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What scene in the Apollo's Raven did you like the least? For me, it was Queen Rhiannon's reaction when she thought that Catrin and Marcellus had had sex. Do you think her reaction was extreme because of her own infidelity?

I don't think so. It's common for parents to have a double-standard when it comes to their kids. And also, there might be the aspect that Rhiannon doesn't want her daughter making the same mistake she did. At times it felt like she was trapped in the affair, that Trystan wouldn't take no, no matter how many times she said or no matter what repercussions there might be later.

As for my least favorite scene? I don't know. Maybe it was when Amren was struck down in the final fight. It seemed like, given the time period, there was no way he should survive it, and yet, somehow, he does.

I didn't like the first scene where we met the King and Queen. It was riddled with blatant sexism, which was annoying, and the writing doesn't move quickly enough to skip over it.

I didn't like the scene where the queen reacts to the roman letter. You would think someone of her diplomatic and political abilities would know better than to declare war on someone who is holding your family hostage. It seemed like it was engineered just to create conflict.

I did not like the scenes where the Romans and King Amren and Queen Rhiannon had to talk about exchanging hostages. for me, this scene was way too drawn out and over-explained. I think it would have been more interesting if Marcellus and Vala weren't hostages, but spies meant to infiltrate the other side's camp. This would have reinforced the forbidden love aspect of Marcellus and Catrin and would have given the author more chances to characterize Vala and make her AN ACTUAL CHARACTER INSTEAD OF A PLOT DEVICE.

I didn't like anything about Marrock, but Agrona tying up Catrin and trying to control her mind, making her drink green slime potion was really awful. While I was reading it, I wondered how much Catrin could resist and how she would escape the evil plans of Agrona.

I didn't like the scene when the queen's affair is revealed and her first two daughters are revealed to not be the King's biological kids. The whole situation put me off the book for a while.

I do agree that Queen Rhiannon transferred her feelings of guilt from her affair to Catrin. And my lease favorite scene -SPOILER ALERT- was when Catrin begged her mother not to send her with the sorceress for healing, but the queen did it anyway- in spite of her mistrust for the sorceress.

I was really bothered by the sex scene for Marrock when he's in his wolf form. That is not something I needed to read about. Especially since later on, it is revealed that the silver wolf he mates with is the little girl he beheaded!

I disliked the scenes where the queen does not believe Catrin, her daughter, when she tries to tell her the truth.

sjenkins39 wrote: ↑22 Nov 2019, 21:13 I disliked the scenes where the queen does not believe Catrin, her daughter, when she tries to tell her the truth.

That was incredibly irritating. Her mother fights against her daughters so much that it's no wonder why they're so rebellious.

Many of the scenes where Catrin's mind were joined with the raven were described in a way that was fairly hard for me to follow. I had to reread most of those a few times. As a result, I'd say those were my least favorite from a writing standpoint.
But in terms of my least favorite part regardless of the way it was written, I had a really hard time with the scene where Marrock was trying to kill Catrin and threatened to rape her. As bad as that is at face value, it was made even worse because not only was this his sister, but she was a little kid. I really couldn't get past that.

Honestly, the sex scenes were not to my liking at all.

Bluebird03 wrote: ↑26 Feb 2019, 17:44 I do agree that Queen Rhiannon transferred her feelings of guilt from her affair to Catrin. And my lease favorite scene -SPOILER ALERT- was when Catrin begged her mother not to send her with the sorceress for healing, but the queen did it anyway- in spite of her mistrust for the sorceress.

This was my least favorite scene as well. I had hoped that the queen would at least listen to her daughter, even though Catrin had just slept with Marcellus. Still, I think this scene points to an important flaw in both the queen's and the king's ruling style: letting formalities and reputation reign over empathy and understanding.