Review by Kytkatkyte94 -- Apollo's Raven by Linnea Tanner
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Kytkatkyte94
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Review by Kytkatkyte94 -- Apollo's Raven by Linnea Tanner
[Following is a volunteer review of "Apollo's Raven" by Linnea Tanner.]
4 out of 4 stars
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Apollo’s Raven by Linnea Tanner tells the story of a forbidden romance between a strong yet somewhat naive princess, Catrin, and a Roman enemy soldier, Marcellus. As Catrin’s father fights to keep the throne out of the hands of her traitorous, violent and banished half-brother, Marrock, both Catrin and Marcellus are tasked with wooing each other to gain more information on the enemy. Inevitably, they fall in love and in this first book of the series, Catrin must break a curse, learn how to control her abilities and chose between her two loves, Marcellus, or her people.
First and foremost, I greatly enjoyed this book for a multitude of reasons. The story was well paced and knew well where it was going and what it was about. Most everything that was introduced paid off or was set up to pay off in later books. Each character is their own person with their own faults and virtues. They were all relatable and believable to an extent and really brought you along through each of their emotions. By the end you certainly wanted Catrin and Marcellus to be able to be together, for Marrock to not take over the throne and for everybody to come home safe.
What captured me most about this book and kept me reading was the prose. There were several times throughout reading that I got a good laugh, or had to pause and save a quote for later just because I liked how well it was written. The dialogue is smooth and believable and each character speaks with a voice that is unique to them. The writing really helped the book go smoothly and made the whole thing a surprisingly quick read, despite its somewhat daunting length.
While I did overall enjoy this book, the major thing that bothered me was the fact that it read at times like a dime-store romance novel. While this isn’t necessarily a problem, I will just as quickly read any of the genre and they are wonderful books in their own right, the issue I found lies more in expectation. I didn’t go into this expecting or even wanting a cheesy romance and as such the heroine came off surprisingly shallow and one-dimensional. She was either enthralled with manliness or whining to her mother about how life isn’t fair and that she loved Marcellus, before suddenly switching halfway through and deciding she can’t be with him and that she has to protect her people instead. Her character was supposed to be a strong warrior princess but a good portion of the book had her come off as annoyingly naive.
Overall, I would give this book, 4 out of 4 stars. It was very well written and professionally edited, had unique characters and an intriguing storyline and premise. While there was one glaring point that annoyed me about the book, it wasn’t enough to make me put it down and as such would only make me take off half a star if it were possible. That being said, I would recommend this to anybody looking for an interesting romance with dashes of historical fiction and fantasy thrown in. Though if you aren’t a fan of dime-store romances, this might be harder for you to get through.
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Apollo's Raven
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4 out of 4 stars
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Apollo’s Raven by Linnea Tanner tells the story of a forbidden romance between a strong yet somewhat naive princess, Catrin, and a Roman enemy soldier, Marcellus. As Catrin’s father fights to keep the throne out of the hands of her traitorous, violent and banished half-brother, Marrock, both Catrin and Marcellus are tasked with wooing each other to gain more information on the enemy. Inevitably, they fall in love and in this first book of the series, Catrin must break a curse, learn how to control her abilities and chose between her two loves, Marcellus, or her people.
First and foremost, I greatly enjoyed this book for a multitude of reasons. The story was well paced and knew well where it was going and what it was about. Most everything that was introduced paid off or was set up to pay off in later books. Each character is their own person with their own faults and virtues. They were all relatable and believable to an extent and really brought you along through each of their emotions. By the end you certainly wanted Catrin and Marcellus to be able to be together, for Marrock to not take over the throne and for everybody to come home safe.
What captured me most about this book and kept me reading was the prose. There were several times throughout reading that I got a good laugh, or had to pause and save a quote for later just because I liked how well it was written. The dialogue is smooth and believable and each character speaks with a voice that is unique to them. The writing really helped the book go smoothly and made the whole thing a surprisingly quick read, despite its somewhat daunting length.
While I did overall enjoy this book, the major thing that bothered me was the fact that it read at times like a dime-store romance novel. While this isn’t necessarily a problem, I will just as quickly read any of the genre and they are wonderful books in their own right, the issue I found lies more in expectation. I didn’t go into this expecting or even wanting a cheesy romance and as such the heroine came off surprisingly shallow and one-dimensional. She was either enthralled with manliness or whining to her mother about how life isn’t fair and that she loved Marcellus, before suddenly switching halfway through and deciding she can’t be with him and that she has to protect her people instead. Her character was supposed to be a strong warrior princess but a good portion of the book had her come off as annoyingly naive.
Overall, I would give this book, 4 out of 4 stars. It was very well written and professionally edited, had unique characters and an intriguing storyline and premise. While there was one glaring point that annoyed me about the book, it wasn’t enough to make me put it down and as such would only make me take off half a star if it were possible. That being said, I would recommend this to anybody looking for an interesting romance with dashes of historical fiction and fantasy thrown in. Though if you aren’t a fan of dime-store romances, this might be harder for you to get through.
******
Apollo's Raven
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
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Latest Review: The Orb by Tara Basi
