Book Challenge Update: The Queen's Necklace

I have finished another book for my challenges:  The Queen's Necklace by Teresa Edgerton.  This book is for the What's in a Name Challenge and specifically the jewelry/gem category.  This means I am very nearly done with this challenge I have the number book left to go.  I have a few books in mind for this one, so it should be a smooth transition.  Now back to this challenge.

I picked up The Queen's Necklace at a used bookstore . . . mainly as the title fit the challenge.  (The WEE BOOK INN, best used bookstore in Edmonton).  I had no ideas for the jewelry challenge going in to this and was therefore on the look out.  It was a reasonable price for a used book in Canada, which means not very reasonable at all - but that is another story.

The Cover

The book is set in the human control world after the fall of the evil goblin empire, which ruled long long ago.  When the humans took control they made the world better and then institutionalized everything to stop things from changing and empires from being created.  This is the story of the goblin's trying to seize power again and the people who try and stop it.

This is how I imagine everyone is dressed . . . based on their discriptions

I'd like to start by saying I found the book to be enjoyable . . . but there was simply tons not quite right with it.  First, it is a long book and yet everything about the book seems rushed.  Time leaps forward, important plot points are never actually written about, and character conflicts just appear and disappear at an astonishing rate.  The book just seems like an outline of what is happening without too much depth.  Like I said it is a long book, so it may have benefited from being two books. 

The author

I also never felt any real concern for the characters.  Why?  I didn't know any of them well enough.  They got introduced their purpose was told and they acted accordingly or they never did much of anything and you wonder why they exist at all in a book already busting with characters.  Speaking of characters, I did rather like the main characters.  But, they were acquaintances not friends.  It held my interest and made it an okay book, but nothing more.

The plot itself was passably interesting.  I did want to know what happened.  Particularly after I was committed to some number of pages.  However, the plot just kind of moved along and never seemed like it was directed by any of the characters . . . not even the evil goblin conspiritors.  It just kind of seemed to happen because it did.  The world and the way goblins were depicted made me seriously doubt they were any real threat to toppling the human regime. Your telling me almost immortal beings have no real forethought?  Well they can't be very good conspirators then.

Unfortunately, the ending was also lacking as certain key parts were simple skipped.  Leading the reader with no information as to what happened.  Instead of peeking interest it just seems odd.  Plus there is no sequel, so what was the point or hiding small details. 

In the end I didn't hate the book.  It was simply kind of okay, but definitely not worth seeking out.  I would welcome the opinions of anyone else who has ever read the book who may be able to shed more light on it.