Review: Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
I had been looking forward to reading this as everyone on Booktube has raved about it for ever. It is supposedly an epic fantasy with kick-ass female characters and steamy romance.
Once again I was let down. But let's start from the beginning.
The book is a story about an island consisting of three kingdoms; poverty stricken Paelsia, fertile Auranos and bleak Limeros. We meet Cleo, the princess of Auranos, Magnus, the prince of Limeros and Jonas, a Paelsian peasant, along with a number of others. Their stories intertwine when Cleo witnesses the murder of Jonas' brother, which becomes the catalyst for war between the three nations.
I found this book to be mainly uninspiring. The world seemed tiny, but its scope was suppose to be massive. Like there are three separate kingdoms, but they are all so close to each other that a few days travel bring you from one to the other. And then there was the Sanctuary and tales of magic on top, which I felt wasn't really fleshed out very well.
As for the characters I found most of them to be completely unreliable. They switched back and forth between emotions and motives so quickly I had a hard time keeping up. Vain and self-centered Cleo must suddenly become the strong, self-possessed leader of a country, Magnus switches from coldhearted to tenderhearted and back again a few times, Jonas wants nothing more than revenge until suddenly he sees the light and just wants peace and prosperity for all and Lucia, Magnus' tender young sister suddenly turns into a vicious killer. Granted, all these transformations could happen. I am all for character development, but not in the span of a page or two!
And one thing that really irked me was the feeling of Cleo being the super special girl whom everyone falls in love with basically at first sight. Ugh! Literally, everyone fell in love with her and thought she was oh so special to the point of Jonas blaming her for his brother's death, only to change his mind and seemingly start to adore her, when he spends more than 10 minutes with her. Really?
So yeah, I did not enjoy this book. I feel like it was yet another one of those fantasies that have just been churned out because, golly, it's popular, so let's not bother with world building or making sense of the magic system or spend any time at all developing characters when they can just change in the blink of an eye to suit the plot.
I gave this 2 stars out of 5 and I will not be continuing the series.
Once again I was let down. But let's start from the beginning.
The book is a story about an island consisting of three kingdoms; poverty stricken Paelsia, fertile Auranos and bleak Limeros. We meet Cleo, the princess of Auranos, Magnus, the prince of Limeros and Jonas, a Paelsian peasant, along with a number of others. Their stories intertwine when Cleo witnesses the murder of Jonas' brother, which becomes the catalyst for war between the three nations.
I found this book to be mainly uninspiring. The world seemed tiny, but its scope was suppose to be massive. Like there are three separate kingdoms, but they are all so close to each other that a few days travel bring you from one to the other. And then there was the Sanctuary and tales of magic on top, which I felt wasn't really fleshed out very well.
As for the characters I found most of them to be completely unreliable. They switched back and forth between emotions and motives so quickly I had a hard time keeping up. Vain and self-centered Cleo must suddenly become the strong, self-possessed leader of a country, Magnus switches from coldhearted to tenderhearted and back again a few times, Jonas wants nothing more than revenge until suddenly he sees the light and just wants peace and prosperity for all and Lucia, Magnus' tender young sister suddenly turns into a vicious killer. Granted, all these transformations could happen. I am all for character development, but not in the span of a page or two!
And one thing that really irked me was the feeling of Cleo being the super special girl whom everyone falls in love with basically at first sight. Ugh! Literally, everyone fell in love with her and thought she was oh so special to the point of Jonas blaming her for his brother's death, only to change his mind and seemingly start to adore her, when he spends more than 10 minutes with her. Really?
So yeah, I did not enjoy this book. I feel like it was yet another one of those fantasies that have just been churned out because, golly, it's popular, so let's not bother with world building or making sense of the magic system or spend any time at all developing characters when they can just change in the blink of an eye to suit the plot.
I gave this 2 stars out of 5 and I will not be continuing the series.
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