easily avoided I was practically screaming at the book.
The world in and of itself was great, and I loved the descriptions of all the kingdoms and settings. I just wish that their story focused on that rather than the romance. It heavily relied on the romantic aspect of the story and that made it feel disconnected.
I also thought that the book was both way too long and too short at the same time, which is one of the reasons it took me a long time to think about this book. The ending felt very rushed, which is strange because of how many pages it was. Also funny side note, why do so many people in this book hate honesty? Could not get my hand around it haha.
I could see this series building and growing and turning into a great story, however I think that this first book fell flat compared to all it had to offer. I look forward to reading the next book in the series to see how it grows.