Katherine Villyard rated Nona the Ninth: 5 stars
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, Tordotcom Fall 2022 Author To Be Announced (The Locked Tomb, #3)
Her city is under siege. The zombies are coming back. And all Nona wants is a birthday party. In many …
Eh? I expected to love this book, because I love magic and love (fictional) thieves, but... not so much.
The setting was cool, but I quickly got tired of the heroine’s pining over the wonderful Prince Charming who bought her as a teen prostitute from a forced brothel situation to be his mistress (but didn’t lay a hand on her until she was of age and it was consensual, of course) and then dropped her like a bad habit after he found out her brother (and maybe she herself) was “demon tainted”—in other words, has magic. I was also annoyed by Prince Charming’s tween wife (whom he won’t lay a hand in until she’s of age, of course!) and her determination to destroy her rival, our disgraced courtesan turned scribe.
I think this is a pacing problem; there’s not enough reason for us to relate to (or not be actively …
