Book Review: The House of the Four Winds

The House of the Four Winds by Mercedes Lackey
Rating: DNF
Publication Date: August 5, 2014
Source: Review copy from Netgalley in exchange for a review

The rulers of tiny, impoverished Swansgaard have twelve daughters and one son. While the prince’s future is assured, his twelve sisters must find their own fortunes.

Disguising herself as Clarence, a sailor, Princess Clarice intends to work her way to the New World. When the crew rebels, Clarice/Clarence, an expert with rapier and dagger, sides with the handsome navigator, Dominick, and kills the cruel captain.

Dominick leads the now-outlawed crew in search of treasure in the secret pirate haven known as The House of Four Winds. They encounter the sorceress Shamal, who claims Dominick for her own—but Clarice has fallen hard for Dominick and won’t give him up without a fight. 

I thought this one sounded like a fun read, but it just didn't do it for me at all. There is no way I was going to finish this before dying of boredom, so I gave up about halfway through.

I'm honestly a little tired of the whole girl dresses up as a boy thing and fools everyone because she binds her chest and talks in a lower voice. It's overdone, and is also rarely done well.

The writing style got on my nerves a bit too. Most noticeably was near the first when it said the main character asked something curiously. The books (what I read of it at least) was full of adverbs following the words said or asked, or the like. It's just too much. Besides that curiously is redundant, because if you're asking something, it usually means you're curious.

But that's off track a bit. I didn't care for this one for many reasons, but mainly because it just bored me. Even the mutiny was boring. The story failed to capture my interest at any point.