I think the reason this didn't work for me was because of the setting, among many other things, but I couldn't enjoy it from the beginning because I couldn't connect with anything, not the story, not the characters, not the world.
When dark romance are placed in contemporary settings you pretty much overlook a lot of background details since it's familiar to you but if you´re going to present me a new kingdom I expect to have detailed descriptions on everything, from how it looks -architecture or fashion- to how the actual kingdom works -politics, social movements, laws, financial situation-. This helps you understand the world, the characters, their backgrounds and motivation, not just the protagonists but the population as well, especially when the rebellion and the rebel king plot were introduced, why did everyone follow Tristan when he had such a bad reputation? Was everyone in the country in poverty like Sara´s town and the hyenas? Were there even more cities? You don't even know how the people outside the castle live. Why was Sara chosen to be Michael´s wife? There are cameras, automobiles and guns but also medieval torture and dresses? They mentioned electricity but then proceeded to put torches and candles everywhere. Too many inconsistencies and I considered putting the book in the DNF shelve like 20 times until the last third of the book only because there was more action.
Then there's the characters, I didn't like them, only Simon, the author gave them personalities and then disregarded them when it was necessary for the plot. Sara is sent to kill a whole family and is supposed to be a strong, skilled woman but then was put in a difficult situation and said that she was not trained to defend herself? It's never clarified if she even has some sort of training but carries blades everywhere. Tristan is an awful person, and his development is all over the place, he's not just morally gray,
Spoiler
he tortures his best friend and considers murder the woman he likes because she's in his way towards the crown, then proceeds to let his best friend run away when war gets though or let Sara almost kill him just because she needs it AND THEN he burns a whole city - who cares about the people dead by the fire - to obtain the crown just to pass it to Simon in the end, what if he didn't want it or was unprepared for it.I liked the references to the original story, specially the ending, and I will applaud the effort in creating a much more complex story than just putting it in a modern place, specially when when there's a lot of fights for power and complicated relations in the Lion King, and I can see the potential with royals, rebellions and subplots, but the mix between the modern writing and vocabulary, to the era setting, the undeveloped world, the period inconsistencies and the unlikable characters makes it boring and confusing. I mean: I thought this was a completely fictional world and suddenly France was mentioned.
I'm not having a great experience with the Never After Series, I think I'll skip Wretched, since I'm not a fan of The Wizard of Oz, and read Twisted instead, because a handsome Jaffar is something I want to read.