* Please note, my editor is on a road trip and has not been able to look this post over. Errors probably abound!
It seems I have finally come to the last book in my long list of fellow Independently Published Authors, and to be quite honest, this one has left me a little flummoxed. Beyond the After: Princess Lillian by C. M. Healy has remarkably high reviews on both Amazon and Goodreads. I, myself, was initially relieved to see good writing in the few seconds I had to glance through the book when I had the opportunity to meet Healy at a faire we were both signing books at and we exchanged books, as authors sometimes do. It took me awhile to get to the book because I had a few in line ahead of him, but now it is finished! So let's dive into why I'm confused by these high ratings.
The Premise
This is the first book in a planned series of four that follows the children of familiar and beloved princesses Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. The first book centers around Lillian, Snow White's eldest child. She has just turned eighteen and everyone is trying to learn that new balance of what it looks like to have a young woman in the house who is no longer a child but is still not quite an adult. When Lillian wanders away from her birthday party, setting off a string of odd events that leads to her meeting a mysterious stranger in the woods, she quickly discovers that an old adversary to her family's kingdom long thought destroyed has returned and is on the rise. Can she trust this new presence in her life or will she have to rely on herself to save the day?
The Plot
I really wanted this to be good, but it was so flat. There were brief moments where things started to happen or could have happened and then just fell through or were resolved so quickly that it was completely vanilla to me. There was not a single moment when I found myself eagerly turning the page, needing to find out what was going to happen next. There was very little that was surprising, nearly every plot point hit was predictable, and there was a heck of a lot of winking happening. People winked all the dang time in this book.
The Characters
This is another area where I felt things were severely lacking. Lillian herself was fairly accurately portrayed as a young woman coming into her own, trying to figure out her limits as a new adult and testing just how far her parents would let her go while still very much needing them at times. As the main character, that was good to see. She didn't have much of a personality, though. She wasn't quirky or silly, she wasn't snarky or sarcastic, polite or impolite. She was just...there. Her love interest, Alexander, was the very definition of a Gary Stu, the male version of a Mary Sue. He was handsome and mysterious. He saved her life in the beginning of the book. He baked perfect bread. He was a master archer and swordsman. He fished like no one's business. He never got angry with her even when he should have, and he always had the perfect answers. It was annoying and, quite frankly, almost made me want to stop reading at times. The villain was kind of abstract most of the time. Yes, actual threats to Lillian show up, but again, they were neutralized ridiculously easily and quickly. The real bad guy never actually shows up, and his “biggest, baddest henchman” only shows up at the very end and we barely get to spend any time with him. And the whole time, he's locked in a cell.
Saving Graces
Healy is a good writer, I will give him that. His flow and sentence structure is smooth and there was never a moment that I had to stop and reread anything because it was confusing or unclear. His descriptions of places and events was actually something I quite admired. There are certain scenes I could and still can picture quite clearly, and I really enjoyed those moments when I was truly transported into his world. Given that there are three more books in this series, one of which is published and two which are not yet written, I hope what was begun is expanded upon, but in a book that is a little over 300 pages long, much more could have already been opened up than was.
Final Thoughts
The book ends on what should be a cliffhanger. SPOILERS BEGIN HERE The love interest has been kidnapped, his true identity still a ginormous mystery. Lillian is riding away from the castle alone on a mission to save him and, ultimately, her kingdom, having learned one of her childhood friends has betrayed her and was working for the enemy. SPOILERS END HERE By all rights, I should be left ready and wanting to jump into the next book...but I don't really care what happens. I feel horrible saying it, but that's the truth. I'm not going to read the next book because I was not entertained by the first one. This is why I am left confused at all the high ratings. This is a bland story with bland, forgettable characters.
As a reminder, reviews are so important. If you have read any of my books, I would so love and appreciate you taking the time to leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. Whether you loved the book, hated it, or somewhere in between, ratings and reviews help! I'm certainly going to be leaving a review for Mr. Healy, though one much more condensed, because I think it's only fair.
Also, as part of a huge oversight on my part last week, I forgot to leave a link to the blog where you can find Alex, the author of the guest blog post, “Novel Soup." Check him out here and tell him Diana sent you!