Book Review: Legacy, by Cayla Kluver

I think that spring has truly and finally arrived upon my little island. The sun has finally broken free of the fog that entraps my mountain, and the day's been entirely blue and clear. In the bright light, all the tropical foliage looks pristine, almost like a picture. I took my two dogs, Daisy and Happy, out on a walk this morning at about seven down a trail near my house, and it was gorgeous. It leads down, past a valley full of growing vegetables, and down more steps to a beautiful waterfall. If you go another way, you can head onto this other trail that I love, as seen to the left. It follows a 1940's waterpipe around the mountain and leads to a beautiful river that you can cross by foot. I'm so glad I live on this mountain. 

A few more things before the book review: 

1. My new friend, Kaiyuh, has written and self-published her book, Shinken. At first I was admittedly wary of the premise of her self-publishing, but after learning more I've become rather impressed, instead. I'm ordering the book off of Amazon (you can as well!)and I'll soon be reviewing it on here, with the additional chance of an interview with Kaiyuh. 

2. Schools' getting to that point where teachers realize how much crap they have to stuff into our heads, which means many projects, papers, and homework. Which means less blogging time for me. D: 

3. Saw How To Train Your Dragon. Loved it. Love the music. Want to own it. So should you. 

Without further exposition, here's my new bi-monthly book review. Today I'm looking at a medieval romantic fantasy by the name of Legacy, by teen writer Cayla Kluver. I'm not usually interested in anything medieval nor romantic, being more of a gritty steampunk-esque (think China Mievelle here, you guys) kind of girl, but I'm always interested in seeing what people my age are turning out, so I've looked into it.  

Legacy, the first in a planned trilogy, was originally self-published by Cayla and her family, and was later picked up by Amazon's new publishing industry (yes, Amazon's become a publisher now), called Amazon Encore. I read it on the school library Kindle. 

First off: I'm rather opposed to teen publishing. Yes, yes, I know it sounds a bit stupid, seeing as I'm a teenager myself, but I honestly think that most teenagers don't have the skills to be properly published. But ever since Christopher Paolini opened the door, there seems to be a growing number of teens getting published. And most of them, while definitely showing talent, need to improve a lot before they have the skills to be real writer. It's not their fault - they're young, and there's a certain amount of experience that's needed to be gained before I think they can produce worthwhile stuff. Anyways, on to the review. 


Plot 
Though Legacy is sold as a fantastical romance, there's very little of the fantasy element added in, at least until the very end of the story. We begin with a suspiciously specific prologue, detailing the story of two countries with names that are totally not innuendos, Hytanica and Cokyri. Apparently thirty-or-so babies were stolen from Hytanica sixteen years ago, and only one of them wasn't found dead. There's also mention of a Blood Moon. 

The main story, however, is told through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Alera, who is one of the two princesses of Hytanica. She's being forced to (what a surprise) marry someone she doesn't love, and this person is the son of the Captain of the Guard, Steldor. Meanwhile, a hot new love interest crops up from the Hytanican enemy: Cokyri. *snort*  as a prisoner, dragging along the plot. The story revolves around Alera and her struggle to make a choice: marry the man who was brought up to be a king (Steldor) or sacrifice everything and go with Narian, the Cokyrian boy. There's also something about an ancient blood feud.

Like I said before, the romance factor wasn't what brought me in, and I was pretty disappointed to see that there wasn't much of a fantasy element in the story. To the book's credit, though, I kind of got into the whole "Alera having to choose" factor, mostly because both Steldor and Narian were jerks in their own right. However, it was too bloated; there were too many wandering chapters that didn't really lead anywhere, which made the book hard to get through at times. For a character-driven novel, this can be a problem, but experienced authors know how to deal with it. Unfortunately, Legacy doesn't do that. 

Plot: 5.5/10

Characters & World
Like most other medieval fantasy books, Alera, the protagonist, tried hard to be the spunky, rebellious princess that we know so well. At first this deterred me, because the "rebelliousness" read more like "annoyingness", but I grew to like her a little more, mainly for one reason: she made mistakes. Big ones. It shows a lot of potential for character growth in later books, and since this is a trilogy, I'm willing to let her go. The rest of the characters ranged from nicely written to plain annoying (I liked London, Alera's bodyguard, but Tadark, her other bodyguard, grew grating after a few chapters of complaints.) As for the two love interests, Narian and Steldor...well, both seemed kind of like douchebags in their own right. Steldor was the stereotypical aggravating, pompous man-boy, and Narian was just kind of insolent. If I had to choose, I would say I liked Steldor better, actually. In general, the characters here weren't great, but most of them weren't too terrible, either. 

 As for the world...well, if you're a history buff, don't get your hopes up. Cayla tries to create a fantasy world, complete with names like Emotanya (it's a country full of sad people, I presume), etc. But there's a lot of inconsistency. The character names vary from your standard fantasy names (Alera, Miranna, Steldor) to the pseudo-Asian (Sadhienne, etc.) to just...weird. (London?) Even though it's supposed to be a fantasy world, there's mention of Christianity (both God and Christmas are referred to) as well as Latin. Alchemy is used as a substitute for all things science, and the economy/worldbuilding is nonexistent.  In short, Hytanica is a very shallow world, a backdrop for the characters and nothing more. 

Characters: 6.5/10
World: 3.5/10 

Writing Style 
This is where the ball drops, people.  Cayla Kluver, as reviewed by Amazon, is thought to be "marked by witty, rapid-fire dialogue and dramatic complexity that belie the writer's age," This must be for a different book, because I found no such thing. Much of the story is bogged down by unnecessary descriptions, adjective-loaded sentences (e.g. "He stroked my long brown smooth hair.") and "look-at-me-I'm-a-writer" words. Cliches are abound ("raven hair" and "startling blue eyes" are only the beginning) and the rest of it was so boring I wanted to skip. Many of the descriptions were out of place for a fantasy novel (calling one dress "fun and flirty".) As for the dialogue...well, it would have been good if the author had made up her mind. Everyone kept switching back from Ye Olde Medieval speech to stuff you would hear in a shopping mall. It was jarring, to say the least. 

The biggest sin, however, is Cayla's tendency to tell versus show. She obviously knows the difference between the two, but for some reason would use both in the same sentence. (Narian looked surpised, mostly because I knew that he knew that something was wrong...). It was unnecessary and redundant all at once, and made for an annoying read.  if you're a critical reader or writer, it will make you want to scream at times. 

Writing: 3/10

In short, if you want an easy, if verbose, romance, this is the book for you. It's not bad, and in several parts it's quite good, but the inconsistency makes it hard to keep up the suspension of disbelief. Like I said before, if you're a critical reader or a history buff, this isn't the book for you. As critical as I've been, however, I will say that I enjoyed it, despite all the errors. With some practice and a little more research, I think Cayla Kluver can turn into a great writer. As for now...well, this is a darn good first draft. 

Total Score: 4.6/10   

Cheers,
-Ari