Falling Kingdoms – Review // A High Fantasy Favorite Not Written By Sarah J. Maas

Olivia

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
Book 1 in the Falling Kingdoms series
Genre: YA high fantasy
Pages: 412
Format: paperback
Source: bought
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Falling Kingdoms deserves every bit of hype it gets and more. If the fact that I read it in a day isn’t proof of that, I’m not sure what is. 😀

the plot

The story might not seem like the most original, and it probably isn’t. But it’s also one of those stories that’s just so freaking good you don’t care. At least, I didn’t care. It follows three separate protagonists – a princess, a prince, and a rebel – all with very different lives, personalities, and perspectives. Each of them and others narrated different chapters in third person, and I was never confused. I could keep them all straight, and their plot-lines as well. I loved trying to piece things together about how the three stories might intercept: enough for me to read nearly the entire book in a day. 😉

the characters

My favorite character was definitely Cleo. She was the princess of Auranos, and an amazing, stubborn, sassy girl. I loved her so much, and her chapters were my favorite to read. I loved her ambition, and her dedication to her family, and just everything about her. I think I can honestly say that she’s my favorite princess that isn’t from a Disney story. 🙂
Jonas was a good, strong male lead, but I didn’t like him. I felt bad for what he experience early on in the story, but didn’t agree with his logic or desires. He was the main character that wasn’t royal, and actually despised them all with a passion due to a single one’s actions. To say he had a temper would be an understatement, and although he showed slight signs of potentially improving in the end, I’m not sure about him. I’ll give him a chance in the sequel though. 😉
I really wasn’t sure what to think of Magnus. I know his name kept making me think of my favorite glitter-loving warlock, but the two couldn’t be more different. This Magnus was the Prince of Limeros and had zero magic. He also had secret romantic feelings that I can say for sure separated him from any other male leads I’ve read about so far. And while I can say I loved Cleo and disliked Jonas, I don’t know where I stand with Magnus. I’ll have to read the sequel to find out for sure. 😉

the setting

I loved the world of Mytica. All three kingdoms and their cultures and beliefs were so intricate and differing. I could imagine the luxury and lush forests of Auranos, the threadbare villages of Paelsia, and the harsh, ever-colder land of Limeros. They were all described vividly, and I could tell that much thought was put into their creation. For me, Mytica was the kind of world that you get so immersed in and knowledgeable about but still want to learn more, experience more. It was just fabulous. ❤

the relationships

My favorite thing in this book, though, had to be all the family relationships. Cleo was close to her older sister and her father. Jonas had a small family, and the fate of one motivated him for the entirety of the book. Magnus wasn’t close to either of his parents, but loved and protected his younger sister throughout everything. It was wonderful to read a captivating high fantasy like this one, and find that it’s full of families. I loved that. ❤
There really wasn’t any romance in this book, and once again, it was refreshing. There was some infatuation and a couple of royal engagements, but nothing solid developed. Of course, I still found people to ship, and romance will probably factor in somewhere in the next five books, but that’s not the point. XD

the twists

I know I’ve said this a lot recently, but this book was a rollercoaster. I was hooked from the very beginning, by the prologue, and stayed that way until the very end. Even with my emotional attachment varying between characters, I needed to know what happened to everyone. The last 120 pages or so were especially crazy, and seriously messed with my heart. I can’t say much more than that, but if you’ve read it, you’ll know. 😉

overall

So all in all, Falling Kingdoms has proved to be worthy of a spot on my favorites shelf, and I’ll definitely be continuing with this glorious high fantasy series. 😀

my rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Have you read this book? Is it on your TBR? If you have read it, what did you think? I’d love to know! 🙂

I’m off to *finally!* read Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson, and play a bit of Splatoon. 😀 I hope you’re all having a fabulous day/night! ❤

(Sorry about the odd format.)

Until next time…

post end

Come visit me! 😀

blog IG

blog TW

blog GR

20 thoughts on “Falling Kingdoms – Review // A High Fantasy Favorite Not Written By Sarah J. Maas”

  1. Woah! Glad you liked this one :)! I tried to get into it,but I couldn’t D:. As much as I love third person, there was something about this book that made it hard for me to like, or at least finish. But I think you convinced me to try again 🙂 the plot twist sounds awesome, especially if it messed with your heart not to sound bad o.o I just mean I love twists like that so I have to know what happens!! Nice review ^_^

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. Aye aye 🙂 I’ll give it another shot then! And I’m glad you know what I mean haha. Some twists are just so shocking! Like Never Missing Never Found and The Truth both have INCREDIBLY PLOT TWISTY ENDINGS! So good!

        Liked by 1 person

  8. Ooh, I’ve looked at this book so many times but always ended up not buying it. You’ve totally convinced me to give it a try! I love fantasy but am always afraid of being disappointed by it. I think getting the magic, the kingdoms and the whole world building right is real challenge for any author. Great review, thanks for sharing!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  9. Pingback: July Wrap Up & August TBR – Heir of Glitter

Leave a Reply to BooksatDawn Cancel reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s