Words, Worlds, Whorls

Can I get a book that's just about Prince Raffin mucking about in his laboratory, turning his hair blue and whatnot? I suppose there could be a little bit of Katsa in there too, if you insist, but honestly Raffin and his goofy sense of humor was the only thing I truly enjoyed about this book.To be fair, I would have loved this book when I was about fourteen, and probably adored Katsa to no end. But reading it at an older age, I found myself mostly annoyed or bored with her. She has little to no sense of humor, except when Raffin is around. And her romance with Po is...well, it's a Young Adult novel, so it's exactly as I expected. I know I shouldn't compare Cashore with my all-time YA idol, Tamora Pierce, but at least Pierce's heroines (even Kel, whom I disliked) were funny and knew how to have a good time, rather than being emo about their lots in life. True, it wasn't all bad. There were certain bits I couldn't get enough of, and I liked Bitterblue well enough (though I'm still undecided about whether or not I want to read a 500-page book about her). And (SPOILERS) Po's blindness was a stroke of genius, though I only say that because I, too, have used the "blinded-by-blunt-force-trauma" in my own writing to torture characters. It's a great trick, though it's more difficult to work into contemporary fiction because it's generally treatable these days if diagnosed in a timely manner. But in a medieval-type setting, it works beautifully and realistically, and Cashore clearly did her research on this subject (or at least as much research as I did, which consisted of a few Google searches and a textbook or two).