I think I can say that after reading over 440 romance books
that I know what a good romance reads like, and Judith McNaught’s A Kingdom of
Dreams is not exactly good romance. I’m not too sure why 95% of reviewers think
it’s one of the best romances they’ve ever read, because I’ve read way better.
I’m not saying it was a terrible read, I just wouldn’t give it 5 stars, more
like 3.25. This is because romance books require that there be romance, and McNaught’s book was lacking in this regard.
The book starts out with Jennifer, the protagonist, and her sister being kidnapped by the Wolf’s men, the Wolf being King Henry’s fiercest warrior and feared all throughout England and Scotland.
The book starts out with Jennifer, the protagonist, and her sister being kidnapped by the Wolf’s men, the Wolf being King Henry’s fiercest warrior and feared all throughout England and Scotland.
When Jennifer is delivered to Royce, aka the Wolf, she is so
insolent that he hits her (yes, hits her smack in the face), viciously pulls
her hair, and spanks her so badly that she can’t sit down without it hurting
like a biatch. So, all in all, not a good start my friends. But then, of
course, Jennifer develops an uncontrollable desire for Royce and forgives him
everything, or for a while, at least. Then blah blah blah there is a huge
misunderstanding where something happens to make Royce think that Jennifer is a
manipulative, scheming, conspiring bitch-slut and the rest of the book, at
least until the last few pages, proceeds to be a pain in the ass.
So much of
the book was spent on anger, mistrust, and misunderstandings between the two
characters that there was no room left for any build up of romance. This made
it unbelievable to me when suddenly Jennifer realizes she loves a man who has
spent the better part of the book making her miserable; same goes for Royce. It
was like for every 10 pages of romance there were 100 of hatred and anger and
mistrust. I’ve read books where the love between the protagonists is believable
and profound, and in A Kingdom of Dreams, it was NOT.
Aside from that, Jennifer and Royce are characters for whom
I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, Jennifer is right to hate Royce for
wrongfully killing her brother, but on the other, her blindness to her father’s
manipulation and lack of love for her grated on my nerves and annoyed me to no
end. Up until the very last minute, she sided with her family instead of Royce,
which was really stupid on her part. And then there’s Royce, who could have
been a great male lead if it weren’t for his mistreatment of Jennifer and his
lack of regret for how he treated and let others treat her. Call me an
anti-feminist for having a thing for alpha males, but Royce was seriously lacking
in this department. I love books where the male lead is insanely jealous of
other men and who goes crazy when their girl is insulted or hurt in any way
because, to me, it shows that he really loves the female lead. Royce is the
complete opposite. In the beginning he hits her, is never jealous of other men
(there might’ve been one instance, but I’m not sure), and lets other people
call her slut, and for a while he didn’t do anything to stop it. Worst of all,
he only feels “a twinge” of guilt for doing all this shit. And he never
apologizes for hitting her. Actually, that’s never even revisited.
The ending only made up for things a little, and
surprisingly, I ended up liking Royce more than Jennifer. Unfortunately, it
could not make up for the lack of romance throughout the whole book. Definitely
not a 5 star read, though not a 1 star either. I hope the next book I read is better.
Book Love,
Lena
