Book Review: "Heartless"

Heartless

by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

Goodreads Summary: Princess Una of Parumvir has come of age and will soon be married. She dreams of a handsome and charming prince, but when the first suitor arrives, she finds him stodgy and boring. Prince Aethelbald from the mysterious land of Farthestshore has traveled far to prove his love--and also to bring hushed warnings of danger. A dragon is rumored to be approaching Parumvir. Una, smitten instead with a more dashing prince, refuses Aethelbald's offer--and ignores his warnings. Soon the Dragon King himself is in Parumvir, and Una, in giving her heart away unwisely, finds herself in grave danger. Only those courageous enough to risk everything have a hope of fighting off this advancing evil.

Review: It's not often that I come across a book that I really couldn't stand to read (of course, most of the time it's because I'm able to flip to the end - with my Kindle, unfortunately, I had to read through it if I wanted to know the ending).  Unfortunately, Heartless falls into this category.   

None of the characters were likable, especially Princess Una.  She was rude, shallow, and juvenile, with absolutely no redeeming qualities.  She's not very intelligent, courageous, or kind, and this doesn't change throughout the entire book.  For this reason, I have no idea what Prince Aethelbald was so in love with her.  Aethelbald himself could have been such a great character, but instead was reduce to a somewhat bland personality.  The evil Dragon King was fairly one dimensional too, and both Una's father and brother were not very interesting (the brother was somewhat of a whiny brat, to be honest).

The plot itself was okay, but there were things that are brought up but never mentioned again or explained.  It annoys me when authors throw in seemingly important hints but then never bother to fully address them later on, and unfortunately, this happens quite a lot in Heartless, both with plot and with other characters.  

I would have a very hard time recommending this book to anyone.  Una ruined the book for me, and unfortunately, the plot couldn't redeem her character.

Overall Rating: 1/5

Note: Apparently, this book was a giant Christian allegory.  I found this out after I had already written my review, so I'd like to put in a disclaimer that my rating and review have nothing to do with my personal beliefs.