Official Review: Cara's Twelve by Chantel Seabrook
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MarieMc
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Official Review: Cara's Twelve by Chantel Seabrook
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Cara's Twelve" by Chantel Seabrook.]
4 out of 4 stars
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Cara’s Twelve By Chantel Seabrook
Cara opens the story dramatically with a temper tantrum... As I was reading I thought Cara to be about 15 or 16, however, as I think about it she might have been more like 19. I'm unsure. Some would say 'who cares' but it would be an issue for me, as a reader, simply because of the content. For the sake of my sanity I want to assume she was between the ages of 19 to 23. Cara was raised in Crowthorne a small, poor province in the kingdom. Due to a traumatic situation in her childhood, she hates the goddess Annul whom the kingdom worships. She must show loyalty to the goddess even though she is distinctly unbelieving. Cara is ordered to take her cousin Maeve’s place as the heir apparent and struggles with her unbelief. I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars.
Cara is a cousin to the heir of the throne. Cousin Maeve is ill, and cannot produce an heir. She is very sweet and loyal to Cara. Maeve becomes a very lovable and likable part of the book. Many times throughout the book I had hoped that a miracle would happen for Maeve. Maeve cannot inherit the throne because of her illness coupled with requirements of the council and of the goddess that a queen must full fill. Maeve appears mousy, yet she is very brave and strong. She would have been a great queen.
The Queen Birkita, Maeve's mother, is evil, mean and power hungry. She thrives on evilness, as do all evil wicked queens in fairy tales do. I found in this story; evil is very evil and the good are good, but human. The evil ones are so evil, there is not any humanity within them. The evil ones have no thought of any compassion or mercy unless it is for their own gain.
Cara must go on tour before she can be crowned queen. She has been assigned twelve consorts, some good, some bad. Out of these twelve she must pick her future husband. Of the twelve, eight of them have good story time. A few of them come to the forefront either as good guy heroes or despicably evil.
I would consider the violence to be typical of a story of this nature, except the content has strong sexual moments not appropriate for anyone under the age of 18. I say 18 because I would not want my 17 year old to read this. It disturbed me that Cara quickly seemed to dismiss one boy that she cared deeply for and left behind, then switched her desires to many of the twelve. This seems to be the acceptable way of life, however, I was left a bit astounded because when she was first told that she was expected to sleep with all twelve she was horrified. She then discovered that it was not really expected, it was her choice. Then very quickly and seemingly flippantly began 'trying' them out. It was like she looked at an apple and thought, “Oh I want to eat that apple” and did. I understand that queens seem to be beyond the realm of moral stability, but it would be nice, in my opinion, to at least see a bit of moral strength. Cara's suddenly loosened morals put me off a bit. The flow into this part of the story did not work for me. I would have been more comfortable had she just been with one guy for at least the time it took to travel between provinces and the ceremony of dedication giving her time to become acquainted with the consort of that province. Perhaps then it would not have felt so inappropriate to me. Cara often responds to situations emotionally rather than logically. This is comical in a way because she is angered when any of her twelve consorts respond with emotion rather than logic.
There are some rape scenes that affected me deeply for reasons I will not go into here. So, for the protection of the reader, perhaps a warning of strong sexual content and rape should be noted. The story line of the rape and abuse were well written, perhaps thus, making them disturbing.
I was genuinely intrigued with the story. I would rate it 4 out of 4 stars with warnings. The writing, I thought, very good. A few typos and grammar issues were present. One of the twelve's name kept changing in spelling from Cuch to Cush which I found distracting. The story flows well and keeps interest high. Each stop in their journey was intriguing and action filled. I truly loved the story line. I did not like the loose morals that went with it, however I have tried to keep in mind that was part of the culture of the story. This book is appropriate for adult readers that like a strong female lead with very human qualities.
******
Cara's Twelve
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4 out of 4 stars
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Cara’s Twelve By Chantel Seabrook
Cara opens the story dramatically with a temper tantrum... As I was reading I thought Cara to be about 15 or 16, however, as I think about it she might have been more like 19. I'm unsure. Some would say 'who cares' but it would be an issue for me, as a reader, simply because of the content. For the sake of my sanity I want to assume she was between the ages of 19 to 23. Cara was raised in Crowthorne a small, poor province in the kingdom. Due to a traumatic situation in her childhood, she hates the goddess Annul whom the kingdom worships. She must show loyalty to the goddess even though she is distinctly unbelieving. Cara is ordered to take her cousin Maeve’s place as the heir apparent and struggles with her unbelief. I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars.
Cara is a cousin to the heir of the throne. Cousin Maeve is ill, and cannot produce an heir. She is very sweet and loyal to Cara. Maeve becomes a very lovable and likable part of the book. Many times throughout the book I had hoped that a miracle would happen for Maeve. Maeve cannot inherit the throne because of her illness coupled with requirements of the council and of the goddess that a queen must full fill. Maeve appears mousy, yet she is very brave and strong. She would have been a great queen.
The Queen Birkita, Maeve's mother, is evil, mean and power hungry. She thrives on evilness, as do all evil wicked queens in fairy tales do. I found in this story; evil is very evil and the good are good, but human. The evil ones are so evil, there is not any humanity within them. The evil ones have no thought of any compassion or mercy unless it is for their own gain.
Cara must go on tour before she can be crowned queen. She has been assigned twelve consorts, some good, some bad. Out of these twelve she must pick her future husband. Of the twelve, eight of them have good story time. A few of them come to the forefront either as good guy heroes or despicably evil.
I would consider the violence to be typical of a story of this nature, except the content has strong sexual moments not appropriate for anyone under the age of 18. I say 18 because I would not want my 17 year old to read this. It disturbed me that Cara quickly seemed to dismiss one boy that she cared deeply for and left behind, then switched her desires to many of the twelve. This seems to be the acceptable way of life, however, I was left a bit astounded because when she was first told that she was expected to sleep with all twelve she was horrified. She then discovered that it was not really expected, it was her choice. Then very quickly and seemingly flippantly began 'trying' them out. It was like she looked at an apple and thought, “Oh I want to eat that apple” and did. I understand that queens seem to be beyond the realm of moral stability, but it would be nice, in my opinion, to at least see a bit of moral strength. Cara's suddenly loosened morals put me off a bit. The flow into this part of the story did not work for me. I would have been more comfortable had she just been with one guy for at least the time it took to travel between provinces and the ceremony of dedication giving her time to become acquainted with the consort of that province. Perhaps then it would not have felt so inappropriate to me. Cara often responds to situations emotionally rather than logically. This is comical in a way because she is angered when any of her twelve consorts respond with emotion rather than logic.
There are some rape scenes that affected me deeply for reasons I will not go into here. So, for the protection of the reader, perhaps a warning of strong sexual content and rape should be noted. The story line of the rape and abuse were well written, perhaps thus, making them disturbing.
I was genuinely intrigued with the story. I would rate it 4 out of 4 stars with warnings. The writing, I thought, very good. A few typos and grammar issues were present. One of the twelve's name kept changing in spelling from Cuch to Cush which I found distracting. The story flows well and keeps interest high. Each stop in their journey was intriguing and action filled. I truly loved the story line. I did not like the loose morals that went with it, however I have tried to keep in mind that was part of the culture of the story. This book is appropriate for adult readers that like a strong female lead with very human qualities.
******
Cara's Twelve
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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