What is wrong with Shusterman?! What makes someone think and write something like this?! Why do I let him hurt me with EVERY BOOK?!

This is such a weird premise but it was executed so well! I can't kept the concept straight in my mind really but the adventuring is just so much fun and the characters are just so enjoyable and continuously evolving.

How did I forget about the twist ending?! It got me again!

So this book is definitely slower paced but I feel like the length of the book allows that without it to feel like the story is dragging. I'm a sucker for adventuring for the purpose of audience deception and character development so this is kinda perfect for me. I'm hoping the next book will start to develop the politics of the world and get more info about the Queen.

I FINALLY FINISHED!

I think like most people here it see s, I LOVE this series but I've always found this book to be slow and considered it more of a "filler" book in the series. I do love the ending "status" we get with Claire and my dream husband vs. Bri and Roger. Onward with the series reread!

So this is one of my favourite books of the year easily! Holy crap this was funny! If you've ever watched A Very Potter Musical with Voldemort and Quirrel + seen Hocus Pocus...the vibes you'll get from this are insane! It's so enjoyable. The characters are great and there's a massive twist at the end. I don't know who's good anymore!

So this is my literal definition of "Samm's historical fiction trash"

I am just...like GA about medieval Scotland and taking maybe real/maybe fake characters from old history and just fucking with them. It's a thing that needs to happen more and doesn't. Taking the potential real person that became the mythical "Merlin" and then giving me the POV of his twin sister who got married to a King who would then fight her brother...YASSSSSS

It's definitely slower paced at some points but it uses this time to develop the world of characters or whatever. The main character can be frustrating at times because she knowingly does things that will get her in trouble but in her own place, I would probably do the same.

The romance: forbidden lovers in medieval settings just does things to me (Christ, look at my user name). It is pretty insta-love and sappy but I feel like the tone of the book actually lends itself to that.

The sex scenes: give me more :D

Political & religious conflicts: so I admittedly threw this book once during my reading. I cannot STAND when people use religion to manipulate politics and power. It's erks me to my damn soul. I'm not ever having it. The book focuses very heavily on the wave of Christian conversion that swept through England and Scotland. Now if you've ever read a history textbook...or any Tudors fiction or nonfiction book then you'll know that the UK has had some "issues" with religion in it's past (looking at you Henry VIII) and you can see that in this book. The overlapping of sacred places in multiple religions causing tensions, people using religion to manipulate those around them for pure power and greed. I also loved the look we had at the weird boundaries situation. Like most places now have like definite borders. This is Canada. Canada has a Prime Minister. Each territory and province has a premiere. Where as like centuries ago it was like "well I'm the sorta King of this area but I have to answer to this other King but now he's involved with the Christian religion while I'm following traditional Celtic rules" all within like a days sail of each other. I'm curious to see how this will get developed in the sequel since Languoreth is now in the middle of a war between her husband and twin brother and her kids are involved. Hot mess. I thought I had family drama!

So no one told me this is kind of a Mulan retelling--or at least uses the female dressing like male to enter army premise which I am always here for! I thoroughly dislike everything about Val but the ending made me believe I'm supposed to feel for her so...I don't know how the sequel is going to mess with that. The big battle was really well done and the slow burning romances were very well written. I love the animal human bonding so much too!

So I actually liked Kelsea way more than I did in my past reads of this. It just dawned on me that this book is actually quite big and yet I still feel like it's quite a fast read. My favourite part is her relationship with the guards and her absolute stubbornness. She knows what's wrong and right and that she's gotta be ready to anger the status quo. Also, her having struggles with her weight is so damn relatable to me right now.

I don't know if it's the right word but I just love how passionate and deep Heilig makes the narrating character. I'm still obsessed with the romance in all its cheesy glory

So it actually pains me to say this but I liked Reign of the Fallen way more. All of the elements that made me love it were just gone from this book. I also was expecting more or a new problem that started in Reign but hadn't been solved...yet it seemed like just a rehash of Reign of to me. Also, I was really hoping to see a relationship with Meredy and Odessa which was sort of there but there was just so much relationship bickering drama and it felt like there was no chemistry between them anymore.

That aside, I loved the adventuring and visiting new places (though that did seem rushed). I loved getting to see our new Queen trying to balance and fight for change. Also, we got more Lysander so always a positive.

Unfortunately, I could tell it was heading down this "rehashing book one conflicts" path and my interest started to fall off.