Reviews with content warning for Death - Realm Breaker

Favorite Female Character: Corayne An-Amarat
Favorite Male Character: Andry Trelland

I really liked this one! I’ve been reading work by this author for a while, and I have to say that her writing has grown so much since her first series. RB felt a little non-linear and confusing at times, but once I really got into it I fell in love with the setting and the characters. With an expansive world build and enthralling storyline of danger, deception, and royal intrigue, I would recommend this for fans of LOTR, Six of Crows, and general sweeping fantasy novels.

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erins_bookshelf_'s review

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adventurous tense fast-paced

4.5

I put off reading this book for a while because I wasn't the biggest fan of the Red Queen series, but this was so good and I'm glad I finally got to it! It does fall into the 'chosen one' trope area but honestly I don't even care because it's a really good story and the reason for why she's the only one who can save everyone makes sense rather than it just being "because of magic" or something like that.
I need to get the second book as soon as possible because I'm loving this story so far and I need more of it!!

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ambaright's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

It took me a while to read this book, I started it and read the first 200 pages in Jan 2023. However, a rough spring semester of my junior year of college led me to have a sad and long hiatus from reading. I finished this book five months after I started it, making it the first read of 2023. What I love about Victoria Aveyard, is that no matter how long I take a break from her books, I am able to return back to it with full steam and become entranced again.

Realm Breaker truly is a book about how the A team fails and how the B team, full of a bunch of misfits, come together to save the world. I loved all of the characters and their quirks, the world building is astounding (like the Queen herself always does). I can’t wait to see how Corayne continues to rise to the challenge and save the Ward.

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

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

3.0

This was almost a DNF for me, except that by the time I was thoroughly bored by very little happening of importance, I was already almost done. As an audiobook, at least, the story flies by, unafraid to spend a very long time on each event without quite being dull. I wasn’t engaged by the chemistry of the main band of heroes, though a particular character who appears helpful and then is shown to be nefarious was much more interesting. This lands in a weird middle ground, like it’s trying to be a character-centered narrative with a traveling party that’ll be a tightly-knit found family by the end, and it’s aiming to be a grand journey epic that takes its time and goes to interesting places and is more concerned with the journey than the destination. I can recognize that it has an assassin with a mysterious past, a battle-hardened immortal, a squire trying to never fail anyone like he failed his last knight, a young woman finally making her way in the world, and an old woman who is prophetic and mysterious. It also has a queen trying to consolidate her power, a mysterious and malevolent prince, and a traveler trying to get help. However, these brief descriptions are more exciting than what actually happens in the story. I recognize the roles they play in the narrative but I don’t care about them as people and I keep forgetting who everyone is. I made my list of important characters without reviewing the list from the official blurb (available above), and my list doesn't quite match because it feels like the characters were chosen based on tropes, but a slightly different list were actually interesting in the story.

Part of what makes everyone feel interchangeable is that most of their individual goals aren’t well-defined. The main antagonist wants to open the spindles as a kind of revenge for his twin being stolen and raised to an inheritance that he only lost due to the luck of being born second. That explains why he’s angry but doesn’t sufficiently explain why he chose this particular plan as his revenge. The queen is my favorite character, her goals and motives are really clear and they make sense in the story. I understand why she’s doing what she’s doing, whether or not I think it’s wise or good. As for the others, they want to stop the spindles from being opened because the spindles let in deadly creatures. Great, love a “save the world goal”, but their individual goals other than “stop the antagonist and don’t die” are lost in favor of cultivating mystery and potential later reveals. It makes them feel interchangeable, because even if their goals are explained before or during the journey they don’t seem to affect what actually happens. At one point they get imprisoned, and not only has one of them been in prison before, they’ve been in this particular prison and already has a way to get out as soon as they decide to implement it. It means that even a prison break (traditionally a pretty dramatic bit of story) is anticlimactic and almost immediately solved.

The events of the prologue felt like they should have been the end of the first book, there's so much tension and depth in such a brief space, and then the rest of the book doesn't live up to that promise.

The worldbuilding related to the spindles is interesting, but the details don’t have time to matter before this portion of the trilogy is over. I have no interest in the sequels. This was bland in an inoffensive but uninteresting way. I don’t hate it, I don’t like it, it’s just blah and I don’t recommend it.

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madisone's review

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adventurous hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

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nora_knight's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

As the introductory book to a series, I enjoyed it. It took a while to introduce each of the characters and set off on their quest, but it seems to set up an exciting adventure and I'm already anticipating reading the next book.

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lexihworth's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? No

4.75

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