Book Review: The Coronation by Livy Jarmusch

Prince Addison is only several weeks away from inheriting the Kingdom of Tarsurella. The entire Palace is ablaze with excitement, as the Royal Family prepares for the event of a lifetime. Despite the exciting event which is near at hand, Addison and his younger siblings (all seven of them!) must carry on with their daily activities. 

Addison’s sisters, Princesses Bridget, Chasity, and Hope, have their struggles with being iconic European starlets of a modern day monarchy. The teen heiresses grace magazine covers, smile for photoshoots, and gracefully glide through important interviews–until a certain American popstar arrives on the scene. Kennetic Energy, the wildly popular band from the United States, is chosen to play at Addison’s Coronation. David Carter, the band’s handsome lead singer, fumbles through awkward moments with Princess Hope–in front of the cameras. When an embarrassing rumor sparks that Princess Hope is dating the young fellow, she is determined to get the band fired from their Royal gig. 

Meanwhile, Princess Chasity is dealing with her own fragile affairs of the heart. Her new security guard, Hanson Fletcher, is completely captivating, yet entirely frustrating. She attempts to keep the entrance of her heart firmly protected, while following the wisdom of Proverbs 4:23. But can she be successful in guarding her heart, from her security guard? 

My rating:

I'd just like to start this review out by saying that I am not the intended market for this book. This book just isn't for me. And that's okay, because I know that there are a lot of people that love it—and I'm glad! I really am!

I, however, found it extremely hard to force myself through. Or, at least, for the first couple hundred pages or so. (This book is over 400 pages. Since I have an e-copy, I did not realize this. #overwhelmed) If I'm going to read about a kingdom, with a king and princes and princesses, I'm so used to reading it in a medieval setting with sword fights and archers and daggers, that to read it in a completely modern setting kinda threw me off, haha! 

To be honest, the plot was like reading a cross between a Disney Channel TV show and a Hallmark drama. It . . . wasn't my thing. I'll talk more on the plot in a minute.

But first of all, the writing style wasn't super engaging. I mean, there were times that I got really sucked into the story—but that's more because the plot picked up, rather than the actual writing improving. There were a few typos, which I normally wouldn't mention, but added to some grammatical inconsistencies (or maybe this is just my personal preferences & pet peeves talking, idk), it sometimes drove me nuts.

The crushes. Alllllll the crushes. And flirting. Someone shoot me. (have I mentioned that I'm not the target audience?) When David first came into the picture, it wasn't too bad. I actually liked his character. But his love song? I cringed so hard during the whole thing. And poor Addison! All the ladies trying to hook up with the future king?? Give the guy some slack! And Jillian . . . girl. If you want to be more mature than your 11 years, stop acting like a little girl when it comes to a love song that seems like it was sung just for you. I did enjoy Hanson + Chasity a teensy bit, though, and I appreciated how they went their separate ways without an overly amount of drama.

Speaking of Hanson . . . oh, Hanson. When he was a main character in one of the beginning scenes, I thought we'd see a whole lot more of him than we actually did. I feel like that huge deal with him & his dad at the beginning was supposed to cause a huge amount of suspense, but after a couple hundred pages of barely any more mention, that realllyyyy killed the momentum of what I think was supposed to be something super tense and surprising. (Also, side note—characters miraculously healing from injuries?! One of my pet peeves, y'all. Injured one chapter but nobody notices in the next, and he's not even limping or wincing?!)

Tbh, I think what took the first couple hundred of pages to describe could've happened in the first few chapters. It was like in the middle of the book the huge PLOT TWIST *gasp* was dumped in our laps, and it didn't really even seem to fit with the rest of the book?! It was like reading two different books . . . except not.

Oh, and one more thing—I'm not sure if this was on purpose or if the author was trying to use omniscient POV or what . . . but there was so. Much. Head hopping. I mean, there was like, 5 POVs already, but add to that head hopping in every single scene? It was so confusing at times.

So, just a few random notes I took while reading:

-"David and Clark took huge strides forward, and soon their trot turned into a full-blown gallop." What in the world?! How do people gallop?

-I legit thought that one person was gonna die. But they didn't. So I'm okay.

-The name Lance (one of those names that just kinda gets on my nerves) suddenly isn't so annoying when it refers to a security guard.

-I was ready for the book to end, I thought that it could've been wrapped up nicely, but then I saw that there was 100 pages left (oh, the joys of reading ebooks!). It kiiiinda seemed to drag.

Why is this book three stars instead of two or even one?

-Addison. I a d o r e d Addison. He is just . . . *happy sigh* *Lone Ranger narrator voice* He was a fabulous individual. There just wasn't enough of his POV!

-Millllliiiiieeee! She was so. Stinkin'. Adorable. I loved her character!

-That intense bit I mentioned? While I feel like the suspense could've been built more, I still really enjoyed those scenes. Definitely improved the whole book in my opinion. Even if it did seem like an entirely different plot in and of itself.

-I actually didn't mind Vanessa? She was kinda cool.

-Bridget has issues but I feel for her anyway.

*I received a free e-copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Have you read The Coronation? Did you enjoy it more than I did??

"It's Like a Movie"

Comparison.

This is a topic that's been on my heart a lot lately.

As a society, we're constantly comparing ourselves to others in the way we dress, eat, weigh, even take social media pictures (yeah, I'm especially guilty with this one).

But right now, I'm talking about comparing ourselves to others as authors.

Have you ever . . .

-Read someone else's book and thought wow, why can't my writing style be more like theirs?

-Wondered what it would be like if you could be as popular as that one author?

-Thought that if you just tried a little harder, your prose would be identical to your favorite author's?

-Actually tried to copy another author's writing style?

-Looked at a fellow author with envy because they're cranking out three 80k-word novels per year? (yeah, definitely guilty of this one)

I could go on and on and on. Why? Because in this day and age, we're taught to act like everyone else to 'fit in.' To dress like everyone else, to talk like everyone else, to be like everyone else. For some reason, it's unacceptable to be uniquely you.

Because if you're you, then you must be weird.

Y'all, we as authors have such trouble with comparison. I'm speaking from my personal experience, but I'm pretty sure that I can accurately say with confidence that this is something that we all struggle with at some point.

She wrote a longer novel.

He has a more popular novel than yours.

She is everyone's favorite.

He is just . . . better.

No. Stop it. You hear me? Stop. It. Now. Those kinds of thoughts are toxic.

A friend (sorry, girlie, I'm gonna use you as an example xD) and I were once messing around with a story, and I was way out of my element, trying to write about something that I knew next to nothing about. I couldn't do it. I couldn't feel it. I couldn't put it into words because, frankly, I had no idea what I was doing.

"It's like a movie," my friend said. "Just imagine that this is a TV show and you're just describing what happens." I gave her the keyboard, and she took off with the story. It was great . . . except that I felt like a horrible writer because she could do something that I couldn't.

Unless I'm writing it, I can't see it in my mind.

She outlines everything. She plots out every scene, every chapter, and the expected word count for each.

Me? I'm a pantser. Except for one story (that I still haven't finished, surprise, surprise), all of the stories that I've written had no ending in my mind until I'd written it. In most of my stories, I can't even tell you what the next scene is. Because I can't see it in my mind. I can't visualize the story in my mind like a movie; in reality, the one scene I'm working on replays itself over and over and over in my mind until I manage to figure out what comes next.

For me, writing is a struggle for words. A struggle to make my sentences sound coherent. A struggle to add description.

But for my friend? She can crank out analogies right and left.

See what I did there? I just compared myself to one of my close writer friends. When she told me, "just think of it as a movie," she wasn't trying to make me feel bad; she was trying to help. But I compared myself to her because I didn't feel adequate.

Y'all. God made us each with our own writing styles, our own methods, and our own paces. The stories your friends write aren't going to be like yours; and yours aren't going to be like theirs. That's okay. When God gives you a story to write, you write it. Because He didn't give it to your best friend or your favorite author to write; He gave it to you.

And you are the only one who can write it.

Not your best friend.

Not your favorite author.

You.

I watch other people crank out novel after novel every year, crush NaNo, get all the congratulations . . . and I get discouraged. Because I must not be a good enough writer.

But in all honesty, all I'm doing is convincing myself of something that really isn't true. 

Don't compare yourself to anyone else. Because only you can write the story that God gave you.