Wisdom’s Kiss is a companion novel to Princess Ben in that it’s set in the same world, but it’s not a sequel. Ben is present as an ancillary character, but the story centers on three others: Fortitude (Trudy), a young serving girl with the ability to see the future, Tips, the boy  Trudy loves who leaves town to be a soldier, and Wisdom (Dizzy), a princess who has managed to accept the marriage proposal of a man she does not love.

These three characters all manage to meet up, and the ways in which their lives intersect form the story of Wisdom’s Kiss. The book includes all three of their perspectives, as well as the perspectives of five others, such as Tips’ trainer Felis el Gato and Ben herself.

And therein lies the problem. There are eight points of view
in this book, which for most books is seven POVs too many. Very few authors can
pull off two POVs, and even fewer can do three. In my experience, George R. R.
Martin is the only author who can successfully write as many POVs as he pleases
and still produce a stellar novel.

Murdock’s problem with the multiple POVs is two-fold.
Firstly, they’re not straight up third person narratives across the board.
Instead, the book is an amalgam of first person, third person, diary entries,
encyclopedia entries, and so on. Here’s a list in case you’re curious:

Got all that? What’s more, Murdock throws in some cutesy
extras to a few of the POVs, such as cross-outs and strange grammar, which adds
to the confusion. With the events told in so many different ways, there’s no
cohesive narrative thread. The story doesn’t ever feel like it’s going
anywhere, which means it moves at a glacial pace. Furthermore, the already-slim
novel being split eight ways means no one character really gets a chance to
shine, which in turn means characterization is slight or nonexistent.

The second problem with the POVs is redundancy. It can
occasionally be interesting to read about the same event from different
perspectives, but it’s overdone here. Too often, no new insights are gained by
the re-telling and I found myself skimming the pages to get to the next
chapter. This exacerbates the pacing problem I mentioned above and makes a lot
of the book a real snore.

I can admire what Murdock has tried to do with the POVs, but
it doesn’t work like she wanted it to. There are some bright spots: Murdock has
a good sense of humor – particularly with Felis el Gato’s memoirs – and the way
Trudy’s story shakes out is surprising. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to compensate for the slow pace and flat characterizations brought about by the multiple
points of view.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Wisdom’s Kiss is on
shelves now.