Customer Reviews

Aurelia

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book was one of the best innocent romances that I have ever read. The love story is sweet and written well. The characters have a lot of depth and wonderful personalities. If you are looking for a more heady story, I wouldn't pick this however. It would be considered, by most people, as a young teen romance, simply for the lack of a lot of the physical part of relationships. Though, if you want more emotion and less sexual content, this is the book for you.

Aurelia is the eldest daughter of the King of Tyralt and the crown princess of Tyralt. As her younger half-sister enjoys her coming out, Aurelia must do her duty for the people and begin her journey into becoming not just a princess but a queen.
But, there is something Aurelia does not know, and that is she is marked for death. Her old school mate and confidant, Robert Vantauge, has come back to Tyralt at the urging of his king. Since Aurelia's life is in danger, Robert volunteers to protect her and find out who would want to kill the adored princess of the people.
She is beyond thrilled that Robert is back, but their relationship has changed from when they were children. Robert may act as if they are just friends, but when he looks at Aurelia, she sees another story in his eyes. Eventually Aurelia finds out the truth about Robert and the danger to her own life. Instead of cowering in fear, she works with Robert to find the villain who wants to eliminate her, even though the person could be someone she cares for and is as close as Robert is to her.
As an adult reading a young adult novel, Aurelia was enjoyable on so many levels that it didn't matter that this was a book for the younger generation. Aurelia is a super heroine who is no weeping willow. She takes everything in stride and has a good head on her shoulders. This is a young woman who is very much a queen in the making. Robert is not only a romantic interest, but an honest and true friend who cares for the person she is and not about his place in court or a longing for a higher position.
This is one exceptionally written book, and Anne Osterlund has awed and astounded with Aurelia. This is one young adult read that can be enjoyed by teens and adults alike. A very recommended book.


Katiebabs

I was drawn to this book by the lovely cover. I am not a YA but have enjoyed several YA novels recently (for example the Libba Bray series).This was a pleasant read primarily geared towards young girls- probably age 12 to 15. The adventure,mystery and romance might be somewhat tame for older teens.

As an adult reading this book I found the writing style and prose very simple and the plot sterotypical. But a young girl reading this might view the book as an exciting adventure between a fiesty princess and her dashing childhood friend.For Moms looking for nice clean books with adventure and a dash of romance for their young daughters to read,this book fits the bill.

If you or your daughter enjoyed this book, then I would suggest Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith, The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley, a Posse of Princessess by Sherwood Smith and Princess Ben by Catherine Murdock. IMHO Crown Duel and The Hero and the Crown are the Classics in this genre and are very readable for both young girls and not so young gals who are young at heart.

To start on a positive note, the book was an easy read, and every now and then there was a glimmer of good writing. Unfortunately, it was also a frustrating read with many character, plot and setting problems. I wanted to like Princess Aurelia, but she came across as rude rather than spunky, spoiled rather than sensible, and self-centered rather than as someone who cared about her people. In addition, the story was predictable (I had the plot figured out after reading a few chapters), disjointed (wild west type references and mustangs mixed with sword fighting and settings of the Elizabethan period), and with poor attention to detail (a carriage/coach is not a vehicle; horses don't hunt people like hound dogs; a person being run down by a team of horses at night wouldn't have the ability to notice specific details about each animal; etc.) I hope the glimmers of good writing are an indication that Anne Osturlund will eventually pen a good novel, but this is not it.

I didn't enjoy this book very much. The cover is beautiful and all, but the story didn't do anything for me. Although there was a twist at the end that I didn't see coming. I felt like the main charactors, Aurelia and Robert, had no chemistry. I didn't feel like I knew any of the charactors, even by the end of the book, and they just didn't seem real to me. When I finish any book, I expect to feel sad that its come to an end because I will miss reading about the charator's story. At the end of Aurelia, I thought how I wasted time and money. I read YA books a lot, even though I am 28 years old. I've never read any of the author's other books though. Maybe those are better than Aurelia. But I don't think I will waste any more money on authors I am unsure about. Perhaps I will go to the library next time. If this book did not meet you expectations, I do reccommend any book by Meg Cabot. She hasn't let me down yet!

I would not recommend Aurelia. While most of the book is a moderately interesting book, however I found the ending to be fairly boring. You spend the entire book waiting for several things: 1) a romance to blossom, 2) the assassin to be caught, and 3) the main characters to discover the murder. When all of those things came to fruition I was stuck with a "that's it?" feeling.

When the romance blossoms it lacks the passion that Aurelia exhibits in all her other activities. Here you have a powerful, intelligent, "fierce" woman who is terrified by a simple kiss. I found it irritating that an otherwise mature character would act so childishly.

When it comes time to catch the assassin, Aurelia must face him alone, even though Robert promised that both he and her father would be there to help her. They both don't show up in time to help, and once they do get there and assassin is found dead, her father does nothing to apprehend the person who hired the assassin.

When the murder is discovered there is no justice--the murder simply walks away scott free.

I found the climax of this book to be grossly under par, and I would not recommend anyone purchase it.

Would someone please proofread this?! I almost thought the author was using a new convention for her world, when some characters' names were always written in lower case. Sadly, it proved merely to be badly proofed.
Aside from that point, the tale was just too much same old same old, with the brave young princess, beloved by her people, can't stop back talking her less than perfect father and king.

Princess Aurelia of Tyralt wants to be free, to help the people, and to do whatever she wants without guards or ther king butting in. But Aurelia doesn't know that she is being hunted by an unseen killer. There have been many plots to kill her that have thankfully failed. However, the king doesn't want to take any chances with the crown princess/heir and so asks for the former royal spy to come back to court and assist in finding the killer. Brian Vantauge doesn't want to budge, and so his son Robert goes in his place. Robert used to be Aurelia's former classmate, and cannot bear to see the light go out of her eyes if one of the plots succeeds. Throughout the book, adventures are held to help save Aurelia from destruction, and that is what the book centers on.
This book isn't a fluff read; certainly it isn't as bad and literary-worthless as some books are. But Aurelia isn't really the perfect work of fiction either. The plot was very well organized and watertight, but it seemed a little cliche in today's growing fantasy empire. You could easily forget about this book in the dark reaches of your bookshelf and never think of it again.
One of the main problems I had with this book was the lack of romance. I don't read straight-up romance or the bodice-ripper stuff, but I apperciate a little romance that makes your stomach tingle. Like a few kisses and hugging, nothing really more I expect out of young teen fiction. But this book only had one kiss, and although you could obviously see the relationship between Aurelia and Robert, there wasn't very much sign of affection otherwise. Even though this was for the younger teens, another kiss or two would not ruin us certainly. I really liked Aurelia and Robert together and so that's why I am a little harsh.
Another problem I had was the back cover. The synopsis was totally off base. It really didn't make sense. But I can't really blame the author for that though.
All in all Aurelia was a good novel, perfect for when you are between trips to the library or on the beach or something. It isn't significant, but is isn't nothing either, which makes it perfect for today's younger girls.

although i loved the book academy7 i thought that aurelia was a really weak book. it was really predictable. the characters dont have much of a relation or of a love intrest. so skip this crud and move on because its hardly worth the effort. but i dont really regret reading it and it was fast paced. but thats it

While I enjoyed reading the book at the start, the ending seemed rushed. It was as though the author was running out of words to fill the pages but still had a page count she had to meet so she just wrote the first thing to pop into her mind. I honestly don't think I'll read anything else written by Anne Osterlund, which is sad because I had such high hopes for this book.