The King's Innocent Bride

2 1/2 stars.

So...I loved the premise–and REALLY loved the characters! So why the low rating?

Two things took away a star each because they were huge to me. First: what drew me in and made me fall in love with the first book was how “real” it seemed despite the invented country–like it really could have happened just exactly that way. That sense of reality slipped a bit in the second book, with unexplained happenings like a glow in the sky and a barn that was only visible to the good guys and not the plundering Nazis of two generations before; but it was still mostly believable. This book takes a huge leap into the mythical, with Corina staying in a nonexistent hotel, even! What? I'm not a fantasy reader, because I like fiction to have that classic “could-have-actually-happened” quality. I kept popping out of my characters' heads to digest the bits of fantasy, and it jarred.

Second, WHO forgot to hire the editor?? I kept thinking somehow I'd gotten my hands on an unfinished ARC, but no; it has every evidence of being the final copy. This reads like a free ebook. Missing periods (20+), interchangeable words (who's/whose, reign/rein, might/mite, etc), run-on sentences, and even missing quotation marks (15+)!! My mental red-pen was reeling by the time I slogged through all the errors. I don't understand why the publisher would print an unfinished proof-quality book, especially not in a series that has sold pretty well. It drove me absolutely batty.