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Book Review of Isolde, Queen of the Western Isle (Tristan and Isolde Novels, Book 1)

Isolde, Queen of the Western Isle (Tristan and Isolde Novels, Book 1)
reviewed on + 6 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


First of all, for some reason this book is categorized as historical fiction when it should be categorized as fantasy. This is NOT historical fiction.

Second of all, the plot of this book sounded interesting enough that I picked it up. Well, I put it down halfway through because the author's writing style is so obnoxious I couldn't bear it. Honestly, it's about one step above a cheesy romance novel, purple prose and all.

Point in case: I always learned that if you're writing in third person, it's really amateurish to switch between character POVs without some indication to the reader, like a chapter break, to avoid confusing them. Well, one paragraph in this book it's one character's thoughts; the next paragraph is someone else's thoughts entirely. Some of the sentences are so weirdly constructed that they're hard to parse.

And oh, let's not forget this really annoying tactic: Characters we're not supposed to like are UGLY, and characters we are supposed to like are OMG GORGEOUS! Gag.