Carole's Sunday Review: Royal Exile- Fiona Mcintosh

Author: Fiona McIntosh

Title: Royal Exile (Valisar Trilogy #1)

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 441

First Published: Jan 2008

Where I Got It: My shelf (Dollar Tree)

From out of the East they came riding like a merciless plague—destroying kingdom after kingdom and the sovereigns who had previously mocked the warlord Loethar and his barbarian horde. Now only one land remains unconquered—the largest, richest, and most powerful realm of the Denova Set… 

Penraven.

The Valisar royals of Penraven face certain death, for the savage tyrant Loethar covets what they alone possess: the fabled Valisar Enchantment, an irresistible power to coerce, which will belong to Loethar once every Valisar has been slain. But the last hope of the besieged kingdom is being sent in secret from his doomed home, in the company of a single warrior. The future of Penraven now rests on the shoulders of the young Crown Prince Leonel who, though untried and untested in the ways of war, must survive brutality and treachery in order to claim the Valisar throne.

Looking at all the comments and reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, it seems that you either LOVE this book or you don't. No in between. One of my friends liked the book quite a bit, so I decided to get it and try it. 

Simply...sighs.

The first 60 pages had me hooked. I flew by these pages...but...it lost me. I didn't care and nothing made sense. The plot literally died before my eyes. The story seemed to drag on and on and on and on. I get character building and getting a feel for the world and the situation. BUT FOR THE LOVE OF PIE LETS MOVE IT! It was about page 120 before anything really important happened. Sighs. 

The characters were meh. The baddie was certainly a baddie....I really didn't understand his motives. Yes, power and killing seemed to be all he wanted. Whatever. The King and Queen were weak. Why did they just GIVE up? Where is the fight? FIGHT BACK!!!!!! At least die with dignity and honor. 

There were too many POVs. Once a character died, like the King, the author added another one. It was too much. I was able to keep track who was who and who was talking, but it slowed everything down. She should have stuck with maybe 2 or 3. 

Okay - confession time.....I did not finish this book. I skimmed and skimmed and then I got tired and went to bed. I woke up and looked at it and said I'm done. My first DNF in YEARS. I feel like a quitter, but I couldn't go on. So....a DNF. 

In the end, this was a total failure for me. I tried my darndest to finish, but I got about halfway and threw in the towel. My first DNF in about 6 years. Damn. 

I shall stamp this with 1 star.