Postcard For Reader

Jepp, Who Defied The Stars (DNF)

Jepp, Who Defied The Stars
Author: Katherine Marsh
Series: ---
Publisher: Hyperion
How Received: bought

Fate:Is it written in the stars from the moment we are born?
Or is it a bendable thing that we can shape with our own hands?

Jepp of Astraveld needs to know.

He left his countryside home on the empty promise of a stranger, only to become a captive in a luxurious prison: Coudenberg Palace, the royal court of the Spanish Infanta. Nobody warned Jepp that as a court dwarf, daily injustices would become his seemingly unshakable fate. If the humiliations were his alone, perhaps he could endure them; but it breaks Jepp's heart to see his friend Lia suffer.

After Jepp and Lia attempt a daring escape from the palace, Jepp is imprisoned again, alone in a cage. Now, spirited across Europe in a kidnapper's carriage, Jepp fears where his unfortunate stars may lead him. But he can't even begin to imagine the brilliant and eccentric new master--a man devoted to uncovering the secrets of the stars--who awaits him. Or the girl who will help him mend his heart and unearth the long-buried secrets of his past.
Got to page: 153

I tried really hard to finish this book, I really did. I bought it. It was a YAcker book. The writing was gorgeous.

But... it just couldn't hold my attention. I finished part one of the book and felt no need to read further.

I couldn't place my finger on it until after I talked to the YAckers about it. All of us agreed the writing is beautiful. It really is. It's written using words specifically from the time period and it flows beautifully.

But Jepp, as a character, wasn't enough to anchor me into the story.

Each individual character seemed interesting enough, but filtered through Jepp's lens, they became dull. Though Jepp himself would have been interesting, his attachment to things that he had little reason to attach himself to put me off. He obsessed over things he didn't know, worried over things he had no reason to worry about - he was practically perfect and loved so much and why were all of these terrible things happening although he really had no investment in them whatsoever?

It just didn't suck me in. And with a to-be-read pile as big as mine and a to-do list as long as mine, I just can't force myself to try and finish.

Final Comments: Pretty writing but a dull story arc.

Have any of you read it?