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My Review:Title: Secondborn
Author: Amy A. Bartol
Series: Secondborn #1
Published by: Brilliance Audio
Release Date: August 1, 2017
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Kate Reinders
Length: 11 hours and 11 minutes
Genres: Dystopian
Source: Audible
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Dystopia Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Summer Hunt
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ IndieBound ✩ iTunes ✩ Book Depository
My rating:
Blurb:Firstborns rule society. Secondborns are the property of the government. Thirdborns are not tolerated. Long live the Fates Republic.
On Transition Day, the second child in every family is taken by the government and forced into servitude. Roselle St. Sismode’s eighteenth birthday arrives with harsh realizations: she’s to become a soldier for the Fate of Swords military arm of the Republic during the bloodiest rebellion in history, and her elite firstborn mother is happy to see her go.
Televised since her early childhood, Roselle’s privileged upbringing has earned her the resentment of her secondborn peers. Now her decision to spare an enemy on the battlefield marks her as a traitor to the state.
But Roselle finds an ally—and more—in fellow secondborn conscript Hawthorne Trugrave. As the consequences of her actions ripple throughout the Fates Republic, can Roselle create a destiny of her own? Or will her Fate override everything she fights for—even love?
Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
3 stars — Oh dear. Where to start. There were glimmers of interesting things going on, but not really enough to suck me in and make up for what *wasn’t* working for me.
We’ll start with the narrator. Ms. Reinders was solidly in the okay category. She didn’t grate on my nerves, there was some inflection, but I needed something more from her to make her stand out. In the end I think listening to the story was a bit of a disservice, because while she doesn’t have a flat narration style, there wasn’t enough emotion and interest to really allow me to connect with Roselle. Honestly, it was flat enough that I started to notice sentences being all the same length, which is not something I’m usually attuned to. In addition, her other character voices left me underwhelmed. There wasn’t always a lot of difference in them, and while I thought she did an okay Hawthorne and Agent Crow, I found her choice for Clifton to be…odd. It made him sound flighty or something. I’m not entirely sure what she was going for, but apparently it didn’t work for me. If I decide to read the rest of the trilogy, I *won’t* be listening to them.
I’m usually all about the characters in books, and part of the reason this book didn’t get rated higher is that I didn’t connect with any of them in this story. I didn’t find Roselle to be that interesting of a character, and there was nothing for me to relate to. We’re told a lot of her stellar qualities, but we don’t necessarily see them in action. I appreciated her complete mastery of all things soldier/fighting, but outside of that she was a conundrum. She would have these amazing moments where she would quip a witty retort to some asshat, and then she’d be all meek and supposedly helpless. It didn’t work. I couldn’t personally make it work in my head. I needed more consistency from her.
And OMG, I think I might have to give up on Ms. Bartol, even though I adore her in person. She LOVES making her heroines universally loved/lusted by EVERY SINGLE MALE IN THE BOOK. That’s not my bag baby. It’s why I haven’t finished any of her series actually. I don’t relate to that, I don’t get it, it doesn’t make any of her relationships special, and it doesn’t make her stand out (even though that is its *exact* purpose). As for this story, I didn’t connect with a single one of her suitors. The relationship with Hawthorne developed at LIGHTSPEED and was completely unbelievable to me. What in the world did they bond over? It felt superficial and rushed. And Hawthorne was just another bland hero trying to save the girl. Meh.
As for Clifton and Reykin (whom I’m assuming are the other two potential love interests), nothing much sets them apart either. Clifton comes across kind of older and creepy and possessive…though there was a glimmer of depth near the end. I wish we’d seen more of *that*. Reykin…well, honestly I have no idea. Maybe we’ll know more in the next books.
As per usual, there are essentially no other strong female characters, no female friends for Roselle to rely on. I’ve started noticing this since it’s been pointed out to me, and it’s disappointing when it’s missing.
Agent Crow was creepy as fuck, so well done on the villain. Though I honestly prefer a more subtle villain myself, Crow was a bit over the top for me.
So besides characters/chemistry, what does that leave us? World building and plot/action. And this was a mixed bag for me. There were SO MANY DETAILS to keep straight that I honestly got overwhelmed, and I’m still confused. But at the same time, what I did understand fascinated me, and sets itself up for some interesting future machinations! Honestly, while characters are the thing for me, if I have an amazing world/plot to fall back on, it can make up for it and still blow me away. This one wasn’t quite there, hence the middling rating. I was just left with a lot more questions: how did this world come to be this way? What was the purpose of the factions? How long has this birth order thing been a thing?
So yeah. Super mixed bag. If I hadn’t gotten the rest of the trilogy from NetGalley, I wouldn’t have hesitated in abandoning the series. It’s interesting, but not mind-blowing. However, I *do* have the rest in ARCs, so now I’m torn. Perhaps I’ll at least try the next book and see if I get more of the good stuff…
COYER Summer Hunt: Step outside your comfort zone and read a book in a genre you have read less than 3 times this year — 5 points.
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