The Traitor's Kiss by Erin Beaty Series: Traitor's Trilogy #1
Published by Imprint on May 9th 2017
Pages: 352
An obstinate girl who will not be married. A soldier desperate to prove himself. A kingdom on the brink of war.
With a sharp tongue and an unruly temper, Sage Fowler is not what they’d call a lady―which is perfectly fine with her. Deemed unfit for marriage, Sage is apprenticed to a matchmaker and tasked with wrangling other young ladies to be married off for political alliances. She spies on the girls―and on the soldiers escorting them.
As the girls' military escort senses a political uprising, Sage is recruited by a handsome soldier to infiltrate the enemy ranks. The more she discovers as a spy, the less certain she becomes about whom to trust―and Sage becomes caught in a dangerous balancing act that will determine the fate of her kingdom.
I don’t… I don’t fully even understand what just happened here. And I didn’t care enough to worry about it, so there’s that. This basically sums up my experience:
Sigh. So, a friend asked me how it was going when I was around page 50. So by that I mean, I won’t be spoiling anything for you. But this was how I’d sum it up:
We meet girl. She doesn’t want to be married. Uncle says she must; sets up a meeting with a matchmaker. For reasons. She plans to run away. Girl’s like “nah, that seems hard”, meets with matchmaker. Pisses off matchmaker, who then asks her to BE a matchmaker. THEN, random switch to some RANDOM ASS DUDE who is not properly introduced. And a… war skirmish.
Then a time jump. And I still have NO FUCKING CLUE who this guy is, and why there have been 4 chapters in his POV. And why there is a war. Or why this matchmaking thing is so important. Or anything.
Seriously, it jumped back and forth and the military guy POV was talking about places that meant nothing to me, groups of people that I had never heard of. Are these counties, kingdoms, cities? I don’t know. But it was confusing, because they’re talking about attacks and strategies, and I had no idea. Just… nope. As such, it was incredibly confusing.
So, let’s push that aside, because I have never and will never understand it. Let’s get back to our girl Sage, who has decided that she’ll be the matchmaker’s apprentice. Again, for reasons. None that are clear to me, but whatever. Here’s my main problem with Sage: I get that she doesn’t want to be married off to some random guy. I get it. I respect it. Hell, I agree with it. But she is so damn judgmental of the girls who are looking forward to finding husbands. And yeah, it wouldn’t be my cup of tea either, but why do you have to rain on everyone else’s parade, girl? She makes it very clear that she feels superior for being “above” the whole finding a mate thing.
And lest we forget, there is some really… racially insensitive stuff going on here too. There are a lot of reviews that go into more detail about this, so do check them out, but here’s a snippet in case you were wondering:
“I’ve noticed how some of the soldiers look at you. Especially that darker one you spend time with.”
What!? NO. That is something like, your grandma’s old, racist friend would say, leading you to explain why that is not okay. And it is not. Also, I know a lot of people have discussed the dark skinned aggressor trope, but I legit had no idea who was fighting who, so I was so lost I can’t even comment on that part. But the descriptions alone of the different armies and their levels of “darkness” were bad enough. And frankly, it seemed like they had no other defining characteristics, which is probably why I couldn’t figure out who was fighting or why. And in case you were wondering, yes, it is made abundantly clear that Sage is white.
Anyway, for a more detailed account, I’m going to link you over to the lovely Aila’s review, because she discusses this well.
Now, we must talk about the society. Look, I get that a lot of societies- hell, even our own, often- treats women as “lesser than”. But this was just kind of gross. Sage was seen as extra special because she climbed trees and wore pants as a kid. Well, guess what? Not everyone had that luxury, I’m sure. She ended up being well educated, which again is not something other girls had the opportunity to do. So instead of, I don’t know, helping out your fellow woman, instead Sage just rolls her eyes at them and becomes a special snowflake. She solves all the things, even things that there is really no basis for her to have been able to figure out (can’t say much more because spoilers), and it seems like answers to problems just pop out of thin air and into her head so she can save everyone. Because she hates makeup and dresses.
There were some twists which I think might have been good if I’d had any idea what was happening in the first place. But I was so confused, and by this point, angry, that I just couldn’t bring myself to be too shocked with any revelation- mostly because I wasn’t sure if it was a twist, or just my own confusion being sorted out a little. Like “OH, now I get that one thing!”, but is that because it was a twist, or I just finally understood what was happening? No way to know, friends. No way to know.
Will I Read the Sequel? Yeah, really really not. Which is rare for me. But I cannot with this book. Or Sage. Or the confusion.
Bottom Line: I still have no idea what I read. All I know is that I was not a fan of most of the characters (save a few side ones that I kind of enjoyed) and really have no idea why there was a war happening and what this group of girls had to do with any of it. And definitely not here for the racial tropes either.
**Quote taken from uncorrected proof, subject to change.
Wow. This kinda sounds like a mess. Sage is feelin all superior and racial tropes *shakes head*. Sorry to hear this was a bummer… 🙁
I always hate it when there’s two storylines or POV’s and you can’t see the link for the life of you. Kudos for plowing through it though? I’ve had that where I WANT to DNF but I stick with it, and yeah… unfortunately they sometimes don’t get better. 🙂
Hahha thanks! I was kind of proud of myself too, but then also mad because why did I bother? And it DID get moderately better? But I was so mad at so much stuff that I think it didn’t even matter at that point ?
Ohh and here I thought this book reminded me of “the Traitor’s Kiss”. 🙁
Ooooh is there another book with the title too? Maybe I’ll try that one! 😀
Lol! No, scratch that. I meant the Winner’s Curse series. The final book is named “The Winner’s Kiss”
Wow, this sounds pretty awful. :\ I understand the current societal climate and the way women are still being treated like crap in so many ways is inspiring authors to write about how unfair that is, and it’s important to do that, but we already have so many stories about why being a woman is hard – it’d be really nice to see more fantasy authors in particular writing more equal societies or matriarchal societies. I get that a lot of high fantasy is based on Medieval Europe, but that doesn’t mean the women have to be treated the same way they were treated in Medieval Europe. Besides, there were plenty of Medieval women who were absolute bosses, from Isabella of France to Hildegard of Bingen.
I’m also so tired of girl hate in books, especially in YA. Like, congratulations you like traditionally masculine things, that doesn’t make you any better than the girl opposite you who genuinely wants to grow up to be a wife and mother and wear lots of pink. Feminism is about choice, so let people like whatever the hell they want to like and be whatever the hell they want to be.
Anyway, I’m sorry you didn’t like this, but I’m not surprised that you didn’t; it sounds like it’s brimming with problems. I definitely won’t be checking this one out!
Why did you pick it up? To me, the blurb already says it WILL have a lot of the problems you’ve described 🙂 So I wasn’t surprised!
A fun review though 🙂 I find that bad books often give grounds for good reviews! Isn’t that strange.
Omg I’m SO mad already. I haaate the trope where the “special girl” is all tough and awesome and any other girl who dares have different interests or strengths is therefore below her. It drives me crazy. ?? I’m 99% sure I have this on my kindle but UGH. I’m already mad. Also passive racism like that is never okay.
At least…congrats for getting to the end and not eating it with frustration???
YIKES! Yeah…just YIKES! I have an eARC of this but I didn’t make it a priority to read and now I’m definitely not making it a priority. This sounds awful. I love your review though. You’ve done a wonderful job explaining the awfulness. Thanks, Shannon! I won’t be wasting my time on this one.
LOL
Sounds like a complete dumpster fire. Which is SAD because I was quite excited to read this one, but UGGHHHHHHHH. I couldn’t with the author supporting that racist book whose name I don’t even remember anymore. But then I heard about the racist shit in this one and I kicked it to the curb even though I have an arc. But seriously wtf is up with these authors who can’t write a YA fantasy without villainizing dark-skinned people??????
Besides all that, the book sounds like a mess too and I can tell the characters will piss me off. I don’t know how you got through the whole thing, but you deserve a gold medal, and some epic books that aren’t terrible in your life!
I don’t know about the book now…confusion is never a good sign. I’m confused now too! I’m putting it on the back burner for now…great job trying to explain it though! ?❤️
I am sorry you didn’t like this one. It doesn’t sound great with all that confusion up front it would be hard for me to read. If I can’t grasp what is going on I struggle with a book.
Eeep, I hope your next read is more enjoyable, Shannon! 😀 Your posts are always the best, and so much fun to read! Thanks for sharing your thoughts <3
Brittany @ Brittany’s Book Rambles
AHA I got this as an ARC before I heard it was problematic, I tried reading it and it was so unappealing from the very beginning. It sounds extremely tropey and similar to other YA not to mention it’s racist! I am definitely going to skip this one and let the publishers know I am just not interested. Thanks for the warning Shannon and sorry to hear it wasn’t enjoyable!
Yikes. I had been following the Goodreads threads on this book’s issues, but seeing them laid out in the open is painful. O_o
SO glad I skipped this one!