Beguiled

by Rashelle Workman

[Angie]

I know in my review of Exiled I said I wouldn’t continue, but Beguiled was free, so I grabbed it, and since I had already started the series it made sense to continue. So here I am. I seriously should have listened to myself. In some ways Beguiled is better than Exiled, but in many ways it’s not. The writing is more consistent, which was a huge problem in the first book, and there’s no annoying Cheverly. Unfortunately, the plot moves ridiculously fast and it makes no sense. I finished it in absolutely no time.

Beguiled picks up six weeks later with Venus still mourning her family and basically doing nothing else. What happened since the end of the previous book? Who knows! There’s no recap of past events or any mention of anything that happened in those six weeks. It just jumps straight into Venus’ new problem. Six weeks is a long time and I feel like the author could have used that time for some world building. I would have loved to learn more about Kelari. I also wanted to get to know Venus better, but she essentially lets everything happen to her without argument or much reaction.

Like I said, the plot moves very fast. Way too fast. Like, if Beguiled was a movie, you’d miss something important if you blinked. Then you’d have to rewind and focus really hard to keep up. That’s how I felt reading this. It just jumped from scene to scene with not much transition. Venus’ has to go through a series of three tests in order to free her parents from the Kelari equivalent of hell. The tests were super silly, especially the first two. At least the third one forced Venus to think a little, but it was still lame. Then there’s a wedding, a big reveal that wasn’t surprising at all, and then it ends.

Obviously I didn’t like Beguiled. It’s certainly something different, but the author is letting its potentially just waste away. Kelari sounds like an interesting planet on the surface, and Venus could be a kick ass heroine, but neither have any depth. There’s also some kind of cliffhanger that feels more like the book ended in the middle.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.