Kingsbane (Empirium Series, book 2)

By Claire Legrand

Blurb: 
Rielle Dardenne has been anointed Sun Queen, but her trials are far from over. The Gate keeping the angels at bay is falling. To repair it, Rielle must collect the seven hidden castings of the saints. Meanwhile, to help her prince and love Audric protect Celdaria, Rielle must spy on the angel Corien—but his promises of freedom and power may prove too tempting to resist.

Centuries later, Eliana Ferracora grapples with her new reality: She is the Sun Queen, humanity's long-awaited savior. But fear of corruption—fear of becoming another Rielle—keeps Eliana's power dangerous and unpredictable. Hunted by all, racing against time to save her dying friend Navi, Eliana must decide how to wear a crown she never wanted—by embracing her mother's power, or rejecting it forever.

Review: 
This is the second book in the series, I did plan on reading Furyborn again before reading this book but instead I just read a recap. This book is still following the same characters Rielle (mother) and Eliana (daughter).

The writing style of this book is quite good, it's reasonably paced but there doesn't seem to be much action in the book. Well there is but it's all the same they are always being chased, always being attacked, more angels appearing; that sort of stuff. That is what knocked it down to 4 stars. 

Then the final thing that made it drop to 3 stars for me was that there was far too many sex scenes, as you will know by now I'm quite a prude person and the amount of sex scenes in this book compared to the first has drastically increased and they are quite detailed as well. I don't like skipping these scenes in case there is some hidden details that I miss out, or Audric gets told something, so I make sure I read them eventhough I don't like them. I know that really does make no sense but it's who I am.

Now on to the actual content, there are several twists within the book that makes you interested and want to read on, they aren't that drastic but it makes you think about the past events between these characters. So that aspect of the book is good. There are a few characters who's relationships change throughout the book compared to the first. Which does actually mean that their relationships have developed in a good way. 

Rielle does really get on my nerves though sadly, I think it's just her personality, like I understand that she is suffering with her life decisions but really she is just the blood queen pretending to be good and I don't like that she is just two faced. The way she treats Audric too just really annoys me, like I understand it's about temptation but the whole cheating situation is just not for me. If you truly love someone you don't keep secrets from them, you don't cheat on them, you don't imagine them as someone else that is just all messed up.

The Eliana side of the story, I feel sorry for her at times but then at times she also really annoys me, not as much as Rielle but just the way she goes on about certain situations and how she doesn't think herself good enough at times and then others she believes she is the greatest. Like I totally understand that the way you feel about yourself can change but it needs to be a bit more realistic and the way she treats people when she is in these moods is just horrible. Then when a certain someone appears she isn't sure how she feels, like I understand feelings can change over time but she still says she loves them. I don't understand that but then I've never had a best friend that's a male apart from my husband so who am I to judge on that relationship. You can definitely tell that she has her mothers personality and traits even though she never actually met her. I do prefer her though because you can tell she thinks about the people to an extent, she mainly thinks what others think of her not what they actually feel.

This book series is going to be a trilogy, I will possibly read the final book but I'm not going to priortise it because I don't actually think that these books are for me. It's a good story line to an extent, it's different and I would really like to know what happened with the gate. But I feel that the same things keep on happening, so it's not interesting that much sadly. Also just the way the two main girls treat other people just really annoys me, you don't need to treat people like that.

If you don't mind sex scenes being detailed/often or cheating then you will possibly like this book. I personally won't be rereading this trilogy once the final book is out.

Favourite Character: Audric

Read: 10/07/19 - 21/07/19

3 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie