The Betrothed : The Betrothed #1 by Kiera Cass - Book Review (no spoilers)

"When King Jameson declares his love for Lady Hollis Brite, Hollis is shocked—and thrilled. After all, she’s grown up at Keresken Castle, vying for the king’s attention alongside other daughters of the nobility. Capturing his heart is a dream come true.

But Hollis soon realizes that falling in love with a king and being crowned queen may not be the happily ever after she thought it would be. And when she meets a commoner with the mysterious power to see right into her heart, she finds that the future she really wants is one that she never thought to imagine."

I didn't have many expectations from this book, which is probably why I didn't hate it too much. But it was still pretty bad. The writing style was as I had thought it would be, after reading The Selection series, and only the plot was slightly better. Going into this, I had thought the story would be exactly like The Selection, and I was glad when it seemed a little different.

Hollis was really annoying. I couldn't have cared less about all the issues she had with her friends and parents. I don't blame them for finding her to be a disappointment. My favourite scene from the book was when Delia Grace yells at Hollis for being self-centred and arrogant. That made me feel that perhaps the author had purposely made Hollis unlikeable, but I soon found out that it was not the case. Delia Grace and simply said all those because she was mad, and the author never mentions any of Hollis' shortcoming at any other place. We are expected to like a selfish, complaining and pretentious girl for no reason at all.

The starting was dull, but I find that to be the case with many books. Although I generally do not like books that have too much description and too little dialogue, this book had the exact opposite problem. We are given zero information about how anyone, any place, or anyone's expression looks, except for the blue eyes and blond hair of the Eastoffe's. I could not tell you anything about Hollis' looks except that she was pretty. About Delia Grace, Nora, Jameson and Hollis' parents, I can tell you even less. None of the rooms in the palace have any characteristic. A garden only has flowers and bushes, and a person is only ever noble or a servant. That is all the description we get about anything.

The story got slightly more exciting later. It had seemed fast-paced mostly because of the lack of description. However, the plot never really moved ahead until Hollis met Valentina and something other than her betrothal to the king was mentioned. I'll admit the twist in the end came as a surprise. I had not been expecting the story to change so drastically. 

Overall I liked the book; it had a few flaws, but the plot was nice. A lot of reviews say that it has been advertised wrong and that the story being similar to the Selection made it boring. I thought so in the beginning too, but it got much better in the end, and I started liking the book. I will be reading the second book sometime, because I am interested to know what happens next.