Reviews

A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy

daniella84's review against another edition

2.0

Going into this I was expecting the main focus to be the whole 'princesses must fight to the death' thing but ...it wasn't. A lot of this was talking and exposition about things I wasn't immersed in the world enough to care about, also a LOT of miscommunication/secret keeping which is a big thing I dislike in books. I also felt I couldn't really understand our main character's motivations - she seemed to change very quickly from wanting to be a normal girl to wanting to win the competition,

Spoiler

especially after her father was killed, and we time-skipped over the 2 weeks in which she seemed to do almost a complete 180 in terms of motivations

. The twist at the end didn't get me (she was a little TOO much of a good ally) and the sister dynamic didn't feel established enough for me to actually care about the fight to the death when it came down to it. I HATED the romance, and didn't find Baccha endearing in the way I think we were supposed to. I think I was expecting this to be more about the sisters (maybe even a dual POV) and them coming to terms with what they had to do, training etc, but instead I feel there were a lot of times where we lost sight of a end goal/purpose and were looking for answers to things that ultimately didn't really matter. If this weren't a duology I feel maybe some of these issues could have been solved by having the plot condensed down, but its not so :) Did like the allusions to like colonialism/racism etc but I don't think we got enough of these politics to do much meaningful with it.

pizzaaa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring mysterious fast-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

4.25

neethya's review against another edition

4.0

Das war eine unglaublich coole, kreative Fantasy-Welt. Mit vielen Details zu Mythologie, Geschichte, Politik, Rassen und Magieformen angereichert, blieb daneben aber leider wenig Platz für Handlung. Action und Spannung kommt dann jedoch im letzten Drittel auf, sodass ich jetzt hohe Erwartungen an den zweiten Band habe, das alles entsprechend zusammen zu ziehen.

clabear's review against another edition

1.0

i enjoyed the plot quite a bit, but the pacing and the characterization made no sense and was inconsistent. eva said she never showed tears or cried but it seemed that every single chapter she either started crying. i think this book had a lot of potential as the storyline was quite good, but it wasn't developed enough and lacked cohesion.

novelhaus's review against another edition

4.0

I think this was a solid start to what should be a great series! Let's see, there was culture, there was magic, there were north african roots, there were twists- this book definitely delivered. The characters were pretty good too! I definitely rooted for them and felt connections, though I did feel they fell flat in some places.

The story was also one that moved quick. It was a page turner for sure and I never found myself getting bored or wanting to put it down and pick up something else.

Overall, strong start and I cannot wait to see what happens next!

gizem_00's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

glendareads39's review against another edition

4.0

Good pacing, fascinating world-building, and great descriptions of costumes and weapons. There were some romance, I felt the romance part of the story was rushed. Compelling character dynanics.

thechroniclesofmedora's review against another edition

4.0

This book surprised me

FULL REVIEW TO COME

amberimagines's review against another edition

3.5

This started off strong, but kind of lost me in the second half and the MC was getting on my nerves by the end lol.

alwaysaaryn's review against another edition

4.0

I loved it!!! I loved the magic system, the tattoos, and the side characters, just wished there were more scenes focused on the sibling rivalry!