I know it is has been a long time since I posted a book review. The end of last year (October – December) was a little chaotic for and I simply had no time for reading. However, the New Year has brought a few days of binge reading. Now it is a matter of recording my thoughts about what I have read to share with you. Don’t worry, these will be very short as work is starting to pick up again.
The first book from my Winter Book Shelf Reading List up for review is Coiled.
Book cover for Coiled by H.L. Burke, taken from the internet.
Title: Coiled
Author: H.L. Burke
Tags: Young Adult, Fairy Tale / Myth
Reflections: Coiled was a cute, young adult fairy tale/romantic myth. Set in a world feeling like ancient Rome/Greece, Princess Laidra is cursed. While her sister dominates her Kingdom’s court and parents affection, Laidra is relegated to the shadows. Until the day she is taken as sacrifice for a monstrous serpent. Escaping her captors, Laidra washes ashore of the island guarding another cursed child. Prince Calen is isolated from the world even more than Laidra. But alone in the dark, they can become friends. At least until those tormenting Calen come to finish off the prince.
The book is cute, predictable and decently written. The target audience is younger and while I enjoyed having the time to read, it was not the most gripping of tales. The world is different from traditional medieval fairy tales, so that was a nice change. However, I would have prefered more focus on the character development. Instead the plot focuses on the convoluted relations of one rather dysfunctional family, how parents ruin the lives of their children and demigods are mostly selfish, vindictive jerks.
In the end, my biggest complaint was the seemingly random fetch-quest the main characters are set to solve their problems. And it does solve everything. All their personal problems are dealt with by collecting magic water from the well of life (or something like that). How this action changes the long standing opinions of others is a bit of mystery to me, but the story had to end somehow and in reality interpersonal relations are difficult to resolve.
Overall, this is a competent story that gets points for its less common setting but failed to inspire more than “it was fine” rating from me. I would give it 3.5 stars out of 5.