The book in my June Mark The Page book box and the July book of the month for the A Court of Books and Paper book club. Dividing Eden by Joelle Charbonneau was a book I did not know about before receiving it in my box. When I saw it was the book club’s book of the month, I decided to read it sooner rather than later. I will try to keep this as spoiler free as possible, but I am terrible so be warned.
Title: Dividing Eden
Author: Joelle Charbonneau
Genre: Fantasy
Age Classification: Young Adult
Publisher: HarperTeen
Format: paperback
Release: June 6, 2017
The book follows royal twins, Carys and Andreus, in alternating chapters, though this is not clearly marked and took me a few chapters to figure out. Carys, a princess by title but just as capable as her brother is expected to be, if not more. Andreus, a prince with an ailment that can prevent him from being as good as he is expected to be. Neither had expected to be in the running for the top spot of king or queen, but that is indeed the situation they are faced with after the death of their father, the King, and older brother and their mother going a bit crazy after their deaths.
Both twins had agreed that Andreus should become king, but there is a weird, manipulative and scheming Council that wish for another to take the place of King. Thanks to another weird, manipulative and scheming character, it is decided that one of the twins can take the crown, but only after completing a number of trials that prove which twin would be best for the job.
The first half of the book was going through all the above at a boringly slow pace. I was ready to call it a day but, because I wanted to join in the book club discussion, I pushed on. The pace picked up when the trials began, but then it just went crazy! The trials are crazy. What happens outside the trials is crazy. Most of the characters are crazy. I honestly have no idea who is trustworthy, who is telling the truth, or which one of them is supposed to be the cursed one. I will not talk about this any further or that would be spoiling like 90% of the book and I do not want to be that person.
Where this book ends also bothers me because I now have to wait for a second book to come out to know how it ends. I am interested enough that I will probably read book two but it won’t be eagerly anticipated book release for me. I can only hope it will be easier to get through. In my opinion, the writing style was okay but not great and the layout of the book was somewhat confusing.
Star Rating: ☆☆☆
All in all, the book was good, I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Over on Goodreads I gave Dividing Eden 3 out of 5 stars which I think reflects how I felt about it.
Your turn.
What did you think of Dividing Eden?
Will you be joining in the A Court of Books and Paper book club discussion this month?
Let me know in the comments below or on one of my media accounts!
Until next time bibliophiles!
Amy x
Zany Bibliophile 
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