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A review by kasfire
Royal Replicas by Michael Pierce
3.0
3/5 Stars
Warning: Some mildly graphic depictions of physical abuse, and potential depictions of sexual abuse (it was almost hard to distinguish so giving warning just in case).
Sigh, I actually had really high hopes for this novel. The premise sounded so intriguing. It was essentially a Sci-Fi selection, where the girls competing are clones of a dead princess. However, it became brutally... underwhelming and annoying.
We meet Victoria as she is getting "reset" (a term that, at least in this instance, means that certain memories of hers were wiped). Then we learn about her home life, which is rather horrid. Her foster father (who treats her like a servant and has her call him Master), beats her with switches. Mainly just for the hell of it to show her that he "owns her".
Now, it wasn't until we get to the whole selection process and realization of the cloning point of the story that it loses me. Victoria is supposed to be competing for the Prince's hand (aka, Selection series anyone?) But then she has *gasp* another love interest. And man... they do a terrible job of covering up their tracks.
Plus, she literally flip flops between the two the entire second half of the book. Like, dude, I get that love is confusing sometimes, but you kiss each of them multiple times (sometimes both in the same day) and after each kiss you are so "sure" of your feelings. Nah girly, you are just an indecisive girl who enjoys having the attention of two men. And it's annoying. At least in the Selection series America stays away from Aspen to begin with because of their relationship growth and such. In this one, it hardly shows relationship growth other than the physical. There's a touch of the emotional, but not enough to keep you invested.
Plus, none of the characters other than Victoria grow throughout the novel. Not the prince, not the queen, not even any of the other clones. It's flipping ridiculous. I would have DNFed this book if it wasn't practically impossible for me to do that.
Part of me wants to read the sequel and hope that more will happen. But then again, part of me doesn't really care at this point. I suppose time will tell.
**Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review
***Update: I received an updated ARC from the author and with the added epilogue, the story is going in a better direction. However, the rest of my review still stands
Warning: Some mildly graphic depictions of physical abuse, and potential depictions of sexual abuse (it was almost hard to distinguish so giving warning just in case).
Sigh, I actually had really high hopes for this novel. The premise sounded so intriguing. It was essentially a Sci-Fi selection, where the girls competing are clones of a dead princess. However, it became brutally... underwhelming and annoying.
We meet Victoria as she is getting "reset" (a term that, at least in this instance, means that certain memories of hers were wiped). Then we learn about her home life, which is rather horrid. Her foster father (who treats her like a servant and has her call him Master), beats her with switches. Mainly just for the hell of it to show her that he "owns her".
Now, it wasn't until we get to the whole selection process and realization of the cloning point of the story that it loses me. Victoria is supposed to be competing for the Prince's hand (aka, Selection series anyone?) But then she has *gasp* another love interest. And man... they do a terrible job of covering up their tracks.
Plus, she literally flip flops between the two the entire second half of the book. Like, dude, I get that love is confusing sometimes, but you kiss each of them multiple times (sometimes both in the same day) and after each kiss you are so "sure" of your feelings. Nah girly, you are just an indecisive girl who enjoys having the attention of two men. And it's annoying. At least in the Selection series America stays away from Aspen to begin with because of their relationship growth and such. In this one, it hardly shows relationship growth other than the physical. There's a touch of the emotional, but not enough to keep you invested.
Plus, none of the characters other than Victoria grow throughout the novel. Not the prince, not the queen, not even any of the other clones. It's flipping ridiculous. I would have DNFed this book if it wasn't practically impossible for me to do that.
Part of me wants to read the sequel and hope that more will happen. But then again, part of me doesn't really care at this point. I suppose time will tell.
**Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review
***Update: I received an updated ARC from the author and with the added epilogue, the story is going in a better direction. However, the rest of my review still stands