Queen of Hearts ~ Review

Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is my first review using Book Roasts’ rating system. So far I like using this system because it makes me think more critically about the books I read instead of rating based on emotions. This system should make my ratings more in line with how I actually feel about the book as a whole.

Dinah was very bratty and didn’t really seem to grasp the issues and tension happening around her. She knew her father hated her and was violent, yet didn’t think that he would want to kill her. She didn’t seem to be able to make connections between Vittiore and Faina, which in my mind, was something that she should’ve been able to see. She was also very self-centered and only thought about herself, never thinking about how her half-sister may feel about being thrust into royalty. The secondary characters didn’t really stand out to me, we never got any sort of backstory or personalities from any of them.

I’ve never read Alice in Wonderland, so I’m not sure how true to the original this retelling of the Queen of Hearts is, but I definitely did enjoy the atmosphere and the setting.

I liked the authors writing style, it was very simple and easy to read, which made this book a quick read for me. There wasn’t really anything that stood out to me as fantastic though.

The plot was okay, its really a lot of Dinah hating her father and her sister, and having tantrums about how she doesn’t want to deal with them. She loves Wardley, but I really don’t get that feeling of love for him and it feels more like she loves the idea of him. It almost felt like there really wasn’t any clear plot lines, the real action happens in the second half of the book, where Dinah sneaks into the Black Towers and finds out her father wants to kill her. Then she escapes. That’s pretty much it.

If this book had been longer, I don’t know if I would’ve finished it. I don’t think I’ll be continuing on with the series, because I just didn’t feel invested in the characters and the story.

From Dinah’s perspective, everything makes sense because she is so preoccupied and invested in her own thoughts and feelings that it could be plausible that she doesn’t notice the connections that appear easily to the reader, even though the plot takes place over the course of a few months, during which she forgets things that she made a point to notice and wonder about, such as the mountain symbol in the tunnels. It just didn’t seem logical to me that she wouldn’t put two and two together, because she does seem like a smart character she just doesn’t use her mind for anything.

I kind of enjoyed the book, although it’s not something that I will think about afterwards. It’s like reading the back of a cereal box, just something to do when you’re bored. Like I mentioned, I won’t be continuing with the series despite the cliffhanger ending, it just didn’t interest me as much as I had hoped. As far as a quick one day read, it was fine. It felt almost as though the book was unfinished and didn’t really have any emotions to it.