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

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

Furyborn (Empirium Series, book 1) 

By Claire Legrand

Blurb: 
Follows two fiercely independent young women, centuries apart, who hold the power to save their world...or doom it.

When assassins ambush her best friend, the crown prince, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing her ability to perform all seven kinds of elemental magic. The only people who should possess this extraordinary power are a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light and salvation and a queen of blood and destruction. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven trials to test her magic. If she fails, she will be executed...unless the trials kill her first.

A thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a mere fairy tale to bounty hunter Eliana Ferracora. When the Undying Empire conquered her kingdom, she embraced violence to keep her family alive. Now, she believes herself untouchable--until her mother vanishes without a trace, along with countless other women in their city. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain on a dangerous mission and discovers that the evil at the heart of the empire is more terrible than she ever imagined.

As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world--and of each other.

Review: 
The book starts with the scene of Rielle giving birth to a little girl while Simon is in the room trying to ingore the sound of child birth. Once Rielle has gave birth she sense that Corien is on his way to come and get her baby since he is the father so she gives the girl to Simon to take care off with a necklace so they get a safe entrance to the place they are going.

It then jumps back many years to when Rielle was a girl and discovers who she really is. She goes through all these different trials to prove who she is, she also comes across many challenges and secret loves that she can't tell anyone about. While reading Rielle's point of view you discover how she met Corien and their relationship with one another.

Eliana's point of view starts when she is a teenager and is fighting rebels to stay alive and help keep food on her families table. Her best friend helps her with some of these tasks she is given, until she finds herself in a situation where he isn't around and the wolf finds her.

This isn't the first time I've read this book, as I got an advanced copy in November's FairyLoot in 2017. I'm pleased to see my opinion on this book hasn't changed and that the main story line has also not changed. I'm not entirely sure whether the ending has changed compared to the advanced reading copy and I can't look at the end of the book because it's sadly packed away in a box ready for moving house.

The description of each character is excellent. The amount of detail that has gone into the chapters to make you feel a connection to them is great, it was nice to also to see a connection between the two storylines eventhough they are set so far apart from one another. 

The adventures within the book are great, there is so much detail put into them that you actually have an image in your mind of what the places look like. This is possibly one of the very few books that I've managed to picture scenes in, so in my opinion that was a great positive to get out of the book.

Now to get onto the sexual scenes! There wasn't too many throughout the whole book but there was a few. The sexual scenes were a bit drastic at times when Audric was kissing and touching Rielle the walls rumbled as she had an orgasm. I thought this was quite strange but I managed to put it by and carry on reading. The love triangles were quite good too for both main characters as they were realistic and actually believable unlike some that you read.

The storyline overall wasn't that good but I suppose it is the first book and allows you to have a better understanding of each character for the next book. A lot of things happened but it was the same storyline for both characters all the way through the book. At times it was quite difficult to remember which characters point of view you were actually reading until names popped up, because the styles are so similar to each other. I also found that the scenery between the characters point of views didn't change much even-though they are set in different eras.

Overall the book was great, I loved the adventures, the amount of detail, the characters and the style of writing. I can't wait to read the second book when it eventually comes out. I'd definitely recommend this book to people who love adventures, twists, love triangles and angels.

Favourite Characters: Simon

Read: 16/08/18 - 24/08/18

5 stars out of 5

written by Sammie

Check out Sammie's review of book 2: Kingsbane

Furyborn (Empirium Series, book 1) 

By Claire Legrand

Blurb: 
Follows two fiercely independent young women, centuries apart, who hold the power to save their world...or doom it.

When assassins ambush her best friend, the crown prince, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing her ability to perform all seven kinds of elemental magic. The only people who should possess this extraordinary power are a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light and salvation and a queen of blood and destruction. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven trials to test her magic. If she fails, she will be executed...unless the trials kill her first.

A thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a mere fairy tale to bounty hunter Eliana Ferracora. When the Undying Empire conquered her kingdom, she embraced violence to keep her family alive. Now, she believes herself untouchable--until her mother vanishes without a trace, along with countless other women in their city. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain on a dangerous mission and discovers that the evil at the heart of the empire is more terrible than she ever imagined.

As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world--and of each other.

Review: 
The book starts with the scene of Rielle giving birth to a little girl while Simon is in the room trying to ingore the sound of child birth. Once Rielle has gave birth she sense that Corien is on his way to come and get her baby since he is the father so she gives the girl to Simon to take care off with a necklace so they get a safe entrance to the place they are going.

It then jumps back many years to when Rielle was a girl and discovers who she really is. She goes through all these different trials to prove who she is, she also comes across many challenges and secret loves that she can't tell anyone about. While reading Rielle's point of view you discover how she met Corien and their relationship with one another.

Eliana's point of view starts when she is a teenager and is fighting rebels to stay alive and help keep food on her families table. Her best friend helps her with some of these tasks she is given, until she finds herself in a situation where he isn't around and the wolf finds her.

This isn't the first time I've read this book, as I got an advanced copy in November's FairyLoot in 2017. I'm pleased to see my opinion on this book hasn't changed and that the main story line has also not changed. I'm not entirely sure whether the ending has changed compared to the advanced reading copy and I can't look at the end of the book because it's sadly packed away in a box ready for moving house.

The description of each character is excellent. The amount of detail that has gone into the chapters to make you feel a connection to them is great, it was nice to also to see a connection between the two storylines eventhough they are set so far apart from one another. 

The adventures within the book are great, there is so much detail put into them that you actually have an image in your mind of what the places look like. This is possibly one of the very few books that I've managed to picture scenes in, so in my opinion that was a great positive to get out of the book.

Now to get onto the sexual scenes! There wasn't too many throughout the whole book but there was a few. The sexual scenes were a bit drastic at times when Audric was kissing and touching Rielle the walls rumbled as she had an orgasm. I thought this was quite strange but I managed to put it by and carry on reading. The love triangles were quite good too for both main characters as they were realistic and actually believable unlike some that you read.

The storyline overall wasn't that good but I suppose it is the first book and allows you to have a better understanding of each character for the next book. A lot of things happened but it was the same storyline for both characters all the way through the book. At times it was quite difficult to remember which characters point of view you were actually reading until names popped up, because the styles are so similar to each other. I also found that the scenery between the characters point of views didn't change much even-though they are set in different eras.

Overall the book was great, I loved the adventures, the amount of detail, the characters and the style of writing. I can't wait to read the second book when it eventually comes out. I'd definitely recommend this book to people who love adventures, twists, love triangles and angels.

Favourite Characters: Simon

Read: 16/08/18 - 24/08/18

5 stars out of 5

written by Sammie

Check out Sammie's review of book 2: Kingsbane