BreakRaven

So, I've had this one in my to-reads for over a year now, and I just never got around to reading it. We were at BNN today and my sister said the premise looked lame, so I just kind of shrugged and bought the first volume. (Don't ask me why that makes sense - because it doesn't really. My sister and I have very similar taste in books, so when she said it looked lame, I should've trusted her and backed off. Because I'm not too bright, I didn't.)

Anyway. I own the first bright, shiny red volume and I just finished it. It took me only about a half hour to read the whole thing from cover to cover, because honestly? There's not much to it.

Most of the panels/pages are just simple pictures of people's faces or torsos. The artwork is pretty and all, but....ehh. I kind of prefer seeing detailed backgrounds and elaborate poses and action and fewer glances back and forth between the characters, you know? And also - Caesar's head. Ugh. He always walks around with the dumbest look on his face. I have the feeling I would love him if Toma would just let him be evil and nasty like he's trying to be, but instead she's trying to put him in the hero's light and the result just isn't good. He rarely looks like he even has a thought in his brain.

Loki's fine, but I read that the author originally intended to make him look more like a dog, with a muzzle and shaggy hair and stuff. I wish she'd stuck with that concept, because as it is the poor thing is just kind of a sappy pretty boy.

And I'm just guessing here, but I'll bet that Loki is the princess' brother or cousin or something later on. It seems set up that way, at least.

The princess fainted twice in the first forty pages, but other than that, she was all right. I wish she was more of the main character, actually, since I liked her better than either of the guys. She's labeled as the main character, but the guys seemed to be in the spotlight the whole time....

The story seems fine, but not very original - younger/unwanted princess sent off to marry into another kingdom to bring about peace, etc. I've seen it all fifty times before. Hopefully we'll get dragons or demons or faeries later on, since it is fantasy and I like more action and monsters with my fantasy.

Anyway. It's a nice, light, unoriginal, inoffensive, pretty little volume with no impact at all. I'll probably read the next one just because this one was so easy to read.

Oh, and also, the coloring on the cover is absolutely gorgeous. The red hurts my eyes a bit, but the coloring and shading are really just beautifully done.