I enjoyed this story but don’t know if I will read the second book when it comes out. It was an interesting premise with haunting parallels to the way we view Elites and Ordinaries in our own world. I think that if nothing else, this is a smack in the face for anyone who has an “us vs them” mentality when it comes to those who are different than them. However, this book was WAY too long. I promise I do actually like long books despite what my recent reviews may suggest! There was no reason for this book to have as many plot points as it did and could have accomplished the same goals with far less. For one, the plot holes are shocking. Why was there such an emphasis on people voting for contestants and needing to make a positive impression during interviews to gain the public’s favor (hello hunger games??) if in the end this had no bearing on the outcome of the trials? It seems like the first half of this book was about setting up a Hunger Games alternate universe and the second half is where the author found their own voice and direction. With that being said, the writing is incredibly clunky and awkward, making it difficult to focus on the story at times. I absolutely think this author has potential with future stories, either in this series or others, but this book was definitely hard to get through at times. My last point to touch on is how disturbing it is that people are so obsessed with Kai and Kitt. (Maybe spoiler?? But this is discussed eeeeaaaaarrrllllyyyy in the book) I don’t care how charming you make someone, I will never be fawning over a murderer (or the person ordering the murderer) who kills simply because they fear losing their power.

I enjoyed reading this but it wasn’t one of my favorites. Although the two POVs revolve around a wedding veil, it feels like reading two very different books in one. The Vanderbilt POV was like a cool historical fiction while Julia’s POV was like a romance novel. I enjoyed both quite a bit but most of the book did feel very disjointed. If you like both historical fiction and romance genres definitely read this book!

This had a rocky start but the book ultimately redeemed itself. At first it seemed like it was trying way too hard to establish itself in the real world with completely unrealistic characters and circumstances. The first few chapters were also written like a bad fan fiction where the focus was getting to “the good part” rather than writing a good story. But after about chapter 6 or 7, the story actually started getting good and continued that way for the remainder of the book. At this point the story did a better job of establishing itself as a complete work of fiction in a literal dream world as well, making it much more enjoyable. I loved the ending, the relationship’s conflict was realistic, and the story was never boring once it actually got going. I went from rushing through the book to get it over with to rushing through to find out what happened next, and may even read the next book in the series!