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A review by dianagastelum
The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye
2.0
From the blurb, The Crown's Game is supposed to be a book full of magical duels, suspense and romance. I did not find any of that in this unfortunately. I seem to be a part of the minority on this one since from the reviews this book is getting lots of people seem to be enjoying it. I can't say I really agree though.
The Crown's Game is set in a fictionalized imperial Russia where two enchanters have to compete in the Crown's Game to become the tsar's Imperial Enchanter. Vika has been trained by her mentor, her father, on her magic that is based around nature. Nikolai is an orphan who has been trained by his mentor since he was young on his magic that is based on mechanics. The laws of magic say that there can only be one enchanter which led to the creation of the Crown's Game. The Crown's Game is initiated by the tsar in which each enchanter is given 5 turns to impress the tsar by displaying their magical skills and worthiness. At the end of the Crown's Game one of the enchanter will have to die.
The premise is what initially had drawn me in and I was so excited to read this book but it feel flat for me. I was honestly really disappointed but I did like the imagery and the way that Evelyn Skye described this fictional Russia she wrote about. There were also some events that occurred which I definitely wasn't expecting so that was a big contributor as to why I did enjoy this book at times.
Now onto the this that I did not like unfortunately. First of all, I thought that this book was going to be filled with dangerous magic and magical duels. The moments of magic that we do see weren't suspenseful in anyway at all. Both characters constantly keep thinking that they will use their turns to take out their opponent yet they never do. Instead they use their magic to paint the city. I'm not joking. None of it felt like a magical duel which left me disappointed.
The romance. I felt that it was all just insta-love and forced drama. Vika and Nikolai are instantly attracted to each other from the second they see each other but they don't interact with each other enough. They spend most of the book apart. I feel like their relationship wasn't developed enough in order to be believable. It felt lacking overall. Now Pasha is the other member of the love triangle but he was never even a contender in my mind. It's obvious that Vika and Nikolai would be the ones to be together. I felt that Pasha was just added into the romance to add some drama but it looked forced.
Overall, even though I did have various problems I can understand why some people would like this book. I guess it wasn't my cup of tea, it was too boring. Despite all of this though, I will say that due to certain events that took place at the end of the book, my interest was piqued again and I will be picking up the sequel to see what happens.
The Crown's Game is set in a fictionalized imperial Russia where two enchanters have to compete in the Crown's Game to become the tsar's Imperial Enchanter. Vika has been trained by her mentor, her father, on her magic that is based around nature. Nikolai is an orphan who has been trained by his mentor since he was young on his magic that is based on mechanics. The laws of magic say that there can only be one enchanter which led to the creation of the Crown's Game. The Crown's Game is initiated by the tsar in which each enchanter is given 5 turns to impress the tsar by displaying their magical skills and worthiness. At the end of the Crown's Game one of the enchanter will have to die.
The premise is what initially had drawn me in and I was so excited to read this book but it feel flat for me. I was honestly really disappointed but I did like the imagery and the way that Evelyn Skye described this fictional Russia she wrote about. There were also some events that occurred which I definitely wasn't expecting so that was a big contributor as to why I did enjoy this book at times.
Now onto the this that I did not like unfortunately. First of all, I thought that this book was going to be filled with dangerous magic and magical duels. The moments of magic that we do see weren't suspenseful in anyway at all. Both characters constantly keep thinking that they will use their turns to take out their opponent yet they never do. Instead they use their magic to paint the city. I'm not joking. None of it felt like a magical duel which left me disappointed.
The romance. I felt that it was all just insta-love and forced drama. Vika and Nikolai are instantly attracted to each other from the second they see each other but they don't interact with each other enough. They spend most of the book apart. I feel like their relationship wasn't developed enough in order to be believable. It felt lacking overall. Now Pasha is the other member of the love triangle but he was never even a contender in my mind. It's obvious that Vika and Nikolai would be the ones to be together. I felt that Pasha was just added into the romance to add some drama but it looked forced.
Overall, even though I did have various problems I can understand why some people would like this book. I guess it wasn't my cup of tea, it was too boring. Despite all of this though, I will say that due to certain events that took place at the end of the book, my interest was piqued again and I will be picking up the sequel to see what happens.