Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Priory of the Orange Tree

i find this book so hard to rate. on one hand, this is probably the best fantasy book i’ve ever read, and i immediately want to read the prequel. on the other hand, i did find some issues with this. anyways im gonna break my thoughts down & maybe that’ll edge me into a decision:

- i loved ead. i would marry ead if she was real. i love her. her overall characterisation was sublime, and although her ending is bittersweet, it is overall good.

- sabran underwent one of the best arcs i’ve read. going from a mean, arrogant, stubborn women to a

forgiving, understanding and someone open and actively causing change

was amazing to read. her ending was perfect, as was her dialogue. no notes

- i found myself getting… bored at times with tané. i like her sure. but compared to ead’s main story, not as much happened here. her story only really felt as though it picked up like 65% into this book. which for a book that is 800 pages….. that’s too long

- loth was ok! like it was written well, but i didn’t grow beyond anything to just liking him, and found his story often to be a waste of time

- roos can go choke. i don’t care. i don’t even care if the intention was to have a main character so insufferable. i hated him & his chapters and i wish him pain and suffering even though he’s not even real.

i would say the overarching plot was so intriguing. it felt perfectly paced, and had plot twists galore. so much kept changing, so i was constantly on the edge of my seat. i saw a review saying this book rambled a lot and honestly, i disagree! this book absolutely needed the pages it did. it would not be as good of a book as it is. i mean yeah it could’ve been split into multiple books but i felt like it defo needed all its pages.

but, it wasn’t perfect. for one, so much was going on all the time, meaning i would forget shit. like this is the first book ive actively had to note take just to grasp. that also ties in with the fact nothing is explained!!!! i mean obviously a lot is explained, but many crucial foundations to this story are not explained, and either thrown into the glossary & timeline. that is all fair & dandy, but i should not have to search ur book to remember who crucial characters are! sure if they’re random side character A ok u don’t need to explain them, but when you don’t explain what the fuck virtuedom even is, or the dukes court (i don’t even remember the name oh my god). like i still could not remember who was the duke spiritual, a crest, a goldenbirch, or combe. like please set some foundations. ur big bad should not be explained in the fucking glossary!!!!!!!!!!!! also come on not explaining simple things like what an ichneumon is. (edit: google is confusing me as to whether these are even real. but seriously what happened to death of the author. i should not have to consult anything BUT the text to know what’s going on imo).

that is the biggest “issue” imo holding this book back for me. it just expects you to be aware of how its world works. like yes should i have glanced at the glossary & timeline before beginning? yeah. did the glossary & timeline also have a shitload of spoilers? YEAH. like ??????

i very much did love this book, i would literally die for ead, sabran & tané, and wanted to cry when i realised i was done. but idk the lacklustre worldbuilding foundations were infuriating. goinng further with the worldbuilding e.g. the story of cleolind, the priory, etc. was great! the layers needed to build up to that though were…. lacking.
edit: i lied even tho i said this book did flop in parts i actually don’t care because this book made me so emotional & it feels wrong not having this as a 5-star based on how much it made me feel

Content Warnings

proudtobeabookaholic's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

It's not easy to write a review for this kind of book, without it being a short story in itself, but I'll try to get the major points across.

It took a while to get into the book because there's a LOT of names. Names of characters, places and titles. Fortunatly there's lists of characters and unfamiliar words at the end of the book to help against the confusion, but it also kind of throwed me off track to have to check them. However, there's four "storytellers". Ead Duryan, a mage from the Priory of the Orange Tree, sent to protect Queen Sabran in Inys. Lord Arteloth Beck, close friend of Sabran. Tané, who's trained her whole life to become a dragon rider. Niclays Roos, an anatomist and alchemist, banished from Inys by the queen. My favorites quickly became Ead and Tané, while Niclays mostly felt unnecessary. "Loth" growed on me throughout the book, but I give my love to the female protagonists this time! Even Sabran, who I found unnerving to start with, became a favorite!

Religion and faith play a big part in this book and, as in our own world, have a large impact on things. I'm not very fond of this, but it's an important part of the story. The book is long - too long - and some scenes could have been cut entirely. Some things get solved a bit too easy, while others drag on. I also expected to see more of the dragons, but overall I quite enjoyed myself while reading.

I've spent almost 2 months in this world, doing a buddy read with a friend. It's been so much fun to talk about it every other week, and I feel like I got more out of the book this way. I do feel a bit empty now, to not spending anymore time with the characters, but at the same time I'm glad it's over!

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nic3's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The world building and mythology in this book are immense. The different countries feel different and made sense. On the other hand the pacing of the various stories was inconsistent, with some areas laboured and others skimmed. Overall the plot was compelling, but there were some technical aspects that let it down. I would still recommend it to others however.

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lalu's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This was recommended to me after I mentioned that I hated the lack of women in LOTR. It even says on the cover "[A] feminist Lord of the Rings". And I have to disagree. It is high fantasy in a big world with lots of lore and different cultures. But that's were the similarities end (imo).
Priory puts so much more focus on its characters, their role in society, their hopes and dreams, growth and their relationships. And none of the characters is perfect, it's not black and white, and for that I loved (most of) them even more. And there are stakes! Characters actually die and it's heartbreaking but also it made me a lot more emotionally invested in the story. I even had moments when I thought that

there wouldn't be a happy ending and the Nameless One would win and kill everyone

Content Warnings

iammmartina_'s review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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chimichannika's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.75

three stars is generous tbh and I ended up changing it to 2.5 to be more honest about it 🫠 I have so many thoughts on this book (a few good, quite a few nuanced, and many critiques) and maybe will try to condense them to an appropriate review length; if I do so successfully I may come back and lengthen this review later but tldr… priory I yearn for the book you have the potential to be 🥲

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meghan_w's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

What a perfect book to finish as Pride month begins! I did not plan this, but it is just perfect. At a whopping 848 pages/26 hours in audio this book is not for the faint of heart. I previously DNF’d it because I didn’t have the attention span for its length. So glad I came back to it because I loved it! Sabran and Ead are my two favorite characters with so much character growth. There’s magic, adventure, love, heartbreak, and best of all DRAGONS. 🐉

My struggle with high fantasy is keeping track of characters, but the author is amazing and has a glossary of characters and definitions in the back. 👏🏻

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