Review: Twisted Palaces by Erin Watt
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3.6
Murder! Who’s the father?! Betrayal! Supposedly dead people returning! There was so much drama! And a lot of it felt unnecessary and overbearing. It is almost like the author cranked up the drama meter because it was the last book in the series.
I enjoyed the first book. It had a solid plot, and I thought the drama was handled nicely. The second book was not as good as the first, but it was good. It ended on a cliffhanger and set the stage for this one with an unexpected pregnancy, death, and Ella’s father’s resurrection.
This book felt unnecessary, and most of the content could have been added to the second book. In this book, the conflict was dragged out long and could have been solved fairly quickly. However, the majority was spent on topics or issues that did not really contribute to the overall story. If you only got this book for the murder, just skip to the end because there are no reveals or hints until then.
I get that the author wanted to explore the mystery of who committed the murder, however, it got repetitive after a while. And it caused me to lose interest. If this mystery, along with a couple other plot points, had been added to Broken Prince (Book 2) it would have been beneficial. It would have eliminated the random, repetitive, and useless content that this book is full of.
Another issue I had is that some things did not make any sense. And if there were explanations, they made no sense or were briefly touched on and never brought up again.
For example, Steve, Ella’s father, not really being dead. It made no sense for him to be alive after all this time, and it felt like he was added in for drama.
Moving on- the big reveal of who the murderer was a little anticlimactic and rushed. Granted, it was a little predictable for who the murderer was in the beginning, because of timing. There were no explanation for how the murder happened after the reveal. For example, how did that individual get into the building without being caught on tape?
Character Analysis
Ella was an interesting heroine. There is no doubt that she had a tough life. I liked her in the first two books. She was fierce and independent. I think in this book she was lacking some of her defining characteristics.
Reed had good character development. To be honest, I did not really like his character until he was with Ella. I enjoyed that Ella and he had a stable relationship in this book. There were no pointless breakups. And the relationship felt very healthy.
Reed’s brothers were not as prominent in this book as they were in the first and second book. They only appeared once or twice and their presence was certainly missed. They added a special family dynamic, which I liked.
Random Thoughts
This book did not really connect in terms of story wise with the first book. It does not seem that the author planned to write a third book in the beginning. It feels as if it just sort of happened while writing the second book. This is completely fine, and I don’t have an issue with that. The issue is that most of the things revealed in the third book came out of nowhere and there were no hints anywhere in the first. What I mean is, certain secrets conveniently come out in this book without any prior hints beforehand. I think that some secrets would have made more sense if there had been little hints throughout the entire series so that when they reveal in the final book, the payoff is bigger and readers can look back and connect the dots.
Also somethings that happened in the first two book were completely forgot about.
Final Analysis
Twisted Palace felt messy and overran with unnecessary drama. The aspects that made the first two books good were gone and replaced with elements that did not contribute to the overall series or story.
