Jessica
My mood for this book was odd. Some days I barely could read a chapter or 2, other days I felt like I could finish the book. It felt quite slow and not much happened at the start, only about 50 % in it was really exciting. I like Empress Celene a lot better than I ever expected. I hope to learn more about her in the future.
I enjoyed this book a lot.
It had barely anything to do with the previous two books, but there were still familiar faces.
As the other two books, this one pulls your heartstrings. I cried a lot!
All of the characters were so greatly fleshed out, this author is really good at creating characters for sure!
You can read this book without reading the first two books for sure.
I got a free e-arc from the author in exchange for a honest review.
Overall thoughts:
Well the guy didn't lie when he said he spend a lot of time world building, because it was great. It felt rich and well thought out, most of all the religion. It was a nice and fast read and I enjoyed it a lot. The chapters are quite short, which is ideal since I like to sneak in a chapter when I happen to wait for something. Like waiting for the bus. The writing style made it fast and fluid as well, even though the surroundings were quite detailed at times. The pacing is fine, even though the second chapter does feel slightly dull after the first one.
Characters:
This book started off really strong! I got sucked right in and well, Isolda is just plainly badass.
She is this highborn lady by day and crime lord by night. Her motives feel realistic and so do her emotions. I wish there were more crime lord elements in the story however. (Don't worry Ryan, your wife took care of that brick wall ;) )
The second chapter introduced Terric, her younger son. He is hilarious! Such a wonderful 12 year old boy who liked doing what most 12 years old did in medieval times. Like sword fighting, watching young ladies bade and he plans on running away to become a knight instead of a priest. He is seems to be quite cunning and in combination with his young foolishness, that does make him a great character.
Garrion, Isolda's husband, is character that I could not warm up to. He is a hotheaded idiot who seems to be jealous of his young son and almost killed a man. He doesn't trust anyone outside his own family and at the end of the book you will now how hilarious that can be. Throughout the chapters he does seem to be a better person than I thought he would be. It takes a while however to see where he fits in the story. I liked him the least.
Oriana is the daughter, I don't think her age got mentioned but I believe she is around 14 years of age. Her chapters are mostly light and delightful, filled with sisterhood and cute romance. Cute romance that somehow is still relevant to the story and even a bit action packed as well! I loved her sisters, Selina and Nesta. Selina acts like this wise and older sister, even though she is younger. Nesta is this adorable 5 year old(or something around that age) and she is definitely my favorite character in this book, she is mischievous but she has such a big heart. Even though she appears a lot in this book, I wish she got a few chapters from her own perspective, since she did some major things involving the plot. (but still thanks to your wife for putting her in!)
Marcus is the eldest son of Garrion and Isolda and he is actually the one that is going to joust. He is expected to win the joust to keep the peace and that burden weights heavy on him. The only other viewpoint comes at the end of the book and that makes it quite hard for me to actually care that much, but he still has enough screen time to matter.
Bastian is a common thief that is madly in love with Oriana and does everything in his power to marry her one day. The romance between the two is cute, but in the mean time he does got some non romance action packed scenes that does show that he is a pretty good thief.
Rixin Talenov is the nephew of Isolda and might be betrothed to Oriana in the near future, which is a little gross. Oh and he is also a prince, of the whole kingdom. That's pretty cool. He is jousting as well and one of his titles is the undefeated so that does say something. His chapters are mostly about preparing for the joust and conquering Oriana's heart.
Well, I read this book in three days. I am not sure if it was because I enjoyed it or if I just wanted it to end.
It is a good book, but a bleak comparison with its predecessors.
Nothing really happened, it all fell like it was just a build up to the next book, which seems to be exactly what it is according to the last “chapter” of the book. Technically the writer said that ‘A Feast for Crows' and ‘A Dance with Dragons' were supposed to be the same book but it became a bit too big.
I did miss some characters and I disliked some of the new ones; there were so many new ones that I just couldn't get myself to care about some of them. One pov was used only in one chapter and that did feel odd.
I did not grudge to read it however and wouldn't skip it when I will reread the series somewhere in the future.
This was my first self help book. I bought it because I needed more confidence in my life and a better work ethic to reach my goals. That it did, and so much more. It taught me to be a better person and to always do more than just good enough, it taught me that to reach my goals, I had to do my best. To give everything.
You remember I said A Game of Thrones was my absolute favorite? Well guess who got kicked of THAT throne!
This book made me love the characters even more, made me cry even harder and filled me with so much adrenaline that I had some trouble sleeping some nights.
As well as the other book I just didn't know who I was rooting for, I wanted all of them to win, but when they fight against the other; you cannot have both sides winning.
This book was more action packed than the last one, and oh boy it was so action packed. And those cliffhangers!! I NEED TO READ THE NEXT BOOK AND IT BETTER BE AS GOOD AS THIS ONE!
“A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge”
I think I just found myself a new favorite book! All of the characters were so fleshed out with amazing details and quirks. The end made me cry several times. I still remember a lot of details about a lot of characters, something I was scared of I would miss. Normally I don't like it when a book has a big cast, because I get confused and there are too many details to remember. I literally had zero problem with that in this story. I loved how I could see a conflict from multiple viewpoints actually.
The book does start very slow and I did have to push myself through the beginning since it felt like I was only reading introduction after introduction. That becomes eases after the first 7 chapters and even then each chapter had some things that were mentioned about the chapter before, which made it a lot less tedious and moved the story forward. Most of the action is still at the end and the biggest part of the story is building up to that action . This might make you wonder why I still gave it 5 stars however and that's because I honestly didn't mind all of it, the writing style is so flowing that even the most boring looking scenes are detailed and keep you sucked into the world.
I can't wait to pick up the next book!
Very action packed from multiple pov's. Battles are described amazingly and I really was not able to guess the ending. I started to like the characters even more and when I read the last word; I had cried, laughed and be utterly amazed. But most of all, I closed the book with the greatest sense of homesickness I ever had.
It is such a shame that these books were never translated to English.
Het feit dat ik dit boek en daarbij deze hele serie voor de tweede keer heb gelezen zegt heel wat. Voor de langste tijd wilde ik nooit boeken herlezen, want er zijn zoveel nieuwe boeken om te lezen. Maar toen ik een blik op deze serie werpte in mijn boekenkast herinnerde ik mij eigenlijk zeer weinig erover. Een deel daarvan komt misschien omdat het zo ongeveer tien jaar geleden is, maar een ander deel van mij vraagt zich af of het misschien de serie zelf is.
Het was in ieder geval wel erg leuk om het allemaal terug te lezen. Wat mij wel verbaasde is dat het zeker geen young adult book is. Er wordt veel in gescheld en de gevechten willen nog wel eens wat gruwelijke details beschrijven. Maar daar had ik als 15 jarige dan ook weer niet echt een probleem mee.
Mijn volledige pros en cons van de series kan je hier lezen: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2309395051?book_show_action=false
Het leek mij handiger om dit bij boek 1 te doen om zo andere mensen over te halen om met de serie te beginnen.
Als je zover bent gekomen in de serie hoef ik je het zeker niet meer aan te raden, dus als je de serie ook gelezen hebt dan nodig ik je uit om er verder met mij te discussiëren in the comments.
I read this story for the first time in 2012 and I am surprised how much of it I couldn't remember. I have read it more thoroughly today and enjoyed it a lot. I feel like with the number of experiences I have acquired in the past 7 years, I have been able to appreciate the book a lot more.
I can't wait to read volume 2!