Reviews with content warning for War - Realm Breaker

This was SO GOOD. It's everything you want from epic fantasy — awesome descriptions, allll the kingdoms, immortals, heirs that somehow only have cousins, not siblings, and names that look like keyboard smashes.

You can really see how Aveyard's writing has become so much more mature since RQ. I loved all the characters and their stories linked really well together.

I especially loved Erida, mainly because she reminds me of my favourite historical women (I'm a history major, forgive me). She's such a well written morally gray/black/idek character and I'm so so excited to see how her story progresses and all the other ones as well.

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ging090803's review against another edition

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adventurous funny fast-paced

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

5.0

I love Victoria Aveyard. This book was funny. I love the worldbuilding. At first, I was lost but it didn't take time to settle. I love the caracters. I love the diversity. I love the plot, it is different. Yes, some teenager have to save the world but there is still older main characters to help. I like this aspect. I also like the concept of other realms. It is different and it explains a lot of things in a fantasy world like monsters, magic, etc.

Great book. Can't wait for the second one.

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kittykaz's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

The found family in this was immaculate. They don’t just work well as a group, but each individual relationship between them was fleshed out, making the whole team so much more dynamic. As for the wordlbuilding and the actual plot, it didn’t stand out to me from the vast majority of high fantasy series, although the absence of the typical “elves, dwarves and humans versus some weird goblings”-spiel was a very nice surprise. It’s not an Us versus Them conflict, but instead the conflict lies in the interests of the opposing sides. There is a clear focus on the personal goals each character is working to achieve which makes it easy to root for (or against) your favourite characters.

Additionally, this was one of the few examples of a Multiple POV format well done. Every character had new insights to offer, providing the reader with a whole new layer of the story that is entirely unique to the narrating character.

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marylinaris's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

While there are several things I didn't like about this book, I did overall enjoy my reading experience of this book.

Let's start with the negatives.
• This book had way too many POVs, especially when it came the main group had found themselves together. That was also the point I felt as if there were too many characters present - I mean, I was intrigued by Andry in the beginning but it felt like he didn't really get that much attention in the later part of the book, similar with Corayne, who is just kinda present for parts of the book.
• So much book, so little plot. While I feel like the plot picked up in the last third of the book the rest had a lot of chapters with little plot development. This only irks me a little though because I did enjoy the character focused storytelling, though I hoped for more to happen overall.
• The action scenes fell flat for me most of the time. In contrast to the rest of the book, a lot happened in a lot less pages and they felt confused about what was happening (no matter who was the POV character, which is probably my main problem with it).

The positives on the other hand:
• The world building felt like a familiar fantasy setting but unique enough not to come off as a bland copy.
• I really like all of the characters - except Taristan, who only got slightly intriguing in the last chapter. Out of all of them Dom is the most compelling character by far, though. I love him. Would die for him. 10/10 would read the next book just for him.

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madelinelindy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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kenziewol's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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

4.5

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faithkalia's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging inspiring tense medium-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

"Only men can speak all day and still think themselves silent"

Realm Breaker is a beautiful beginning to Aveyard's new YA fantasy trilogy, and by the first book alone, I can tell it is going to be a hit. Through the Red Queen Series we were able to see that the author had a certain talent for world building, but this book brought it to the next level. Reading this book truly made me feel immersed in this land of lost magic. Not to mention the characters- Sorasa Sarn is easily one of my new favourite book characters of all time. A badass with a secret past? I'm sold. I truly adored the writing of the book and, of course, the neck breaking plot twists (I'm still not over Red Queen). It is exactly what I was looking for in a fantasy series. Overall, this book really sold me on Aveyard's work and I am so, so excited to see what is to come in the series.

Rating: 4.5/5

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ali_k0's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Overall good book, there was just long periods of (what felt like) nothing, in-between short periods of something. Several parts felt like they were there to just show how awesome one character or another was.

However, the world building was deeply thought-out, and Aveyard never got lore dumpy. I just wish the pace of the book had been faster, 560 pages felt needless for book 1.

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