Empress of Sass
Written on Aug 9, 2015
As soon as I heard this book was Shakespearean inspired, I knew I HAD to read it, as I have been a Shakespeare junkie since middle school. I was so anxious to read it in fact that I had to pre-order it as soon as it went live on the Mirror World Publishing website! I wasn't disappointed overall. The complicated, interwoven plots, characters with big personalities and big opinions, and fast paced, witty dialogue abounded. The characters can be polarizing- I found with each I either loved them or hated them, no middle ground for most of them, but that is good, books are supposed to make you feel things, and even the ones I "hated" were in a good way, I still wanted to see where their stories took them. Definitely no dull moments in this book, and for a 440 pg+ novel that's an accomplishment the dynamic duo of Dowsett and Damodred should be extremely proud of!
As a life long equestrian, some of the horse riding parts were hard for me to read through, but I don't think casual horse appreciating readers will be bothered by it in the slightest. I wish there was a little more about the horses, as Kenzie, arguably the character we hear the most from in this multi-POV story is from a group of nomadic, Celtic inspired people, horses should be the centre of her world, and being cooped up in a city/castle should be straining on her. But that is just my little nit pick, and shouldn't be dissuasive anyone from picking up this book.
The dialogue is really where this novel shines, and shines brightly. The witty,sass filled, sarcastic back and forth between Kenzie and Prince Kadrean are heavenly- exactly the kind of thing I love in a book. Out of all the men in this book, Kadrean stole my heart, right from the get go. Sure he's a jerk in the beginning, but I found him to be a lovable jerk, and I totally got why he was being the way he was, his situation wasn't all roses and bons bons either. Garron was lovely, but a little too vanilla for me to book crush on. Great, stand up guy, who has a way with romantic words, but I like a man with sass in his back pocket that he isn't afraid to use.
The endings for the various characters were handled well, although not everyone got the end I wanted for them as a reader, but that is okay, and true of the Shakespearean style that inspired this novel. There were a few head scratching moments for me at the end, in terms of how certain characters got to the place they were emotionally, in the time that they did, but nothing large enough to wreck the overall feel of the book for me.
At 440+ pages, you get it all in Unintended- Love, Misunderstandings, Comedy, Sorrow, Plots and Intrigues sure to satisfy readers at every turn. I blazed through this book in three nights of reading, because once I got into it, I HAD to know how everything turned out. I may now go back and read it at a sensible pace, and enjoy it more slowly. Unintended is a great offering from Justine Alley Dowsett and Murandy Damodred, their best yet in my opinion, and is perfect to curl up reading with a cozy blanket and your hot beverage of choice as we head into fall.