Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I cannot even begin to talk about all the things I hated about this book. I tried really hard to get to the end (and seriously, I finish everything I read), but I ended up skimming/skipping through the last 50% of the book. I guess the one redeeming quality of this book was that I was curious enough about some elements of the plot to at least read the last pages to find out what was going on with the magic stuff which is the only thing that bumped my score up from a 1 star. Probably my biggest problem with this book was the schizophrenic nature of Cyrene. She is either so poorly developed it makes it unenjoyable to read or she is really well developed and I despise everything about her. First of all, she can't figure out what to do about the King. She openly and proudly flirts with him, dances with him, takes walks with him alone, hopes he kisses her, etc. But then suddenly out of the blue is acts shocked that he wants her as his mistress??!! Also, I didn't really see anything that makes the Queen so evil other than she really dislikes Cyrene (probably because of all the aggressive flirting she's doing with her husband!). And yes, she is mean and spiteful...but again, her husband and those around her have given her every reason to act that way. And there is literally never any indication as to why in the world either Cyrene or the King would have any other feelings for each other. It feels so much like two people just trying to hook up regardless of who they hurt. And the only development of the king is those random moments with Cyrene. I went from being apathetic about both main characters to ardently hoping they would both die a horrible death because they rubbed me the wrong way. And what is the role of the Consort?!! That is NEVER explained -- and I actually don't even know what an affiliate does other than run errands. Is the consort really an appointed mistress of the king's (which is what consort means) who has equal say in everything or just a title someone is using incorrectly? I don't know. So basically, the plot had some interesting elements, there are a few side characters I'd love to see developed and would be much more interesting to me (Kael) than Cyrene and hte King, but I can't make myself read the second book. If you love characters with no moral compass, no depth or strength, and completely and utterly consumed by selfishness, you might enjoy this. If you like some redeeming value in your characters -- stay away.