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upturnedroots 's review for:
The Traitor's Kingdom
by Erin Beaty
All right this was freaking cute.
The fluff is top-notch - but so is the story. I felt a lot of anguish and hope and suspense.
I like the development of ALL the main characters and their relationships/interactions - and the new characters, the villain - EVERYONE. This RARELY happens.
And usually, with the way trilogies have been going for me - the third one lets me down by at least one star. Here, the rating actually INCREASED. This is because while we get the happy endings we want, there's still a lot of tension and action in the espionage plot, and a lot of gritty realness about the costs of war, which I think is good for a YA audience to understand. There were moments I truly believed things might not come together, and was surprised at the timing of events when they did.
Beaty's characters have excellent rapport by this point in the series. I enjoy all the wonderful friendships between the women in these books too.
BUT Lani and Cass are my personal favorites, so that ending was just *chef's kiss* perfection. I LOVE THAT SHE PROPOSED IN SUCH A PERSONAL WAY. Honestly the way their love grew was so innocent and cute, and all of their friends teasing them was adorable too.
This was a bit of a departure from the recent norm for me - if faerie fantasy can be a norm?!? IDK it's quarantine . This is fantasy, but without magic or magical creatures. Which is new for me. A lot of military talk and strategy as well, which makes sense given the author's background. But I enjoyed the density of the world-building in that way - again a rarity for me. Usually, I'm not into super dense detailed world-building. Here, it kept my attention and I think it's worked well to elevate this series from being too YA also.
So older readers (yours truly) can appreciate it.
These covers are so gosh darn beautiful I may just order the trilogy for my bookshelf. We shall see...
The fluff is top-notch - but so is the story. I felt a lot of anguish and hope and suspense.
I like the development of ALL the main characters and their relationships/interactions - and the new characters, the villain - EVERYONE. This RARELY happens.
And usually, with the way trilogies have been going for me - the third one lets me down by at least one star. Here, the rating actually INCREASED. This is because while we get the happy endings we want, there's still a lot of tension and action in the espionage plot, and a lot of gritty realness about the costs of war
Spoiler
Sage's PTSD, the murder of soldiers, to name a few momentsSpoiler
THE WEDDINGS!!!!Beaty's characters have excellent rapport by this point in the series. I enjoy
Spoiler
the discussions of Sage and Alex needing to grow independently and grow together for their relationship to blossom, andSpoiler
Sage and Alex's relationship is a lot better in this one; he's not just all puppy love. He tones down the mooning.BUT Lani and Cass are my personal favorites, so that ending was just *chef's kiss* perfection. I LOVE THAT SHE PROPOSED IN SUCH A PERSONAL WAY. Honestly the way their love grew was so innocent and cute, and all of their friends teasing them was adorable too.
This was a bit of a departure from the recent norm for me - if faerie fantasy can be a norm?!? IDK it's quarantine . This is fantasy, but without magic or magical creatures. Which is new for me. A lot of military talk and strategy as well, which makes sense given the author's background. But I enjoyed the density of the world-building in that way - again a rarity for me. Usually, I'm not into super dense detailed world-building. Here, it kept my attention and I think it's worked well to elevate this series from being too YA also.
So older readers (yours truly) can appreciate it.
These covers are so gosh darn beautiful I may just order the trilogy for my bookshelf. We shall see...