Title: Falling Kingdoms
Author: Morgan Rhodes
Series Status: 1st book in the Falling Kingdoms Series
# of pages: 412
My rating: 3.5/5 stars
In the three kingdoms of Mytica, magic has long been forgotten. And while hard-won peace has reigned for centuries, a deadly unrest now simmers below the surface.
As the rulers of each kingdom grapple for power, the lives of their subjects are brutally transformed… and four key players, royals and rebels alike, find their fates forever intertwined. Cleo, Jonas, Lucia, and Magnus are caught in a dizzying world of treacherous betrayals, shocking murders, secret alliances, and even unforeseen love.
The only outcome that’s certain is that kingdoms will fall. Who will emerge triumphant when all they know has collapsed?
It’s the eve of war…. Choose your side.
Princess: Raised in pampered luxury, Cleo must now embark on a rough and treacherous journey into enemy territory in search of magic long thought extinct.
Rebel: Jonas, enraged at injustice, lashes out against the forces of oppression that have kept his country cruelly impoverished. To his shock, he finds himself the leader of a people’s revolution centuries in the making.
Sorceress: Lucia, adopted at birth into the royal family, discovers the truth about her past—and the supernatural legacy she is destined to wield.
Heir: Bred for aggression and trained to conquer, firstborn son Magnus begins to realize that the heart can be more lethal than the sword….
When I found out there was a blog tour happening for this series I was really excited to participate and finally join in on the hype around this series.
Starting with the characters, who while I found to be more surface level were still pretty amazing characters. I thought that with so many main characters getting different perspective views that the story would feel disconnected from the characters but I still found myself being able to connect and enjoy reading from all of them. There’s Cleo who is the princess bound to marry a guy because of a dark secret, who is also loving and caring. Then there is Magnus who has a dark and slightly creepy side but probably has some of the most development out of all the characters. We also have Jonas who may have been my favorite even though he is blindsided by revenge but manages to be endearing and realistic when necessary. Finally there is Lucia, who had the least development of them all but provides an interesting character setup for the next installment.
The plot was interesting since it has four main characters who are pretty spread out and have very limited interaction with each other. I thought this was going to make the story drag with the time spent developing each character individually and the time it would take for them to actually meet but I found that while this is a slightly slower pace first book it really flowed well and made the plot work together pretty well.
Probably my least favorite thing was that I felt that the magic was slightly underdeveloped. This may have been purposeful since the sorceress, Lucia, only discovers her powers partway through but I found that there was a limited explanation for the magic and I would have really loved an in depth look at how the magic works and the varying levels of it.
The point of view switches were able to flow really well and managed to not throw off the pacing of the story like I’ve seen in other books before. Instead the switches were used well and kept me engaged so I could see what was going to happen next or how each person was going to connect to the last.
Rhodes writing style, while simplistic, managed to capture the story really well and start off a great series. I enjoyed how she could create so many different main characters and have everything flow so smoothly.
Overall I really enjoyed that this book managed to have multiple points of view and do it really well as well as contain a great setup with the plot that will be further developed in the series.
3.5 stars
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