Review of The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg

Read for: Audio Book Challenge & Recently Added

Synopsis: "Welcome to the Kingdom... where 'Happily Ever After' isn't just a promise, but a rule. 

Glimmering like a jewel behind its gateway, The Kingdom is an immersive fantasy theme park where guests soar on virtual dragons, castles loom like giants, and bioengineered species--formerly extinct--roam free.

Ana is one of seven Fantasists, beautiful "princesses" engineered to make dreams come true. When she meets park employee Owen, Ana begins to experience emotions beyond her programming including, for the first time... love.

But the fairytale becomes a nightmare when Ana is accused of murdering Owen, igniting the trial of the century. Through courtroom testimony, interviews, and Ana's memories of Owen, emerges a tale of love, lies, and cruelty--and what it truly means to be human."

My Review: This book was on the edges of the books I have been looking forward to this year but it wasn't a top priority. Then I received it in a book subscription box and the custom art on the dust jacket had a flutter pony on it and I knew I had to read it ASAP. Due to my busy schedule, I borrowed an audio book from the library to keep reading even when busy. The format is a mashup of narrative, interviews and court documents and this did make the audio book difficult to follow at times. It also jumped around in the timeline from past narrative to the court hearing and then to the current interview so that also made it difficult to follow at times. With that said the story does paint a vivid picture, that clearly mimics Disney almost a little too closely. This was clearly a warning about these attractions and messing with human and cyborg technology. I did come to enjoy the characters and though I knew relatively early where the story was going it was still a fun blend of sci-fi and murder mystery with a touch of romance.

My Rating: This was an interesting book, a good one for newbies to the sci-fi genre like myself. It did read like a warning with a clear agenda which was a bit off-putting to me. It was a good book but not a favorite of mine.  I give it a rating of Two Paws and a Stump Wag.