Burn The Day - Tumblr Posts

So I just finished reading The Heir, since I had an evening to burn (shouldn’t have done that shouldn’t have done that shouldn’t have). Much later in the story I realized, that the pace at which the plot was moving.... the story wouldn’t end with the book. And the horrible idea dawned on me, that this thing-in-my-hands had a sequel. Absolutely unfair. 

I am wondering now how I ended up here. I had read the America/ Maxon (that was what they were called right?) trilogy almost 3 years back and never liked it. But sometimes you like to be in the middle of a story instead of right in the beginning.... its comforting there. 

Also I was toying with this idea for a while that in romance novels/ dramas its always clear from the get go who she is going to end up with. That makes existence of the other suitors pointless. So if there were a story that didn’t really point out explicitly, who’s the hero.... that would make a romance novel read like a suspenseful who-dun-it’. There was the crime in the beginning of the story that she will fall in love and all the suspects. Now you can bet on who you think is most likely. And the author here, does a really great job, I think, of making each of the suitors seem equally likely in the story.

I am betting on the translator. I don’t know why. Maybe because I love languages. Surely not due to any of his own merit. But then again the fact that he is being highlighted so much might be suspicious.

side note- when I was reading that scene where all the 35 suitors are introduced to Eadlyn (not a great name in my opinion), I was like come on, one of them should be gay. That would have been a good twist. But it didn’t turn out that way.

I can see that they really watered down all the political intrigue as compared to the previous series, and I sorely missed that. They watered down everything in this book, it seems.

Ok ok ok.... so the sane thing would have been to just go on the internet and search, “who does Eadlyn Schereave marry?”, but I decided to spend ANOTHER very important evening reading The Crown.

You don’t understand, its not the gravitational pull of these kitsch titles that is attracting me, its the extreme repulsive force of reality. There are grave things in my reality, that I really really need to be ignoring, which is what is inducing me to spend 2 consecutive important evenings in the pursuit of this story.

First of all, I can’t believe my gay wish came true. I did NOT see that coming. The good thing was that the author came up with perfectly logical plausible reasons, for them applying in the selection, even though they were gay. The bad thing was that I felt like they were cliché gay characters. You know the quiet pessimistic, I will never find happiness one and the really happy, friendly, angel on earth, has-a-girl-best-friend one.

Second of all, the translator. Interestingly he was much less interesting as a character in this book as compared to the last book, when I am sure that the author would have wanted the opposite effect. So that was a bummer even though my prediction came true. We don’t even get to know him enough to justify his being the hero of the story. 

Also despite his being however smart and funny and brilliant, it is blaringly obvious that he is not one for a public life. I can’t believe him marrying a queen. You can’t just ignore that side of things.

And somebody tell me how she gave him the royal signet and no one even noticed?

I can’t believe that I went from rooting for this guy in the first book to tearing apart their relationship in the second. 

I am eternally grateful to Marid. Though he was a clumsily inserted and badly used plot device.... he really brought a lot to the palace and the story. Both literally and metaphorically. 

Kudos to Josie for earning the fastest-character-transformation-I’ve-ever-read prize. Most unbelievable as well.

If you want to know where I was standing when Eadlyn made her appearance on the report at the end of the book. I was right there shouting angrily with the advisors. I am not entirely sure what enlightenment she was supposed to get on seeing Maxon’s scars. But announcing a constitutional monarchy, without ever consulting your advisors, office, the public, previous ruler or anybody for that matter seemed extremely irresponsible to me. I get that she is queen. But this is not done. I can understand why people were continually trying to overthrow her.

I deserved more politics than this book could give. I deserved to be let out of that damned palace in the whole of the 2 books. 

Can I remark how her whole ‘my life is mine not yours’ speech on national TV was so idiotic. It stood against the whole balancing act between public and private life that’s been going on throughout the book. Also people in places like her absolutely cannot say or opt for something like that. In my culture, every person has a ‘dharam’, a duty corresponding to each different identity that they have. Following their duty is more important sometimes than doing their will.  I know I am reading a love story. But that monologue felt unncessary as long as she wasn’t marrying Marid. Marid was the people’s choice and she was opposing it already whether marrying Henri or Erriko. Then why say all this? Since it wasn’t connected to her enlightenment anyway. I honestly didn’t even understand why she couldn’t marry Erriko in the first place.

Also I like that she knew that speaking words in his mother tongue would make Erriko feel less nervous. And the subtlety in the fact that he had changed his given name. In the beginning I had imagined Eric as a short teenager, for some reason while everybody else as adults, and the princess as a really tall huge person. This stuck with me even when they came together, which made a funny picture in my head.

The whole time I kept getting reminded of Princess Mako.

I know writing such a long post is not acceptable on Tumblr. But I really needed to rant. I hope they won’t put me in jail for this. Anyway nobody is going to actually plod through it. So it doesn’t matter.