The Orchid Throne (Forgotten Empires, #1)

by Jeffe Kennedy

[EBookObsessed]

DNF – So much possibility but I just couldn’t take the pacing of the story.

There was so much possibility in this story. Even now I think, a tyrant who managed a coup and destroyed all the royal houses, a virgin Queen on an island whose father promised her to the tyrant to spare their lands and one who has managed to keep herself apart (so far) and an uprising of slaves brought about by the surviving son of one of those royal houses who wouldn’t submit and was sent to work in the mines…these two band together to destroy the tyrant. Ooooo…gimme, gimme.

I could tell you that I liked Lia and her quiet and careful plotting to save her people and her lands from the tyrant, finding loopholes to keep him out her bed all the while pretending to be the devoted fiance. And I could tell you about Conri who is brave and strong, the slave who used his strength from years in the mine and the tyrant’s own special weapon, which he and his men and women have been mining for him, to bring about a revolt, slowly taking the lands back from the tyrant. What I can’t tell you is that I was enjoying the telling of this tale.

I should be all over this but the pacing is so, so slow it is unbearable. I had several hours to devote to starting the audiobook, since I just couldn’t get to my ebook copy, but even after hours of listening, I simply have no desire to keep going. Every time I turned it off, I thought about the idea of the story and turn it back on hoping that the pace would pick up, and it just wasn’t happening.

I had read some reviews of the story which indicated that the pacing was an issue but also declaring that if you can get passed that, the story was really, really good. Unfortunately, I just have too many audiobooks backing up already to keep forcing myself to listen, and I was forcing myself to continue which is never a good sign for reviewing a book.

I am mostly disappointed that this is my second Jeffe Kennedy story that I have walked away from, the first was a short story in an anthology and I had thought it was simply because it was part of a series I hadn’t read and wasn’t familiar enough with the characters that I couldn’t get into it. In reading The Orchid Throne, I had hoped to get a chance to see why everyone is so excited about this author, but again, it was all promise and a bad delivery.

Received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.