Falling Kingdoms

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Firstly, I would like to thank Jesse from Books At Dawn for introducing me to this series and for giving me his extra copy of Falling Kingdoms to read and enjoy! And that’s exactly what I did. I enjoyed the hell out of this book.

I remember when I first met Jesse, we were talking about some of our favourite books and he brought up the Falling Kingdoms series. I looked it up on the handy-dandy Goodreads and I was immediately intrigued by the premise. I also noticed that there were four books already released in the series which can be a little intimidating for me. If I feel like I’m already to far behind, I tend not to pick up books in that series. However, I decided to add it to my to-read list because it came so highly recommended.

It wasn’t until recently that Jesse and I got to talking again and we made a pact. He would read We Are The Ants (my favourite book of the year so far and maybe of all time) if I read Falling Kingdoms, the first book in his favourite series. And that was that.

I started reading Falling Kingdoms earlier this month and I was hooked right from the start. It was extremely fast paced and it waited no time before getting right into the action. I instantly fell in love with the fictional land of Mytica and the three countries within. Limeros, Paelsia and Auranos may come together to form Mytica, but they could not be more different from one another. Limeros is the northern, icy country while Auranos is the warm and flourishing southern country. Paelsia falls in between these two countries and is the poorest of the three. While Limeros and Auranos have royal families that lead their respective countries, Paelsia has no royal leaders. After an unfortunate event causes a stir between each of these countries, it seems as though a war may be on the horizon.

Each chapter takes place in one of these three countries and are told in the perspective of different characters. In Limeros we have Prince Magnus and his sister Princess Lucia. Magnus is the heir to the Limerian throne and he is keeping a painful secret hidden from those around him, especially his sister. Lucia has a secret of her own as she is starting to discover that there may be more to her than meets the eye. In Paelsia we have Jonas, a young man and the son of a wine-seller. After a tragic event alters his family forever, he vows to seek vengeance on the people who caused his family, and the country of Paelsia, such pain. Finally, in Auranos, we have Princess Cleiona, a young girl who gets mixed up into a terrible situation that sparks the war of Mytica.

I love the vast cast of characters within this series. Usually, it is difficult for me to keep track of tons of characters and to remember who’s who. In this case, because each of these four characters have the opportunity to tell the story from their perspective, it helps them to stand out and differentiate themselves from one another. There was also a list of the characters and which countries they belonged to at the beginning of the novel which was a huge help in remembering them all.

I love that the book starts with being told from different perspectives in different countries and as the story goes on these characters start to intertwine and blend together until their storylines meet. I love that one event caused a major chain reaction that brought all of these characters together.

I know I probably shouldn’t say this out loud, but I actually really enjoy Magnus as a character. I know, I know, he’s done evil things, but there’s just that little spark of good in him and I hope that he isn’t stuck in a dark place for much longer. Yeah, I have a bad boy complex, I know. I just really enjoyed reading the story from his perspective. While the other characters are fantastic and well developed, none of them have stood out as being my favourite just yet.

There was a bit of insta-love that I could have done without to be honest, but I guess it kind of set up the future for another character. Sorry, I’m trying really hard to avoid spoilers here.

The amount of death within Falling Kingdoms is insane. I recently went to an author signing that Morgan Rhodes was a part of, this was before I started reading the series, and she mentioned there being a lot of death within the Falling Kingdoms series, but it was on a whole other level compared to what I was expecting. I mean there was A LOT, and no character was safe. Just when you started to get attached, boom, dead.

About halfway through reading Falling Kingdoms, I already knew that I was going to continue on with the series. I have already acquired the second book and I plan to read it next month! I’m super eager to see where this series will go, especially after the events of the final chapter within the first novel.

This was a fantastic first novel and I’m no longer intimidated by my late start into a long series.