Okay, here's the thing. I'm probably harder than I ought to be on the books I receive from Netgalley, wanting apostrophes to be where they're supposed to be and the correct homophones to be used and commas to be where they're supposed to be which is a rather hypocritical thing to say considering this sentence. And in The Sand Prince, at times, none of that happens consistently: "insure" instead of "ensure", and "the jokes on me", and "laying" for "lying", and dangling participles, and run-on sentences and comma splices "The shade was famous, it was called Ever Blue."

Know what?

I don't care.

And I didn't care while reading it. I flinched when the errors came up, and muttered a little prayer that they'd be fixed for publication … and forgot about them a few seconds later. Because this was good. It was so good. It was so bloody remarkably good that I wanted to buy drinks for all the characters (except, you know, the truly horrible ones) and hug them and keep reading about them indefinitely. I genuinely missed them when the book was over. I love this book; I love these characters (even the horrible ones) and their growth and depth; I love the world(s)-building and the not-quite-hereness of it and the utterly beautiful and unique story. I can't wait for the second book.

It's got everything. It's funny - "'I am certain it’s a dog,' she said" – and moving and suspenseful. I cared – still care – what happened. My heart broke at one point, and I kept reading in a kind of a daze (but … no… I'm telling you, you're messing up the story…) until something else happened and I yipped and all but punched the air. And a little while later came one of the sweetest love scenes I've ever read.

And then there was the time I had to convince a demon he was pretty.

Okay, I do wish someone would take a firm hand on the editing reins. It was pretty bad. Normally I'd feel it necessary to knock off a star. So let's just say I knocked off a half a star and rounded up. Just to maintain my cred as a cantankerous grammar Nazi.

I received this book from Netgalley for an honest review. And that was one of the best things that happened all year.fantasy netgalley14 s Vippi550 22

~I received this book from Netgalley, in exchange for a honest review~

DNF – stopped at 33%

The synopsis made me imagine The Demon Door was a really funny, compelling fantasy/romance and I really wanted to this book. I really did.
Unfortunately, The Demon Door failed my expectations.

I found the first chapters a little confusing: there wasn’t a clear narrative voice and often the Author jumped from one POV to another in the space of few sentences. The overall result was quite messy and more than once I needed to go back and re-read the last paragraphs in order to understand what was going on.

Myself: take no notice and keep going.

Even though Rhuun was supposed to be the main character, the story started months before his birth. This device is definitely original and a good backstory is sometimes crucial in order to understand the plot development… but in this case I think it was too much. All this backstory merely explained the world building and while I was waiting for Rhuun to step in, I had the impression that nothing really meaningful was happening.

Myself: take no notice and keep going.

IMO a good quality marker is how much a book keeps you hooked. When I read a book I usually get fully absorbed and when the Real Life knocks at my door, it hurts to leave my beloved bookish world.
Unfortunately, in this case I found myself skimming and re-reading pages because I wasn’t focused. I was bored instead. And that to me is a serious bad point.

Myself: STOP.

Conclusion: the execution didn’t match the idea that IMO was really cool.
give-up-series netgalley8 s Hamad1,143 1,514 Shelved as 'spfbo7'

Read this as a guest judge (With FanFiAddict) for SPFBO 7.5 s Dino-Jess ? The Book Eating Dinosaur ?659 19

This story is about Rhuun, the demon Prince of a world called Eriis. He has felt the ugly duckling of his world his entire life, and when the truth of his pedigree is revealed to his people and he is in danger, he escapes his demon home for the human world of Mistra. Armed with only the knowledge of the human world he gained from a romance novel written 100 years before, Rhuun encounters strange humans and even stranger animals on his travels in Mistra. Will he return home? Will he become the Duke from his novel? Will he find love?

This book was a little confusing to start off with. There was no clear narrative voice in the first few chapters and the perspective kept switching from one character to another within the space of a paragraph. However, I persevered and I am glad I did.

This story, around 30 pages in, gets really interesting and I was keen to see how it would unfold. Unfortunately, the story staggers a bit in the middle and I nearly gave up a few times, but I am glad I stuck it out until the end, because the ending really did make it worthwhile.

It is worth reading this book for Rhuun alone. The other characters, while they do play their part, are mostly incredibly annoying. Aelle started out as sweet, but quickly turned horrible. Ilaan was too naive for his own good. The Queen was as cold as ice and Scilla was a spoiled brat.

Rhuun sees himself as an abomination. He is too tall compared to the rest of his people. He doesn't have wings, or powers and feels helpless. When someone compliments him on his looks while he is in Mistra, he thinks they are insulting him. Reading about him experiencing the human world is adorable and listening to him talking to himself he is the Duke from his novel is very endearing.

I feel the romance part of this book was really an after thought, as there was so much lore and world building that it really was put on the back burner and didn't really come into the story until the last 50 pages or so. Perhaps if it had been spread a little more consistently throughout the book I would have enjoyed it more? I'm not sure.

Overall, this was an interesting coming of age story, with Rhuun trying to find his place first in Eriis and then in Mistra. He is a character you want to root for, you want him to succeed and he is the reason I finished this book.

This book is definitely a slow burn, with the flame nearly flickering out completely in the middle there, but it was enjoyable overall.

This definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea, the writing style is different to much that I have read before, but once you are in, Rhuun's story won't let you go, I bet.

2.5 Stars

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC!
netgalley-love5 s Blodeuedd Finland3,500 306

I think this book could have been much more. The world is there. But not really. I would have wanted a fuller world building, cos I love that stuff.

Was this YA? Fantasy romance? I guess. The romance came late though and I was all, what? I got a bit surprised. Which was good, I surprises. But I guess I should not call it fantasy romance then cos there were no romance, but still, it had that feeling.

Truthfully, I have said earlier. I just wanted more. More of the world. Better character development. Better make me care...

Cos I did not really care. Rhuun was kind of pathetic. Ok so I know you are a freak, no wings, no magic, still, you are a loser. His 2 friends are not even his friends. His mother was cool though, that is why I enjoyed the book at first, but then it became about Rhuun and I felt all meh.

Right. There is a demon world, a human world. A door between. The door is no closed. Time moves differently for some reason. Humans are assholes. Poor demons (give me some faults please.) Poor Rhuun the prince is a loser. He wants to visit the human world, he obviously will. That part was dull.

I wanted more than I was given. It had potential but did not come through.fantasy5 s Airwreckah625 11

42%+ was world building and the main characters hadn't even met... I was about to give up.

Overall enjoyable though, and once he got through the door I d Rhuun so much better.

If I could only change one thing (apart from the poor balance of world building to story) if would be the washed out time jumping between chapters. Linear writing is good. It is just annoying to jump back and forth in time over and over between every chapter, even events a few hours apart are sometimes told over he course of 5 chapters and not in any kind of order. CBEAD, when all you want is ABCDE. Ugh. It made it much more of a chore to read and added nothing to the story.kindle kindle-unlimited5 s Leslie2,759 219

Very good world-building in this fantasy. I really enjoyed both the setup (the 2 worlds separated by a door) and the characters.kindle sci-fi-fantasy3 s Marianne1,307 155

Actual rating 2.5 stars. I've chosen to round up this time because I've noticed that some Netgalley reviewers DNF'ed and gave it a rating of 1 ? despite having read less than 20%. That's bad form in my eyes.

I think most people who have read this book, reacted negatively to the fact that the blurb does not fit the majority of the story. The events the blurb refers to, take place in the last 25% of the book. The rest is darker and more depressing, while I'm sure the readers expected something lighter and funnier.

BTW, those of you that DNF-ed this book should know that the last 25% were actually quite good. I know; to little & too late. Unfortunately.arcs-recieved-for-review demons-devils-gargoyles magic-summoning-witches-wizards3 s Katherine Paschal2,215 60

Demons live on one side of the door and humans live on the other. They appear to have steady diplomatic relations, but an act of war causes the Demons to forever be locked on their side of the door, to suffer the harsh conditions that exist.
I did not anything about this book, from start to finish. I don't to be a negatively nelly, so I will make this short and to the point. I felt I was reading a history book about a strange new culture. I don't reading any sort of history, especially on a fake world. I put up with the monotonous boring first few chapters expecting the story to get interesting after the setting and world building was established, but it never happened. The backstory dragged on forever, with no emotions or any real characterization to peak my interest. Everything was just so dry! There was even sex scenes that were made slightly clinical a doctor's exam, which was super awkward, at least for me reading it. I was almost finished with the book before I even realized what the plot was suppose to be about. Overall I did not enjoy or get this book and I will not be reading any more from the author.
I received this title from the author in exchange for my honest review.another-world netgalley royal-court ...more2 s Lanie (Lanies Book Thoughts)267 40

I really wanted to love this book, I wanted to love this book so much and then rub it in my friends face (Im jk I love you Eden) that I got it from NG and she didnt but that wasn't the case. It's not that I hate this book because I didn't. I just felt confused about 3/4 of the time, which was irritating. There was a lot of jumping around and switching of characters but there wasn't a clear method of telling who was talking and who wasn't.

So, I dont wanna really get into a review on a lot of things, specially since I noticed the book is being reedited and redone. I'm hoping there will be a major overhaul of this book, maybe make some more things clear because the plot and general idea of the story is fascinating to me. I look forward to comparing this version to the new one whenever it's available. 2 s Sadie ForsytheAuthor 1 book280

DNF at ~45%

I tried so hard to finish this. I was gifted a copy and I didn't want to DNF it in return. But I've been forcing myself to inch my way through it one chapter at a time and I have 7 hours and 2 minutes left, which will ly be weeeeeeeeks more at this rate. I just can't. I give up. I was enjoying neither the story, nor the narration. Other say it gets better around the halfway mark. But I can't even force myself to get there. I'm just SO DONE with it.audio1 Bailey Skye ? 220 27

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Sand Prince had a huge opportunity to be a great fantasy novel, and perhaps it will redeem itself in its sequel. Unfortunately, I felt it didn't come into its full potential.

The Sand Prince starts off a little bit confusingly. Although the narrative still had me interested in the story, there was a lot of unclear changes from character points of view which had me questioning who everyone was when we hadn't yet been introduced to these characters. But I got through it, and after the first few chapters I had a pretty clear grasp of who was who.

The story itself had a pretty strong beginning. Hellne really seemed a character that I would grow to . In the beginning she came off as a very strong and intelligent young woman. But as the story unfolded I became wary. I'm not quite sure what her intentions are. I guess that's probably something we will find out in book two.

The idea of these two worlds connected only by access through the door was intriguing, and when the door was suddenly sealed closed in a subtle attempt at war I figured that an improbable romance would build between Hellne and Maloy. Wrong.

In fact, Rhuun is conceived and the truth of his human father is kept as a secret from him and the people of Eriis.

Then Rhuun got older, and I suspected a romance was developing between he and Aelle.

"'I am yours,' she told him before leaving. And, not taking any chances, she added, 'and you are mine.'"

Turns out I was wrong on that account, too.

I guess what really frustrated me with this book is that it was nearly 400 pages and it felt a whole lot of filler and not a lot of action. It was 400 pages to set up for a story that feels it hasn't even started yet. I also never felt I was fully invested in the worlds or the characters that the author created.

2016 holds the release of the second installment of The Demon Door series, but I'm not so certain I'll be involved.2015-reads arc1 Stalking291 7

I received a copy of this story while it was free on Amazon from the author. My review is my honest opinion of the book.
The Sand Prince was an interesting story to read. I the combination of two worlds and how the author developed the main relationship. While Hellne and Malloy are secondary characters, the entire series is due to their relationship and the author never loses track of that over the time span and story changes. Each world is unique in its own right as well as the beings inhabiting them. I found it engaging as I tried to discern whether the world of Mistra developed into a world our own through the years but I can’t be certain. I love how close the world mimics ours but leaves it to the reader to decide. The world of Eriis, however, is completely foreign and well developed as a new intriguing world to explore. I know the author has plans for the current series but her world building skills leave so much availability in discovering Eriis through the eyes and experiences of other characters. The story is not action packed but the characters are enough to keep involved in the story. I look forward to where the story leads.
One note, this story continues in future books. It is a cliffhanger ending but not a suspenseful one and book 2 The Heron Prince is already available on Amazon!
***Review has been done in conjunction with Nerd Girl Official. For more information regarding our please visit our Fan Site: www.facebook.com/NerdGirl.NG***
1 Shekeilah53 14

Actual rating 2.5
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