Zephyra review (DNF)

Hi all!

My name is Chiara and I am a Bookworm.

Let me start by saying I do not DNF books. I may put books down part way through but I do not put them down without any intention over ever picking them up again … except for this one.

Growing up as the cousin of the princess, Zephyra spends her days navigating between her mother’s judgements and her royal duties. Horseback rides, beautiful gowns, and the rites of Celestia dominate her horizon. Living in comfort and luxury, she and her cousin Adelaide, the heir apparent, expect their greatest trials to be those of the heart. When Queen Jelena, their grandmother, finally passes away, Zephyra’s childhood comes to an end. However, the new, glamorous world of royal life will be more than she expects.

Thrown into a dungeon as she sacrifices herself to protect the new queen, Zephyra will have a chance at the humble life she’s always coveted. As fate throws her in the path of new friends and new dangers, it will be far more than she bargained for. There is more than one threat to the safety of the kingdom, and fulfilling her destiny will test her to the breaking point…and unleash powers she never knew she had.

This book, Zephyra by Andrea B. Lamoureux, is an ARC read from Netgalley, my first. And I feel so bad that I can’t bring myself to finish it.

I found the blurb, the premise of the book intriguing, A member of the royalty forced to live a humble life to become someone better and is over powers hitherto unknown to her.

Yeah, it all sounds great. But the thing is I got to page 108 of 285. That’s what? About 40% of the way through the book and none of these things had even began to happen. Usually you read a blurb of a book and you see maybe the first ten chapters worth of events, and more often than not it is less than that. No new Queen, no dungeon not even a hint of powers. If this is all set up … it is a lot of set up.

In the beginning I found it over descriptive. The characters were built up and in writers terms, “it was all tell and no show”. And yet some parts there was no depth to the story. I flew through time periods without even a mention to their passing.

Then there was the voice of the character/ narrator. At the beginning I found it way too mature for the characters. It felt to me like an adult telling this story of their past to a child. Do you know what I mean? It reminded me a bit of a memoir. But then the voice the tone of the narrator changed. There was very little consistency.