Wednesday 26 August 2020

Kingdom of Runes series (so far!) review


After the Prince of Penryth saved her from captivity, seventeen-year-old Haven Ashwood spends her days protecting the kind prince and her nights secretly fighting the monsters outside the castle walls. 

When one of those monsters kidnaps Prince Bell, Haven must ally with Archeron Halfbane and his band of immortals to rescue her friend. Her quest takes her deep into the domain of a warped and vicious queen where the rules are simple: break her curse or die.

Lost in a land of twisted magic and fabled creatures, Haven finds herself unprepared, not just for the feelings she develops for Archeron, but for the warring powers raging inside her. 

Her rare and forbidden type of magic may be their only hope . . . but mixing light and dark comes with a steep price. Haven’s soul.

Faced with impossible love, heartbreaking betrayals, and a queen intent on destroying the realm, only one thing remains certain. Haven must shatter the curse or it will devour everything she loves. 

This series alone has made my Kindle Unlimited subscription worth it!

There are YA fantasy cliches aplenty here; heroine with a mysterious past and super-special magic, love interests left and right, a quest to save the realm...but the amazing worldbuilding and characters make this book feel unique.

Haven did initially come across as a little annoying at first since her confidence and sass can occasionally fall on the wrong side of arrogance, but she is revealed to have a much softer and more vulnerable side at the story goes on. I really loved Haven and Bell's friendship being just that. Not only did the story not need another love interest, but it's also refreshingly rare to read male/female friendships in YA that don't lead to anything more. Her interplay with the immortal Solis' on their journey to rescue Bell (Haven) or break the curse (the Solis') was really great too and, although Archeron felt a little bland for a love interest, the banter between them was great stuff.

The worldbuilding was fantastic and the author did a great job of crafting this vast world and its inhabitants through the story, without relying on big chunks of infodumps and exposition. There definitely feels like there's a lot more to be explored in the sequels! 




 
Haven survived the Devourers, but she isn’t any closer to breaking the curse. Meanwhile, her forbidden magic rages brighter and more dangerous every day.

To control her powers and stand a chance against the Shade Queen, Haven made a bargain with two enemy immortals. Now her waking hours are spent fighting alongside the Sun Lord, but her dreams belong to the Shade Lord.

Only the closer she ventures into the wicked Shadow Kingdom the more her magic shows itself—and the more she struggles with whom to trust. The golden but wounded Sun Lord or the darkly charismatic Shade Lord.

Both are off-limits. And both have the ability to save her . . . or destroy her.

With the Shade Queen closing in and Bell’s time nearly up, Haven will sacrifice everything to break the curse—but will it be enough to stop the mortal realm from falling into darkness forever?

Curse Breaker was a great book and definitely a worthy follow-up to Oath Taker. Was it as good? Eh...not quite, but it wasn't far off. 

This book definitely felt less tightly plotted than its predecessor, with Haven and co ticking curse items of the list in one set piece after another giving the book a much more episodic feel. Fortunately, these episodes are great, with tense trips to steal from a monstrous vorgrath and an action-packed visit to acquire a selkie scale from an underwater cave at least feeling different enough to break up any repetition. 

I wasn't a huge fan of Haven being a bit more of a damsel in distress this time around. I lost count of the number of times one of the love interests swooped in to save her. This book goes heavier on the love triangle than the previous one did, so your mileage may vary depending on how you feel about that sort of thing. Luckily, the excellent worldbuilding that I loved so much in the previous book is still present and correct here, with more lands and realms explored and more history revealed.

Bell's ordeals in the castle of the Shade Queen (who I will never stop picturing as Olenna Tyrell from Game of Thrones!) added a countdown element to the story this time around which meant I pretty much blew through this book in one sitting. Love triangle aside, it's that good! 



Haven and her crew may be considered heroes, but they arrive back in Penryth harboring dangerous secrets. Plagued by nightmares, Haven struggles to control her newfound magic while Bell shrinks under the weight of their shared lie.

When an emissary from Solissia shows up in Penryth and drafts Bell in a magical tournament, Haven is once again forced to follow the prince to foreign lands, this time to the bloodthirsty court of Archeron’s mother.

Trapped in a shifting landscape of dark politics, duplicitous immortals, and cruel sovereigns, Haven fights to keep Bell alive all without revealing their secret. But a terrible evil brews on the horizon. One that threatens the very fabric of the realm.

Haven might be their only hope of stopping the impending darkness. But first she must learn to accept her own darkness and follow her heart—no matter where it leads.

Given that this is the third book in a four (or possibly five) book series. I was expecting this book to be padded with filler. I wasn't expecting to launch back into this awesome world so quickly and with such a great plot!

Haven's character development from book one has been brilliant and the revelations about her past and what it means for her future have been really great. It's hard to believe the brash, arrogant character I was rolling my eyes at in the first chapter of book has grown into one of my faves.

My main issue with this book, and why I didn't rate it five stars I the love triangle element which I've not been a huge fan of from the start. Not my cup of tea, I guess. While I never really bought Archeron a viable love interest in this series (it's felt pretty obvious to me that the author had thrown her lot in with Stolas) I didn't particularly care for how he was thrown under a bus to push Haven more towards Stolas. Characters mature and change so having someone grow out of their attraction to the guy who was the main love interest book one is absolutely fine. It's not necessary to completely rewrite Archeron to make him a bad match now. The changes Haven has been through from book one alone are enough to explain why they're not suited anymore.

I was glad that we finally got some revelations about Haven's past and the history of the realm. Some I saw coming, some I definitely didn't! I can't wait to pick up the next book in the series!