Book Review: A Throne for Sisters by Morgan Rice

Goodreads Summary: In A THRONE FOR SISTERS (Book one), Sophia, 17, and her younger sister Kate, 15, are desperate to leave their horrific orphanage. Orphans, unwanted and unloved, they nonetheless dream of coming of age elsewhere, of finding a better life, even if that means living on the streets of the brutal city of Ashton.
Sophia and Kate, also best friends, have each other's backs—and yet they want different things from life. Sophia, a romantic, more elegant, dreams of entering court and finding a noble to fall in love with. Kate, a fighter, dreams of mastering the sword, of battling dragons, and becoming a warrior. They are both united, though, by their secret, paranormal power to read other's minds, their only saving grace in a world that seems bent to destroy them.

As they each embark on a quest and adventure their own ways, they struggle to survive. Faced with choices neither can imagine, their choices may propel them to the highest power—or plunge them to the lowest depths.

Goodreads Ratings: 3.47 with over 2,000 ratings

Genre listing: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance

Goodreads Challenge: 23/60

Goodreads Challenge: #44 Read a book with exactly four words in the title (find the full challenge here)

Book Review:

I actually had another book in mind for #44, but I really wanted to read this and didn't want to burn through more free spaces. I really liked the concept of A Throne for Sisters, but it fell short for me in a lot of ways. Sophia and Kate are in an orphanage where they, along with the other orphans, are abused and trained for indentured servitude. The two sisters escape and have different ideas of how to go about their lives and ultimately split up.

I liked the different approach in that one thought the best way to survive was to go to the palace and try to find a husband while the other thought they should try to fight or go live in the woods. I probably would have been more in line with the latter. One was a lot more open about what they had been through, and the other kept it a secret. 

I think the biggest drawback for me in this book is how short it is. It's only 166 pages, so everything just happens so quickly, and there's not a lot of world-building. This can work for some books, but I think that this story really needed some build-up. Some of the questions that I felt went unanswered were:

• How did they get to the orphanage
• Why do they hate orphanages
• Did they previously try to escape?
• Why do they have these "special talents?"
• Is telepathy the only one they have?
• Do other people have different talents
• Why do the people of Ashton hate people these talents  
• What's the story behind the masked goddess
• Why do they worship her?
• Is she the only deity they worship?

I have more questions than answers, unfortunately. The other issue I have is both Kate and Sophia fell in love with their love interests in a matter of hours. Sophia's prepared to get married within a couple of days. Which I get was her plan, but it's kind of cringe-worthy.  Maybe it happens in the second book, but I was really hoping they'd both just end up being solid characters who found a way to stand on their own to feet. They both seemed kind of week to me. It was like these Royalty and Warrior were the only two options they could possibly fathom. 

I enjoyed the story, but I just felt like I needed more from it. I'm not sure if I'll read the next book in the series or not. I haven't decided yet. There was a cliff hanger for both Kate and Sophia, but I wasn't so engaged that I feel like I need to find out what happens right away.