The book was interesting. I kind of enjoyed that it had it’s own way of cursing so they said one thing instead of another. Kind of like Battlestar Galactical with frack. It was cute and a good way to toe the line with YA readers so you aren’t upsetting people with over use of a curse since it’s not really one. I also liked that it follows people that aren’t truly seen as citizens but are given the chance to do something amazing when one becomes Queen. She’s someone that can speak for them if given the chance. But parts of the book did tend to drag a little. Yes it makes sense that Coin wouldn’t know how to read since she was raised on the streets and pretty much had to take care of herself her entire life but it seemed like a bit of a throw away. She can’t write her own speech because she can’t read, she doesn’t know her real name, because she can’t read. It was just tacked on there and honestly wasn’t really needed. But yes it was a bonding thing to have Esther read things to Coin. It just felt so anti climactic to have the book end with a piece of paper with Coins name and instead of having it there the book ends with Coin saying she can’t read it. Like hello Glen was right there hand him the paper, problem solved. It’s not missing the point of her accepting being nameless, she’d already done that so having the name be right there to be given only to have it be a fake out in the last paragraph was a bummer.

All in all it was a good book, a bit long winded at times and could have been condensed but the relationships between the characters were nice to see play out and I was surprised by Coin being the Kings Daughter it was a good twist. I would recommend the book.

The Nameless Queen is the story of a young, unknown woman who suddenly finds herself at the center of a political struggle for the throne. Coin has been nameless her whole life. She has struggled to make a living as a thief and con artist on the streets. Then the king dies, and she becomes his successor, which should be impossible since she is nameless and the crown is magically tied to a name. Thus begins the road to the royal throne paved with treachery, illusions, and twists.

I found this book to be a tad boring. I wanted to DNF, but I pushed myself to finish it in case it just started off slow. It didn’t. I liked the concept, but the execution fell flat for me. The characters weren’t well developed or interesting. The magic system was vague except for the binding of royalty. Coin’s progression was too easy and quick. She never seemed to struggle with anything. She always had the right words to say, ideas to execute, or person to have help. I also just really didn’t care about the central conflict. The writing style is easy, but not particularly beautiful. I don’t know if there will be more books, but if there are, I won’t be reading them.

While I found this book to be an enjoyable read, I found that i didn't particularly like the main character, who was hard to sympathize with.

Coin, unexpectedly has a strange tattoo of a crown indicating that she is the next ruler of the kingdom. Just one problem. Coin is nameless, meaning she has no rights, no citizenship, no home and no name except for the one she gave herself. Legals can be elevated to ruler, royals can, but never a nameless. Will she survive to rule and who can she trust.

I had hight expectations for this book. Interesting synopsis. Cool cover.

But the reality didn't live up to my expectations. Ultimately, the story felt two dimensional. I never felt like I was part of the world nor did I really understand what this world was really like. Not enough world building for a fantasy novel.

There also really weren't any surprising twist or turns. From the start it was pretty obvious how it was going to turn out. I found myself skimming some of the less interesting pages.

The cover is still pretty cool and I'm sure it will pull some people in.

***Advanced copy obtained from Random House via Netgalley***

I was so surprised to find out how much I loved this book. The female protagonist was one of my favorite characters ever. She was so badass and yet feminine. The plot twist took me by suprised so bad. It was so well done.

I have received this book as a free ARC in return for an honest review. Thank you!

Well, I did not like this book one bit. Let’s begin with THE PLOT:

In this book, people are divided into three casts: Royals, which are the top dogs, Legals, who are like white-collar middle class, and Nameless: homeless, education-less, without rights. Monarchy passes through a magical crown tattoo, given to the successor by the existing ruler uttering that person’s name.
*POSITIVE*: it’s an interesting idea that a person’s name is what makes them anyone in this society. Not having a name means you have no status or rights. This could have gone so much better than it did with this idea...
The heroine of this story is Coin (cringe), a scrappy nameless who wakes up one day to discover that she has the crown tattoo. *but how can she be queen if she has no name?* Honestly, who cares? Unfortunately, this story doesn’t do much to make us care.

Ok, let’s not lose the (barely existing) plot. Coin has another Nameless friend, Hat (double cringe), who gets into trouble, thus forcing Coin to reveal that she is the Chosen One.
Now Coin is whisked to the palace, and a feeble attempt at drama and court politics ensues. No one likes the option of a lower-class queen, how-oh-how did the (now dead) king name her as successor if she’s Nameless, and how will she beat the token bad guy she is somehow pitted against?
Again, I unfortunately didn’t really care.
In terms of conflict, a low-stakes “mystery”: Nameless kids are disappearing and nobody in the kingdom cares (can you guess who else didn’t care...?)
So Now Coin needs to decide she wants to be queen, convince the people she deserves to be one, and play Nancy Drew along the way, to find what’s happening to these disappearing kids (hey, maybe THAT’s her name!)

THE CHARACTERS:

Coin. Who I did not like much. It’s a big problem when you don’t like the hero of the book. She is super sarcastic and dry (I guess that’s what teens sound like today?) but she lacks some emotional complexity to make me want to root for her. She has such a thick street armor, that even the reader isn’t allowed in. That’s a problem. She annoyed and exasperated me more than anything. I guess I’m getting old? Or is someone making teens sound a bit too shallow? She spends half the book not wanting to be queen, and by the end of it, I’m not convinced she either wants or deserves to be one. While she has some kindness and she is genuine, she fails to make me believe she is deserving of queendom or leadership. All she cares about is the disappearing kids and her friend Hat, but the way this book is written, it all feels like an afterthought, and the stakes aren’t high enough for either cause to matter or move me.

Hat. Flat sidekick character. She’s supposed to be the catalyst and motivator for Coin’s actions (she got herself locked up) but she’s such a cardboard add-on that again, I don’t see why I should care if she disappears or dies. Yes, they’re best friends, but their (often reluctant) friendship falls flat. On the upside, at least this character is a little nicer than Coin’s. She’s actually more palatable and thus, a tad more relatable.

Glenquartz. Royal guard and all in all good guy. The saving grace of this book. The only guy who’s on Coin’s corner in the palace from day one, but until the end, it’s still not clear why. He’s just an honest dude in a sea of classist pricks. Dad figure of sorts that never fails to do or say the right thing.

Esther. The dead king’s daughter and the one who was heir apparent. She is sometimes inexplicably nice to Coin, and sometimes the nasty Royal you expect her to be. The fact that she doesn’t have a clear role to stick to makes her confusing. Is she helping or sabotaging? WHY? Her plot twist doesn’t even make me raise an eyebrow in surprise. Yawn.

Marcher. Crime boss and old “boss” for Coin; still boss to Hat. Sounds like a bad guy, he probably is. Makes odd appearances here and there, moves the plot a bit, but from so far behind the scenes that it’s hard to tell he’s actually moving it at all.

General Demure. Is she the bad guy then? She doesn’t like Coin and makes no secret of it. Another flat, incomplex, token villain. A good bad guy is someone that you can still sort of understand. You have to be able to identify with them, even for a teeny bit. She doesn’t do that for me and so again—win or lose, I don’t care about it much.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

This is supposed to be a friendship novel, and that friendship is relied upon to move the whole plot. The friendship isn’t deep, complex, and detailed enough (as are the characters) and so it really falls flat. I kept waiting for another hero, boy, girl, animal, to at least be the romantic interest for Coin and make this book a bit more interesting, something to look forward to, but there was no tension at all, romantic or otherwise. It’s a hard choice to say “I’m not doing romance”, and maybe there’s a reason it is seldom made.

IN A SENTENCE:
Should have either stayed in the drawer, or worked on a lot more. I hope there’s no sequel.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via netgalley

4/5 stars

"But some of the best things are Nameless, I think. Like ... like that feeling you get somewhere between your heart and your stomach when you're about to pickpocket someone. It's a mix of fear of excitement, and you have no idea what's going to happen next. That whole big feeling? There isn't a name for it. It's Nameless."

This book imagines a world where there are 3 classes of citizens, Royals, Legals, and Nameless. The Royals are typically the ruling class and get the best amenities, jobs, and etc. The Legals are basically the working class, they work as guards and etc. And the Nameless are the poor, they are born without names, they aren't allowed to own homes, and basically live in rags and steal in order to survive.

The magic system is really interesting. Basically the ruler of each of 14 cities is the only one with magic and they can cause illusions and see people's memories and etc. There is a small hint at what magic USED to be before it was manipulated and made into the treaty, and I'm curious to see how this comes into play as the series continues. When the Ruler dies he or she has to say the name of someone for the crown to pass onto them. But the Ruler in the beginning of the book says Coin's name. Only Coin doesn't have a name, she's Nameless.

I do recommend this book due to the originality alone! But there are definitely more reasons: the growth of our MC, Coin, is very believable and important to the story. She is a strong individual who still doubts herself and worries. She's not amazing to start and has to grow and learn in order to become what she needs to be. Her friends are all unique and important to her character, her growth, and the story.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

In Seriden people are divided into castes: The Royals, the Legals and the Nameless. Coin is a Nameless, people that don't have any rights, legal or whatoever, no jobs or homes and no names, except what they give to themselves. According to the law, they don't exist, they are not citizens. All her life she struggled to survive, becoming a thief, a grifter, deciding to leave Marcher,( the man took care of her in the past and who run a crew of Nameless orphans, training them to pickpocket, to do cons), behind and to survive on her own. The only person she cares about (even though she's not able to show it) is another younger Nameless, Hat. When king Fallow died and named her the heir, Coin's life is turn upside down. Accepting to agree with the Council her cooperation in exchange of her friend's Hat's safety, Coin has to learn how to survive in the palace, how to discover her real identity, how to stop a complex plot involving missing Nameless and if accepting her role as queen is her destiny or not. She will learn who to trust and how she will become.

Nameless Queen is a quick and interesting read, that addresses important issues like the social and economical divide, prejudices and the importance of names and family. I liked reading about Coin, because she's a strong character, able to adapt to different situations and to prosper. Her relationship with Hat, Glenquartz and Esther is really beautiful and moving.
I liked how social issues like the discrimination against the Nameless are written and how the magic played an important role in the book and in the characters' life.

Nameless Queen
by Rebecca McLaughlin
Release date: January 7, 2019
Rating: 3.5/5

Let's just say that I wanted this book to knock it out of the park but unfortunately, it did not deliver what I was hoping for. The book is still good and I loved the world-building and the characters; however, it just didn't capture my attention and imagination as much as I hoped it would.

Choosing to call herself Coin, a young girl finds herself fighting to survive on the streets of Seriden, a city of Royals, Legals, and the Nameless. With the death of King Fallow, the tattoo of the next ruler reveals itself on Coin's arm. How could the king name his successor without a name? Confusion and outrage follow these events as Coin temporarily ascends the throne as the Nameless Queen until she can be challenged during the Assassin's festival. Does Coin even want to be queen? Could she actually make a difference? What about the magic powers that come with the royal tattoo? Can she learn to control them? Can she save the only person she cares about as a temporary queen?

This story had so much promise and I did enjoy it, but something seemed off. The characters are fun and unique. The world McLaughlin has created is interesting but the history of Seriden and magic probably could have been laid out more clearly. There were consequences for actions but not quite as satisfying as I'd like.

This story is not a romance; it is more fantasy adventure with some mystery. This story is also a standalone novel. I would still recommend this story for younger readers, especially those who deal with insecurities. If you like books with strong heroines, I'd also recommend this book.

My thanks to the author and NetGalley for an ARC of the book. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. No positive review was expected and no compensation received.

Overall, I enjoyed the last third of the book and I think the writing was pretty skillful. I’m not a fan of fake curse words but there were a few genuinely funny moments in the book. I didn’t love it but it was certainly entertaining. I liked the fact that there was no unnecessary romance shoved in the story and I really enjoyed the depiction of the main character’s “found family.” I’ll talk more about my nitpicking issues below.

So in this story we have three castes of citizen. Royals, pretty self explanatory. Legals, afforded some luxuries and full rights but still mostly servants to royals. Nameless, they are not afforded any rights as citizens and are basically peasants and urchins. This is the part that makes no sense to me... The nameless cannot be accused of or tried for any crimes because they aren’t really viewed as citizens and don’t have rights BUT you can also kill them and throw them in jail with no trial or consequence? They also aren’t allowed to hold respectable jobs or own homes or even dress nicely... and everyone has just let this fly for HOW many generations exactly? Even though the nameless surely outnumber the royals, they’ve never attacked or even left the city to start their own homes.... And apparently there are other cities that follow this same pattern all because of some barely explained magic. The main character mentions leaving the city on a boat a few times, but it’s never explained where she will go? To another city just like this one? Or is there somewhere else that isn’t batshit insane? For a stand-alone, I needed A LOT more information on why this was just... accepted?

So the magic of the land is bound to a crown tattoo that only appears on the ruler. They claim it’s handed down not by birth but by the dying king/queen speaking someone’s name.... yet the crown has been in the same generation for at least 3 generations. EVEN THOUGH, they can also take your magic tattoo by killing you! WAIT THERES MORE! They can also DEFEAT you in combat at a festival SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR DEFEATING RULERS AND STEALING THEIR TATTOOS! It is also stated that the tattoos powers will grow stronger up until this festival, but it’s also when you are your weakest and the tattoo can be given away. It’s never specified if the date of the festival is tied to a specific date or if it’s tied to the death of the ruler? Is it just randomly determined? A lot this seemed much too convoluted and silly to be believed even for a fantasy novel. Although I’ll say, barring the magic tattoo, this was way more dystopia than fantasy to me. Did I mention they have guns and hot showers? Did I mention the nameless give themselves and their children names but this doesn’t count or affect the magic? Also, the king was a total jerk for leaving his kid on the street to grow up starving and cold and alone. ✌️

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

Congratulations on a great debut novel Rebecca McLaughlin! A fun, fantasy read. In the land of Seriden there is a caste system with three levels: The Royals (rule the land - the wealthy); The Legals (the workers - middle class); and The Nameless (scrounge, beg and steal for a living). Coin (what the Nameless main character is called) is a strong and practiced thief who is minding her own business when out of nowhere a crown tattoo appears on her arm. It is the custom in Seriden that power is passed by a dying King by the King speaking the name of his successor and the crown tattoo appearing on that person's arm. But Coin doesn't have a name, so how did the King speak her name? This tattoo is only going to get her killed - the Royals would never have a Nameless for their ruler.

Enjoyed the adventure and I liked Coin's spunk, sarcasm and compassion as a main character. I felt the ending was a little too nice and easy though. Congratulations on a great debut novel Rebecca McLaughlin!

Thanks to Random House Children's through Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

It's been a while since I've read a good young adult fantasy and the Nameless Queen is a magical, fast-paced trek through the Kingdom of Seriden which holds three classes of people, the Royals, the Legals, and the Nameless.  Coin is a Nameless... a thief... a grifter... and unfortunately a queen.

Coin grew up as a Nameless, the lowest of the classes in Seriden. No family, no friends, just trying to survive by thieving and grifting. When the royal crown tattoo appears on her arm, no one is as surprised as she. The tattoo only appears on the person who is named by the dying king and she was born with no name.  Nameless have no homes, no rights, and are killed for just being who they are. How did this happen? Her journey is a dangerous one and the Royal Council has her fate in their hands.

The characters are well-balanced with a mixture of kindness and evil with some questionable ones in between. Coin's friendships with Hat, Esther and Glenquartz are what give her the hope and drive to go on and fight for the rights of the Nameless.

This book is an enjoyable read with magic, danger, and hope all rolled into one. It's a lesson in strength, integrity, and fighting for what you want while remaining true to yourself.

Thank you to Ms. McLaughlin for giving me the opportunity to read this book with no expectation of a positive review.

It is crazy how much I enjoyed this book!
In this incredibly inventive world, there are three factions of citizens: Royals, Legals, and then Nameless who aren't even really citizens, as they have no rights at all... or names... In this world, when the king utters the name of his successor on his deathbed, a crown tattoo magically appears on said person's arm. When Nameless grifter, Coin discovers she has the crown tattoo on her arm, she, for one, doesn't know how it is possible (since she has no name to speak) and for two, she doesn't want it! She must reveal this dangerous tattoo when her only friend, Hat is publicly arrested. She reveals it in order to spare her, but things don't quite work out that way.
Coin is then taken as prisoner to the palace where she meets an array of other people, some who want to help her, most who want to see her dead. Coin must maneuver through this dangerous new path in order to find the truth about herself, about magic and about the strange case in which Nameless are going missing at an alarming rate, all while still trying to save her friend, Hat.
What I enjoyed most about this book were the relationships, the world building and the great pacing of understanding you get to about the truths of Coin's situation. It puts into perspective the real injustices of people who have less. How are people who are never even afforded the most basic things in life (including a name or a home) supposed to do anything other than steal and fight for the things needed to survive? Then they are punished and killed for doing so.

Enjoyed this stand-alone fantasy! (Although I didn't know it was standalone until I was almost finished, but whatever.) I thought the writing was well-done, and the characters were pretty fleshed out. THe setting was super unique, and I found the Nameless + citizen ranking system unique and refreshing. It was interesting to read about how Nameless actually had hidden power because the law didn't recognize them, therefore they couldn't break or abide by laws. This was a story I had a fun time reading, and the stakes were sufficiently high enough that I couldn't guess the ending.

Do you ever regret not DNF-ing a book? Because that's how I feel about Nameless Queen. 

The initial premise caught my attention. I'm all for YA fantasies that do something a bit different and having an entire group of people without names felt like it fit into that category. And perhaps it could have been amazing.

Except. 

Coin, the protagonist, for starters. That's the "name" she's given herself though it's not official so she's not really considered a citizen next to the Legals and Royals in the city of Seriden. I don't think I've read a book featuring such a strong Mary Sue main character in years but here we are. Coin was good at everything. Everything. No matter what trouble she got into or new skills she had to learn, she met little to no resistance. 

Which eliminated any chance of tension and high stakes in Nameless Queen. Why should I worry about what happens to Coin? She's able to do magic after a life without it. She can get out of any conflict with little harm to herself. She can navigate the royal court as if she lived their her entire life. Why should I care?

And I didn't. I couldn't care less about Coin and unfortunately, I couldn't muster any sort of emotion beyond frustration for the side characters either. We're introduced to Hat, another of the Nameless, who could have had a fantastic role in the story if her entire being wasn't a giant plot device for Coin. Glenquartz (seriously what is with this name??), Coin's royal guard, just seemed to take whatever she threw at him and I never actually understood their relationship because it's never fleshed out. Are they friends? Is she like a daughter to him? Is there some weird level of respect she magically earns by being the protagonist? It just... happens.

Then there's Esther, who was far more interesting to me than Coin the more I learned about her. She's the main reason I continued to read because I HOPED something good would happen for her. Instead? She's used like the rest of the side characters for Coin's gain.

Considering Nameless Queen is told from the first person perspective of Coin, it's no wonder I wasn't a fan of it. Then combined with the lack of worldbuilding, it was just all around a chaotic mess of random details. I could tell you next to nothing about Seriden where all this is supposed to take place. There's so little time spent on developing the world along with the cliche-ridden story that it all fell flat. The elements that the author included were so disjointed and never created a cohesive picture. Magic aside, this book could have been set pretty much anywhere and accomplished the same thing (which wasn't much).

Safe to say Nameless Queen was a major disappointment and I regret not going with my gut and DNF-ing much sooner. Definitely can't recommend it to anyone.

I honestly could not finish this book. It was a mushy ride and i could not get myself invested in the characters. I will not be reviewing this on social media because I don't want to talk about it negatively. However, I just could not get into the way it was written.

This was an amazing debut!! Man if you don't have this book on your TBR you need to add this one right now!!!! I really loved the snark that is in this title. It take a very serious topic and kind of makes it just a little lighter.

This story about a world where if you could be what is called Nameless and have no rights and no home, is one that I haven't encountered before and I have to say that it worked well. The twist kept me going and the reveal shocked me to no end.

I could not put this one down and I loved how it ended and just everything about it. It was a wonderful title about family, finding where you belong, and accepting those who are different. The pacing was well done for a debut and I can not wait to see what McLaughlin does next. A definite must read for 2020!!


Go Into This One Knowing: No Cliffhanger, Family, No Romance

4.5 stars
This one was sooooo good! Almost perfect all the way till the very last page when I was a bit disappointed that something didn’t happen. I was like, “NO, why???” the story was so perfect. Oh well! It is still an awesome book and well worth reading it.
There is zero romance, nothing at all, but the story is so good that it actually doesn’t need it. I loved all the characters (except the villain of course). There is action and a bit of mystery as well. The author also did an awesome job at world building.
I will definitely recommend to everyone.

When broken down to its fundamental components, Nameless Queen has a lot of things that tend to make me automatically love a book: a protagonist who is a thief, hidden royalty, and commentary on classism and rigid social structures. But when taken as a whole, the novel failed to breathe much life or originality into those tropes. The result was a lukewarm story–not bad, but wholly unremarkable.

The premise of the story is pretty straightforward. In the city of Seriden, you have three classes of citizens: Royals (the highest class, mostly rulers and legislators), Legals (the working class, from craftsmen to members of the royal guard), and the Nameless (who literally don’t have names and also have no legal rights, so they typically have to steal to survive). The ruler has a tattoo of a crown on their arm. When they die, they speak a name, and the tattoo transfers to whoever that name belongs to. So imagine the surprise of a Nameless girl called Coin when the king dies and (surprise, surprise) she finds a crown tattoo has appeared on her arm, granting her magical abilities. Taken to the palace, Coin quickly realizes that holding the throne isn’t a guarantee of power; she is on a probationary period, her best friend (a fellow Nameless) has been imprisoned unjustly, and while she has a few allies, most of the Royals despise her on principle. What ensues is a pretty typical “learning to rule and also uncovering a conspiracy” story, with little to make it stand out from all the other similar stories on the market.

So, let’s start with the good. One of the strongest themes in this book was its emphasis on family, both blood and chosen. The Nameless rarely have families; they certainly don’t have family names, at any rate. And yet there are deep-rooted friendships and alliances between some of them that run just as deeply as conventional familial bonds–particularly between Coin and Hat, the aforementioned best friend–though fierce self-reliance makes them reluctant to fully care about anyone else. At the palace, Coin quickly befriends a guard named Glenquartz, a man who lost his daughter years ago and comes to think of twelve-year-old Hat like another daughter. And, without spoiling too much, Coin finds that she does, in fact, also have blood relatives in the palace, and she has to reconcile this with the fact that she spent her entire life alone, believing she had no family. Furthering this, there is absolutely no romance in Coin’s life, which means the focus is completely on family, with none of the teenage angst or random making-out scenes that often fill YA fantasy books.

That said, while she doesn’t have any romantic interests, Coin otherwise reminds me a lot of some Sarah J Maas heroines: she’s sassy, unnaturally self-confident and irreverent, she doesn’t like girly things like wearing dresses, and when she finds out she has powers, she masters them almost instantly, and she becomes a total pro at fighting with only a week of training. Those last points are the worst; heroes need to WORK to get their skills, or it’s just unsatisfying and feels cheap. If you can’t tell, I am not a huge fan of SJM, so this comparison is not a favorable one. Coin is too much “not like other girls” and doesn’t have a lot of growth throughout the book, aside from a slight increase in her willingness to trust others. Basically, she's a Mary Sue.

Some of the other characters, while one-dimensional, were still lovable, especially the fiercely loyal Glenquartz and the clever Esther–but, without any major complexity, they’re not memorable. And Hat? It’s like the author couldn’t decide what age she was meant to be. Sometimes she speaks so eloquently and philosophically, you would swear she was in her twenties, but then other times she is so excitable, you are reminded that she’s just 12. I wanted to like her, and I do think I liked her more than Coin, but overall she was still annoying.

Now, beyond the characters, the biggest hangup for this book was its strange and inconsistent magic system. The abilities imparted by the tattoo are only slightly explained, and nobody details why, exactly, the power was assigned to the tattoo in the first place. It is known that the magic doesn’t affect Nameless, but there isn’t a good reason why, and some very cheesy explanations at the end are used to play fast and loose with the rules. Worldbuilding is important in a fantasy, and a weakly-defined magic system coupled with patchy history and culture makes the larger world feel less believable.

In all other regards, there is nothing particularly good or bad about the book. The plot is a little predictable but not implausible. The pacing is fine. The writing is clean, not anything special, but does what it needs to. There isn’t much profanity, so that’s good if you like your books more PG-rated (though the made-up profanities for this world, primarily featuring the words “gaiza” and “spetz,” are not very convincing or natural-feeling). And the resolution of the book is a solid setup for a sequel, though I am not exactly chomping at the bit for it.

I wish this review could have more strong sentiments in either direction, positive or negative, but my thoughts on this book fall so squarely in the middle that to use any extreme language would be disingenuous. I won’t dissuade you from reading it, but I certainly wouldn’t read it again, and the jury is still out on whether I’ll be picking up book two.