Review: A Tangled Knot
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 7, 2014
I was quite on the fence between giving this story a four star or a three star rating. The author's writing has improved a lot since the first book and I found myself deeply entangled in the book right from the beginning without the disconnect that I experienced in the first book.I also like the main character, Ciardis, better at the beginning of this book. She is a little less stuck up and standoffish.I didn't see where why everyone seemed to like her though. No one really just seemed to hate her for either the position she had, or how she acted, or just because they could. Everyone simply liked her no matter how many stupid things she did. I liked the characters that didn't like her in the first book simply because of the character conflict it created.That being said I liked her interaction with people at the beginning of the book. I would have given the book four stars if I had just read the beginning.The part that got me was all the flip-flopping of sides and ALL the twists. Don't get me wrong, I like twists, but when each time I finally managed to figure out what was going on everything I thought was going on wasn't actually going on.Ciardis seemed as confused by situation as I felt which was good and I commend the author for that. My problem with Ciardis was she simply became a pawn being moved on a chess board without a will of her own. She's always been a very strong-willed character, and now everyone seems able to manipulate her will to send her running in every which direction. She anchors on no one. You expect her to stay loyal to the people she really strongly cared for, but I felt like she often did actions that betrayed the people she cared for the most and was the most willing to help people she barely knew.I don't want to give away anything, but I just wish the character was slightly more stable in her decisions. I did enjoy the fact that the character did make mistakes and mess everything up, but she never seemed to learn from it. She kept rushing in head first to cause more of a mess the more the book went on.Overall it was a good book and I love the world the author has built. I will read the next book in the series. I really want to know how everything turns out.I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and All Night Reads in return for an honest review.