Consistency issues, forced drama and bad writing. It tries to be serious and deep without seriously developing the world or giving it any depth. It seems the author has an idea of how a certain character should be or how a certain scene should play out then writes the book around it. The worst part is that those elements are so overused and tropey that it makes one groan rather than appreciate the reference, especially when the book is purportedly trying to be serious.
The Duke's daughter is described to be the role model of a 'Perfect Queen'. That is, if a perfect queen is someone that is beautiful and kind, and nothing else. Purportedly she doesn't need to be cunning, smart or knowledgeable. Because the second she meets adversity, she inexplicably breaks down and becomes even more of a husk of a human. Her entire personality is sipping tea graciously.
Women in this world have the same 'fighting power' as men. In fact, the strongest fighter in the kingdom is a woman, the Queen. Despite this, its society operates as if women are to be protected anyway. I struggled to understand how the Queen (described as exhuding femininty and grace) proceeds to tell her daughter that fighting makes her a tomboy.
The whole kingdom goes on high-alert when a dragon pops out of nowhere. A beast no one has ever seen, let alone defeated, and said to be able to destroy a nation overnight. The prince (who is in house arrest and known for being an idiot) decides to redeem himself by going to slay it. He has no plan, no fighting prowess, no army. He just wants to kill it. When someone else inevitably kills the dragon, they're chastized for 'stealing' his kill... What?
I dropped the series when someone made it their life's work to overturn feudalism by 'destroying and rebuilding the kingdom' because 'some people are mean'. We're also meant to take it seriously.
