[Review] The Last Princess by Galaxy Craze

Published Date: May 1st, 2012
Published Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Little Brown and Company

Source: HBG

Received Format: Hardcover

Pages: 295

Catergory: Dystopian

Synopsis:
Happily ever after is a thing of the past.

A series of natural disasters has decimated the earth. Cut off from the rest of the world, England is a dark place. The sun rarely shines, food is scarce, and groups of criminals roam the woods, searching for prey. The people are growing restless.

When a ruthless revolutionary sets out to overthrow the crown, he makes the royal family his first target. Blood is shed in Buckingham Palace, and only sixteen-year old Princess Eliza manages to escape. Determined to kill the man who destroyed her family, Eliza joins the enemy forces in disguise. She has nothing left to live for but revenge, until she meets someone who helps her remember how to hope-and love-once more.

Now she must risk everything to ensure that she does not become . . .

The Last Princess.




Review:
The plot just felt like a heart flatline and it totally needed resuscitation!


At the beginning, I really didn't think the book had it. The writing is a little...ummm...not very good. By that I mean, it has a lot of conversation. The world building lacks quite a lot. I mean, it is a setting where world building is key, but Galaxy...well, not very well done. I constantly asked the question: how old are the girls? When I read the book, I felt like they are around 9. They felt kiddish. But as I read on, I started to enjoy the book more, and more. (Funny thing how this reminds me of my After the Snow by S. D. Crockett review, because I had the feelings when I was reading that this book was written from the same level author as S. D Crockett.) 


That said, I do enjoy I did like how Galaxy didn't go overly crazy about the palace; I always like imagining my own. Yes this sounds like a contradictory sentence comparing to my comment about the setting previously, but this is different. I needed more details about how the world is like, how the sceneries looked. I wasn't sure what to picture when Galaxy described this dystopia London. The setting felt very historic. If I didn't know better, I thought it was set in the 1600-1700. It takes me a moment to realize it is not in the 1600 when I read a "steel street sign". Oh! Right! Not a historical YA fiction...Oops?


On to the character...Eliza reminded me of Carys in the Relic Master series by Catherine Fisher. So if Catherine wrote about how Carys became Carys, this book would be it. She was strong and smart. She was also in a...military like of squadron. But Eliza felt one dimensional. Portia is quite the character. I really wanted to punch her. I felt like even though we don't get much time with Portia than Eliza, I felt like Portia had more character. Great job Galaxy for conveying my emotions. :) And as for Wesley...oh Wesley. I just didn't feel my desire for him. I can see he must be a gorgeous guy, but his personality...didn't pull me to him. Guess it is because I don't feel like he is old enough. I personally like older men and with Eliza feeling like 9, Wesley felt like a 10 or 12 years old. Ew? Ha-ha, I did love how the horse was named Caligula! Wooot! Badass!


And as for the plot...well...they were predictable. Remember? Resuscitation? Yeah, the plot definitely needed one. I totally saw the thing with Wesley happening and couldn't stop myself from screaming "I KNEW IT!". 


I did LOVE how short the chapters are. They are the perfect length. I really don't enjoy authors who writes a book with like 6 chapters in them. When I read, I read a small part at a time (since reading is my away-from-homework-break). So the short chapters allow me to "detach" with the book more. Futhermore, I did enjoy like the cover? :) The colours are beautiful and very quite different.


I might sound super critical about this book, but I think it is readable. I guess it is easier to write about the flaws of a book than the virtues. There were amazing moments in the book that kept me up reading. This book definitely was good but it didn't have the spark or the shabam like some other books. It just felt more like a MG book instead of an YA. If it is a MG book, I think I would've rated higher based on the fact that it would be more accurate. And I do have my YA standards higher. :P