Kimberly reviews Tears Of The Rose by Jeffe Kennedy

TITLE: The Twelve Kingdoms: Tears Of The Rose
SERIES #: Twelve Kingdoms #2
CHARACTERS: Amelia & ???
AUTHOR: Jeffe Kennedy
PUBLICATION DATE: 11/25/14
ORDER LINKS:Amazon| B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Three sisters. Motherless daughters of the high king. The eldest is the warrior-woman heir; the middle child is shy and full of witchy intuition; and the youngest, Princess Amelia, she is as beautiful as the sun and just as generous.
Ami met her Prince Charming and went away to his castle on the stormy sea-cliffs—and that should have been her happily ever after. Instead, her husband lies dead and a war rages. Her middle sister has been taken into a demon land, turned into a stranger. The priests and her father are revealing secrets and telling lies. And a power is rising in Ami, too, a power she hardly recognizes, to wield her beauty as a weapon, and her charm as a tool to deceive…
Amelia has never had to be anything but good and sweet and kind and lovely. But the chess game for the Twelve Kingdoms has swept her up in it, and she must make a gambit of her own. Can the prettiest princess become a pawn—or a queen?

REVIEW:
So I had a hard time with this story. First I never warmed up to Amelia. When we met her in the first in the series she was superficial and spoiled and that did not change in this book. And while she does seem to change toward the end of the book a bit and she grows up for lack of a better word by then it was too late and I just didn’t care. I liked Hugh and maybe if he had been involved instead of dying in the first book then we could have enjoyed Amelia more but this way I just didn’t.

This story doesn’t have the feel of the first book which felt like a trip to Narnia, Hogwarts and other places rolled into one. This just felt lacking.

Now that being said I usually find I do not enjoy the second book in a trilogy. The first gives us the beginning with information into understanding what is happening and the third closes up the story so it is interesting in its own way but the second just seems less than and it is the same with this. I will most likely read the next in the series and hope that it is better.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.