Thursday, 27 December 2012

Book Review - Seraphina

Title: Seraphina
Author: Rachel Hartman
Series: Seraphina (book 1)
Publisher: Doubleday Childrens
Release Date: 19 July 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0857531568

Synopsis
Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.


My Review
I have seen a lot of hype for this book online and I absolutely LOVE Dragons so I decided to get a copy to try. It took a long time to come in and then I have a massive pile of books to read so it's taken me a while to get to. I've been having a catch up this Christmas and been storming through books, I decided to start reading this one and looked forward to another enjoyable book that I can lose myself in for a couple of hours. sadly it just didn't happen for me.
Seraphina is a young girl living in a community where Dragons take on Human form and live side by side with the humans, but each side still distrusts each other and war seems imminent. Seraphine has a dangerous secret that she has to hide from everyone around her, but as things get complicated around her she gets thrown into the heart of the fray.
The world is beautifully written and has so many layers and characters that it really does seem like a whole other place, but for me the storyline just seemed really slow. 
There were moments throughout that I got interested and things picked up but getting to those points was a struggle. The book started off quite slow but as it was introducing us to the world I was prepared to move through it, but for me it didn't ever really get quicker. I managed a mere 100 pages yesterday and struggled through the rest today. I just couldn't make myself pick it up, in the end I have to admit that I started to skim read. 
I thought the book and plot line itself was really cool, I loved how it was all set up and Seraphina herself was quite sassy and I liked her. I even liked the young Princess and the Prince (Kiggs). I could picture it and as I say - there were moments when I would get into it. But for me this just didn't capture my attention enough. 
I really wanted to love this but I couldn't find myself getting into it. I did read through to the end but didn't really care what was happening. I was also a little confused with you as human, dragon, half breed, royalty, imaginary, family. Everything just got turned around in my head.
Fans of fantasy and dragons will probably enjoy this and if you are prepared for a quite slow storyline and don't mind a lot of description then you will most likely love it. It just wasn't for me.

     
 My Rating

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