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B**N
A nice book!
A bunch of teenagers trying to save an entire kingdom. Magic that is supposed to have disappeared, but seems to be lurking around. Characters with dark pasts and raw emotions.Falling Kingdoms has some of my favorite tropes in Young Adult Fantasy literature, and characters with the potential to remain in my memory for a long time.A murder opens the book, an action that sets off the events that will bring three Lands to the brink of war.The main characters are all teenagers, and they come from different Kingdoms, with different upbringings and different goals. They are not friends, not allies, but they all have one thing in common.They want to save their own Kingdom from falling.Under the pretense of wars, the actual objective is the research of the Kindred. I won’t tell you anything in detail, but the kindred are four stones that can control the four elementia of magic (air, water, earth and fire), and if possessed all, they make one invincible (Thanos vibes).The character I like the best is probably Jonas, a peasant from Paelsia, who is mostly driven by revenge. I think I like him because he’s the only commoner amongst the characters, and his ideals are very clear.Second on my list is Magnus, Lucia’s brother and heir to the throne. Now, I think I might grow to like him a lot, but for now, I am a little concerned about his taste in women. One woman in particular, who is not only unavailable, but also very very wrong. Aside from that, Magnus is probably the hottest character in the book. He’s the classic bad boy, with a quick temper and a thirst for power that will make him take a very questionable path.Third is Cleo, princess of Auranos. She is the first main character we encounter in the book, and she has quite an important role in the story. For that reason, I feel like it’s easier to have an opinion about her. I put her third because she is that kind of princess I don’t particularly like; spoiled, unaware of what happens outside the castle, gullible and a little annoying at times. She gets better by the end of the book, but I will have to read what happens next to decide whether I can like her or not.Finally, we have Lucia, the princess of Limeros, a country covered in ice, where everyone except her seems to be absolutely void of emotions. She doesn’t have a big part in the first book, and she kind of just stays there, pretty and kind until the very end. The main reason why I decided to put her last is that she doesn’t have a very big personality, and she even does a terrible thing during the war, for reasons I still cannot understand. She seems like a weak character, but hopefully, she will get better.On the other side, while I liked the story and the characters, there is one thing I did not like. In the book, we have mentions of creatures called the Watchers, who are supposed to be observing the humans. I understand the mystery, but it really annoyed me that by the end of the book I still had no idea who these Watchers actually are.I am not talking about their role. We have different names popping out throughout the book, and none of them is introduced. I was really confused and couldn’t understand the structure behind their society. Hopefully, we shall find out more about them in the next books.To sum things up, I think Falling Kingdoms is a very entertaining story. I would recommend it to anyone who likes young adult novels spiced up with fantasy, romance, intrigues, betrayals and secrets.
K**Y
3 Stars
Where do I even begin with this review? Over dramatic, yet enthralling, Falling Kingdoms is a YA mashup of Game of Thrones and mid-day soap operas. And I mean that in both a good and bad way. Falling Kingdoms has a solid foundation as the beginning to an intriguing fantasy series. We have a mysterious opening, dying magic, a hidden chosen one, plotting royals, and more. The world building can be a bit heavy handed at times, but I felt I got a pretty good grasp on the different aspects of the world. I could have used a bit more info on the Watchers, but I feel like they will get better explained in future books.And then we have the characters…each of the 4 main characters felt like soap opera versions of fantasy character tropes. Cleo is the absolutely annoying pampered princess who goes through some tragedy, whines about it a lot, and then FINALLY decides to take logical action, but it is too late for herself and for me to ever like her. Jonas is the enraged rebel who wants to fight the injustice of his people, but he bumbles about in his anger and lacks any depth. Lucia, our secret chosen one (don’t @ me that this is a spoiler, it basically states she is a secret chosen on in the synopsis), lacks any real development besides finding out her true heritage and I couldn’t tell you a single thing I remember about her. And then we have Magnus, our broody bad boy who is trying to defy his terrible father, while fighting demons of his own. Magnus was the most fleshed out character for me and that’s probably why I like him so much. Either that or I just like that he seems to want to murder a lot of the characters and I relate.But here’s the thing, I was still hooked into the story. Even though it’s over dramatic most of the time, I want to see what happens. I want to see who dies (PLEASE LET IT BE CLEO) and who triumphs. This is a car wreck of a book, but I can’t look away.
S**S
Wow it's game of thrones for the hunger games generation.
Falling kingdoms holds all of the key elements of a brilliant fantasy tale. There is a large amount of characters whose fates criss cross with each other through out the book...if they survive through to the end that is. The main part of the story begins with princess Cleo who is in pealsia (the world of falling kingdoms is split into three kingdoms limeros, auronaus and pealsia). Cleo is the princess of auronaus and is in pealsia with her husband to be purchasing wine, after aron (celo's soon to be husband) tries to rip off the merchant a argument breaks out between Aron and the wine sellers sons aron stabs one of the brothers henceforth killing him. As pealsia and auronaus hate each other anyway it doesn't take a lot for the chieftain of pealsia to team up with the evil king of limerous and invade auronaus. The similarities between GOT and FK is striking each chapter concentrates on a character, there is a whole magnitude of characters to like or dislike, although not as bloodthirsty or steamy as GOT FK still has plenty of killing of major characters, magic mystery and battles and villainous kings, princes and sorceress. On the whole falling kingdoms is amazing and is definitely one of my favourite fantasy books to date.
E**A
AMAZING
Also seen on www.emmamazey.blogspot.comThe best way to describe this book to you is that it is a YA equivalent of Game of Thrones. It is so epic and amazing that you will be left amazed by the character progression and the beginnings of a huge series. I knew about 20 pages in that I would love this book and it certainly didn't disappoint.When I had this book for Christmas I knew that I wanted to read it as soon a possible because it is everything that I love about fantasy, you have duel perspectives, battling countries and fantastically written characters.Whilst this book tends to focus more on the characters than the world building, there is never a lack of any aspect. I knew exactly what to picture when the author was writing the scenes but I think that is because it takes the backdrop of many classic fantasy stories and nothing is totally unimaginable despite the mutterings of magical elements. Thats right, theres magic in this book as well!The magic element was probably my favourite, it wasn't the main plot but I can tell that it will in the end be the most important factor in this series, the hints and then the stories were super interesting and The Kindred and The Watchers were unique and like nothing I have read before.Now lets talk about characters... Cleo is one of the best characters I've read about, she is independent, head strong, a little reckless and full of passion. I throughly enjoyed her segments and I think that she has such a strong voice, despite everything that happens she remains strong and I think I may love her slightly.... Magnus is a very intriguing character, I really can't make my mind up about him and to be honest I don't think he can make his mind up about himself. He is mean and reckless and totally like his father but then on the other hand he is nothing like his father because he does feel remorse, but he still does all of these things anyway so does the fact that he feels remorse make any difference? AH I don't know, but this is why I love this book so much because no character is as black and white as they originally seem, they are complex and real. Jonas is again very complex, he wants to avenge his brother but he also has a softer heart and I think that makes him so much more dangerous and so much more threatening to the surroundings, he is also incredibly clever and brave and I think in the second book he will really come into his own.I can't really say anymore without spoiling anything but I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is too threatened by the size of Game of Thrones, or who finds the GOT series a bit dense because this is everything that is good about GOT but in my opinion even better because there aren't as many characters, the world is not as complex and the writing flows so well that it makes it a super quick read.5/5 STARS
L**Y
Great for anyone - even the fantasy novices...
I didn't even consider myself particularly into books of war and magic, yet here we are. Morgan Rhodes is a talented writer who waxes lyrical about three kingdoms that you will quickly find yourself falling into. With relatable, realistic characters and unpredictable twists, this is my absolute favourite fantasy book of all time(!) and a definite 2017 favourite for me.
K**R
Predictable, badly-copied, and unrealistic.
I found this book to be a bad copy of Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, it included the usual tale of a war brewing between a once united land, it even included incest, but this book was no where near as good; I found that often I was bored whilst reading it, there was the predictable best friends-and-she-doesn't-realise-he's-in-love-with-her scenario, and it took a week for some girl to decide to introduce the-guy-I-met-at-the-bar to her elusive father despite only having introduced her dad to two guys before, on top of this there was a load of predictable things happening and a load of unrealistic scenario for example an almost never seen leader meets some random guy who was ridiculously rude decides he likes this peasant guy and gives him an enormously important roll in the war effort. Definitely not the worst book I've read, but it certainly isn't a page-turner.
P**R
Waste of my hard earned cadh
If you love Sarah j mass, George rr Martin, robin hobb, then don’t waste your money. Poorly written and I’ve never regretted spending money more. God knows what the people who gave it glowing reviews normally read ....
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