Review: Cage of Deceit (Reign of Secrets, #1) by Jennifer Anne Davis @AuthorJennifer

Tags

fantasy, reign of secrets, review, true reign, ya, young adult

Jennifer Anne Davis’s best-selling True Reign series captivated readers from the very first page. Now, get ready to become entangled in the follow-up series, Reign of Secrets. In this new series, follow Allyssa, the daughter of the beloved Emperor Darmik and Empress Rema— and find out what happens after happily ever after.

Seventeen-year-old Allyssa appears to be the ideal princess of Emperion—she’s beautiful, elegant, and refined. She spends her days locked in a suffocating cage, otherwise known as royal court. But at night, Allyssa uses her secret persona—that of a vigilante—to hunt down criminals and help her people firsthand.

Unfortunately, her nightly escapades will have to wait because the citizens of Emperion may need saving from something much bigger than common criminals. War is encroaching on their country and in order to protect her people, Allyssa may have to sacrifice her heart. Forced to entertain an alliance through marriage with a handsome prince from a neighboring kingdom, she finds herself feeling even more stifled than before. To make matters worse, the prince has stuck his nosy squire, Jarvik, to watch her every move.

Jarvik is infuriating, bossy and unfortunately, the only person she can turn to when she unveils a heinous plot. Together, the unlikely pair will have to work together to stop an enemy that everyone thought was long gone, one with the power to destroy her family and the people of Emperion. Now the cage Allyssa so longed to break free from might just be the one thing she has to fight to keep intact. In order to save her kingdom, she will have to sacrifice her freedom, her heart, and maybe even her life.

Blurb and cover from Goodreads

5 out of  5 stars

I was a huge fan of the previous companion series to this, True Reign, and that made me twice as nervous to pick this up. I was more than a little scared this wouldn’t live up to the huge precedent set by the first series and so I put it off for months. The last book in the previous trilogy didn’t quite live up to the sheer awesome of the first two, which made it even worse.

Then finally, I picked this up one evening, thinking I’d just read “a few chapters” and call it a night. That endeavor ended at 12:38 a.m. with a cliffhanger, a finished book, and a revitalized fangirl. THE AWESOME IS STRONG WITH THIS ONE.

The plot:

One of my favorite things about Davis’ plots is how they slip away. You get so caught up in what’s happening that suddenly it’s been two hundred pages and you didn’t even notice. They move quickly and don’t waste time, which is an underrated quality, particularly in fantasy books.

There was also a bit of the “aw” romance I adored so much in the first trilogy and I certainly did not mind that. ❤

The characters:

I wasn’t sure about Allyssa at first. I knew it was either going to be hit or miss with her—no middle ground was possible. The author managed to make her have certain similarities to her mother, but at the same time, she’s clearly her own person. I came to admire and adore her and it’s impossible not to root for her. She was definitely a hit.

Rema and Darmik made me go “come on, guys” more than once, but the whole arranged marriage thing didn’t make me hate them as much as I thought it would. After reading the first trilogy, it felt a little hypocritical of them, but the book makes you understand. I still love them just as I love Allyssa with her prince and I NEED THE NEXT BOOK.

I also want to see more of my old buddy Nathanek. The author has promised to bring him back with an apprentice who will play and important role and that’s just another reason I need book 2.

The world of Emperion is back with a vengeance and I love it!

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Review: War (True Reign, #3) by Jennifer Anne Davis

Tags

clean teen publishing, indie author, jennifer anne davis, true reign, war, ya, young adult

When Rema chose to be crowned queen and join the rebel forces, she knew she’d face the fight of her life. What she didn’t expect was to be kidnapped by an Emperion assassin and taken to the mainland to be executed in front of the emperor. How can she save Greenwood Island if she can’t even save herself?

Darmik knows he doesn’t have much time to rescue Rema. He’s denounced his position as Commander and Prince in order to join the rebels. But now he must rely on his family name in order to go before the Emperor—his uncle—and beg for Rema’s life.

If Rema and Darmik have any hope of being together and saving their kingdom, they must survive the greatest threat of all—Emperion.

This is the heart-pounding conclusion to The True Reign Series.

Blurb and cover from Goodreads

3 out of 5 stars

“Disappointed” is too strong a word, so we’ll just say it wasn’t what I hoped. I enjoyed The Key, adored Яed, so I was hoping to be blown away by War, but I felt like the series kind of devolved. I am glad I read it for no other reason than I am happy to know how things turned out for my favorite characters. However, I think this may have missed a round of editing.

The plot:

I definitely think this book should have been about 100 pages longer. Things just felt too rushed, too quick, and it seemed like there were scenes missing. For one, defeating the three main villains felt far too easy. I’m not saying there should have been a grand scale battle that dragged on for chapters, but it was sort of like—smash, BOOM—ta-da! bad guys are dead.

I would have also liked to see a bit (a lot) more of the distrust and struggles in getting Darmik’s men, the rebels, and the Emperion soldiers to work together. It was only addressed in a few scenes and briefly and there was so much potential for conflict that was never utilized.

I admit I didn’t see the twist about Hamen’s illegitimate heir coming and that was handled well, but there were a lot of other twists that I didn’t think were properly foreshadowed/handled (i.e. Phallek’s dagger).

There were several deaths I know I was supposed to be sad about, but I really wasn’t because I never liked those characters in the first place. Yeah, I felt bad when my favorite characters were upset and maybe I should have been more empathetic, but I’m still mad at :SPOILER: Kar and Maya for trying to marry off Rema after Mako gave them express orders not to (really, if I were Mako, I would be irked to no end—what right did they have to do that?) and Savenek for being just a generally snotty little whelp. Sorry. :SPOILER OVER:

The ending felt anticlimatic. I felt like there was still a lot unresolved about Emperion and Greenwood and how that was all going to work out. To me, this whole book felt like the bones of a story without the fat and meat to make it come to life.

The characters:

I still love Darmik and Rema to bits. It’ take more than one book to change that. Though I wanted Darmik to be more human/flawed. He has moments where he gets angry over petty things, mainly Savenek’s attention to Rema, but I wish there had been more dimension to his faults in this one.

Where I took the largest issue character-wise with Nathanek/Captain. I have decided I like him, but he just seemed way too forthcoming and open for his profession. In the first 20% of the book, he basically tells Rema—an enemy prisoner—his entire backstory or a good chunk of it. And it wasn’t even really pertinent to the plot. I like my assassins terse and scary and I think it would have been possible to humanize him without the soul-baring.

Don’t let the scathing fool you, I still enjoyed parts of this book. There were a few places were I squeed and grinned and even laughed. It could be that I just hate endings. I might have read this when I was in the wrong mood. Nonetheless, I still recommend the first two books in this series without hesitation. If you like them, well, then you’ll have to read this one.

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Review: Яed (True Reign, #2) by Jennifer Anne Davis @AuthorJennifer

Tags

epic fantasy, fantasy, jennifer anne davis, red, romance, the key, true reign, ya, young adult

Sentenced to be executed.
Betrayed. Alone.
Hung on the gallows.
Rema thought her life was over, but she was wrong.

Saved by a rebel force she’d only ever heard rumors about, Rema finds herself in a forbidden place. She is finally safe—free from the king and Prince Lennek. But not everything is as it seems at the rebel fortress. Secrets are whispered, and loyalties are tested. Once Rema uncovers the truth of her heritage, will she flee? Or will she ascend to the throne, taking on the responsibility of an entire kingdom?

Now that Darmik knows Rema’s true identity, he’s on a quest to save her. But when an Emperion assassin arrives on Greenwood Island, Darmik knows he doesn’t have very long to find her. In a deadly game with high stakes, will Darmik remain loyal to his family? Or will he break away and join the rebels?

Kingdoms rise and fall.
Heroes are born and made.
But one thing remains the same—love conquers all

Blurb and cover from Goodreads

5 out of 5 stars
Shortly after starting this book, I decided the series is going on my very exclusive Shelf of Awesome. The first book had me biting my nails, pacing, making plans to subject certain characters *coughcoughLennekAndBarjoncoughcough* to unspeakable torments, and generally fangirling. The sequel did not disappoint and I will be at the head of the line for War this month.

The plot:
This series is very, very fast paced with less description and more action in the writing style. The plot is very “slender” with all unnecessary body fat (unimportant bits) trimmed off. In other words, if something happens, you’d best pay attention because it happened for a reason. There are a lot of places where things felt condensed and while that made for concise reading, I did wish for more description in certain places. But it wasn’t a big issue and it’s still clear what everyone looks like, how buildings are laid out, etc. This was a fast read despite its length and I think we can all appreciate a book that can be devoured in one sitting.

The characters:
I have liked Rema since book one and that certainly didn’t change here. Of course, I find her passion for equines particularly endearing and I love that the writer made her an independent, strong female without having her be kick@$$ or snarky. She has to sort through a lot of issues in this book and a lot of heavy revelations and I thought she took it rather well. Though, personally, I would have been a bit more miffed at Mako for lying to me. Make that a lot more miffed. Rema is far more reasonable than me.

As for Darmik—I adore him, okay? I’m a sucker for bad@$$ good boys. He too has to sort out buckets and buckets of choices, morality, and feelings in this book. Poor baby. It takes him a little while to figure out what he plans to do, but once he does he commits to his decisions like a true military man. His relationships with his father and brother are displayed further in all their dysfunctional complexity, but I liked seeing more of the friendship between him and Neco. There was a little of it in the first book, but a much more of it here. And of course, Neco and Ellie were adorable. Not as adorable as Rema and Darmik, but still adorable.

In the description of the rebel army, there was one thing I took issue with. It says that what the female fighters lacked in the men’s strength, they made up for with superior speed. That’s well and good, except for the fact that all the research I’ve done says swiftness is by far more important. What I mean is, their male fighters need to get up to speed. (Pun intended. Micro-rant over.)

The other character I’ll mention (because this is getting a bit long) is Savenek. At first, I was terrified that the author was going to put in a love triangle. I was all prepared to scream in outrage and stomp my feet, but Ms. Davis was merciful. I did not and do not like Savenek—misogynistic, arrogant, whiny, troublemaking little brat that he is—but he’s a good fighter and ultimately means well, so I’ll refrain from completely hating him for the moment.

In summation, I love this series and I am torn about reading the final book. On one hand, I must know what happens. On the other, I don’t want it to end. I certainly recommend it!

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