Legacy Review

Title: Legacy

Author: Cayla Kluver

Date of Publication: June 18, 2011

Formats Available: Paperback, E-Book

Buy This Book: Amazon

Synopsis: Princess Alera is the heir of the country of Hytanica, a land recently recovering from a war with the vicious Cokyrains. At the age of seventeen Alera must choose a man to marry since women are not permitted to rule. Aleras only option is Steldor, a man who she cannot stand. When a young Cokyrain boy is captured within Hytanica and  brought to the palace Alera is intrigued. After numerous secret meetings Alera finds herself falling in love with the young Cokyrain, Narian. Now Alera must either find a way for her father to accept Narian or face her fathers decree forcing her to marry Steldor.

My Review:

Having only recently finished Legacy I am unsure where I stand as to having liked this novel.  In my mind it seems that the things I disliked about this book outweigh the things I did like, however I do not find myself necessarily disliking this book. There were times when I most decidedly liked this novel and times when I most decidedly did not like it. Books like this are always difficult to write reviews on, since I'm not even sure where I stand.

Alera is not a particularly likable heroine, it was hard to relate to her and she seemed like a bit of a crybaby. Every time someone looked at her the wrong way tears filled her eyes or her eyes welled up with tears. Then Alera proceeds to destroy the life of her bodyguard for no apparent reason and then cannot fathom why he would be mad at her. Alera's dislike of Steldor is unjustified as it is obvious he cares of Alera and never does anything to cause her to dislike him. I cannot help but root for Steldor since out of the two boys she likes he is the only one with a personality, a lame one, but still.

Kluver's writing is flowery and overwhelming, describing every minute detail down to the stitching on Alera's dresses. I found myself skipping complete paragraphs dedicated to the description of the clothing of every character as Alera enters a room or the complete description of the room, down to the four different rugs on the floor. I had difficulty following, and finding, the plot, I wasn't quite sure if the approaching war, or the unwanted marriage to Steldor was the main plot of the novel. Either way many random and pointless events often took away from plot and anything important was easy to forget or miss because it was impossible to know if what you're reading was important or just a frivolous detail.

That being said there were moments when I enjoyed this novel. The moments when Alera was actually doing something, not just waiting for boring information to be brought to her. The moments when her bodyguards aren't hovering over her every move, allowing her to stray from Hytanica's strict, and boring, rules for women. The moments when Alera was with Steldor, not having her forced romance with Narian, a character too boring for words (although Steldor is not much better). I admit I am a bit curious to see how the rest of this series plays out, I know exactly how it will end, but I am a bit curious to see how it gets there.

2/5