CLN's Seasonal Reviews (CLOSED)

The Plan - by - angiexvi

Review by:  ArcherPoole

Book Cover: The cover gives me old Renaissance / Victorian Era vibes that I really enjoy. I do, however, find myself wishing there was more color, as the text blends in with the background image, making it muddy and hard to decipher.

Blurb: The blurb gives a nice bit of mystery and character dynamics, but I find myself wanting more information about Anastasia's plan. This would help the reader truly understand the stakes involved, even if they are disclosed early on in the story itself. In all, giving too little information is the same as giving too much information when it comes to holding a reader's attention and drawing them in.

Chapter 1: Your writing style is quite unique. If I'm being honest, I'm not the biggest fan of 1st Person POV stories, but that doesn't mean yours is bad! I do, however, hope the 1st Person POV stays consistent throughout, otherwise it can become confusing to read.

Historical Fiction is such a hard genre to pull off. You have to find the right balance between new/exciting, and not completely changing events that verifiably happened in history. From what I've read so far, you're nailing the balance!

"I just turned eighteen a few months ago, and ever since then, it's been suitor after suitor. Countless men who look and act the same, trying to interest me." I'm particularly fond of this sentence, as it shows Anastasia's feelings (instead of just telling us about her disdain for marriage and courtship), and it's also Period correct. These waves of endless bachelors did come from far and wide when a princess came of marrying age.

All in all, Chapter 1 was amazing. I found it just a tad bit slow at the start, as it was mainly just an explanation of the world's events, but the ending truly makes me want to dive forward into Chapter 2!

Chapter 2: This chapter is good. I truly enjoyed it (probably because I'm morbid and it had a lot of murder talk lol). I do have a small issue with how the conspiracy was talked about though. When one conspires with another to kill a King (especially if you're the Princess), it should be done more carefully - more secretively. This helps show the stakes as direr than just openly talking about it, even if someone else isn't in the immediate vicinity to overhear.

"The smell of smoke left my nose screaming in pain as it made me want to throw up" is a great descriptive sentence. I personally don't smoke, nor does the smell really bother me (a lot of my friends are smokers, so maybe I'm just used to it). With that being said, I know a large majority of people have that same nauseous sensation around tobacco smoke.

"No, of course not. Women are not allowed to smoke and you are slowly killing your body." I would have to do a little more research on this, but I don't believe anyone knew smoking was dangerous back in those times. In fact, I believe it was looked at as almost healthy, so while I like this sentence, I don't think it really fits with the time frame of the setting.

"Yes, because small casualties become habits." I LOVE this. This one little sentence is one that I whole-heartedly believe in, and one that I often use in some form with my own writing for Master / Apprentice tropes.

Chapter 2, Part 2: This chapter starts off strong with a description. If you're not going to start in the middle of the action, then you need to start with a good setting, and you consistently nail this in your writing.

All in all, I don't have a lot to say about this chapter. There was something about it that I enjoyed more than the previous two, but I can't quite place my finger on it. The characters had some meaningful progression, which is always nice to read, but it's like your writing has...grown(?) over the last two chapters. It's still unequivocally you, but it sounds a bit more refined.

Chapter 3: Again, you start off the chapter with some great scene-setting. Because of that, I'm going to start having to nitpick just so I can give a proper review. In the opening paragraph, you mention the ladies having "the latest fabrics, the latest fans, and their overall beauty was astonishing." I would really, really love to see this fleshed out a little more. What do the fabrics and fans look like? What makes these women astoundingly beautiful?

This is an extremely personal preference, so take it with a grain of salt: For the Italian royal family, I would love to see a bit more broken English being spoken by them. While it's certainly normal for them to speak English, even fluently, it wouldn't be 100% on par with native Englishmen. Or, in order to keep the flow of the story going, let them have perfect English for the reader's sake, but let Anastasia comment (either to them or internally) about how much she likes/dislikes their accents. This would also help to give your characters some more depth without going overboard.

So, another small personal point of contention. When Charles is harassing Anastasia after she declines his offer to dance, I really would have liked for her to cause more of a scene. I understand she's putting on a facade for the evening, but she's such a headstrong and strong-willed character that it seems almost too out of place for her to tear up at his inappropriate advances.

Chapter 3, Part 2: "Roses from the rose bush behind us could be seen glistening in his eyes, along with the stars." This is the imagery that I love to see as a reader and reviewer. It shows just how intently she is staring into his eyes, which helps boost our knowledge of how in love they are. The only issue I have at this time (and I may have simply missed it in earlier chapters) is that I don't actually know a basic thing about Austin's eyes - their color.

I did NOT see this ending coming! This is an exceptional way to end a chapter, and I have no doubt further chapters can deliver the same punch I've seen so far!

Overall: This is a tremendous story that would appeal to anyone who loves Romance or Historical Fiction. There were small little foibles here and there, but that's only natural. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in either of those genres, as it's exciting and easy to read through, instead of feeling like a chore like some books can.