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A review by readingwithmrleo
The Tournament of Heirs by Amilea Perez
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
I feel sad not giving this book a higher rating because I think this story has so much potential and I loved the author’s creation overall, but I honestly had trouble getting through the book. I’ll explain, but this is clearly a me problem and I still feel like this book could be loved by many. And while reading it, the images in my head were so vivid, the setup with the beautiful Aztec inspiration, I was kind of craving a movie version of the book, could really imagine it. So, I still think it was a good one.
Let’s start with what I did enjoy! First, the characters were super well crafted, they were easy to love and fun to get to know. I really liked the special bond between siblings, that is something I truly enjoy seeing in books. Both POV were as interesting to me, so I was always looking forward to seeing more of each character. And they had amazing character development throughout the story.
The main idea of the book was intriguing, and I was looking forward to discovering what was truly going on and how the big tournament would evolve. The Aztec mythology was super interesting, loved the culture so much and I wanted to know everything about it.
I did surprisingly quite love both romances in that story. I say surprisingly because I’m not super fond of instant love and one of the romances was that trope. But it was still sweet enough to make me like it and the imminent tournament to the death made it make sense (I’d probably do the same if I knew I could die tomorrow, ya know?). Anyways, Metztli’s story was my favorite though, with so much tension, angst and enemies’ vibes. Not going to lie, her love interest was probably my favorite character (with the dog ofc), I was rooting for him since the start!
Now, on to the things I had trouble with. My first problem was with the length of this book. I won’t mind a lengthy book if it makes me forget it’s actually long, but with this one, I kept waiting for the tournament to start and it really felt like just this: waiting. I think maybe it would have helped if the ratio had been the other way around like a 40% of set up and then 60% of tournament… but the wait was too long for me, and I lost my interest. There was also quite a bit of repetitions in our character’s inner dialogue, which started to get annoying when you are waiting for action to start but feel stuck with the same thoughts on repeat.
Which brings me to a second point: I do like to be in our characters head, but I feel like most of the time it was a lot of telling, thinking, and not a lot of acting, showing things happening. Even through the tournament, there were a lot of chapters where it was mostly waiting and once again getting inner dialogue or exchanges instead of action. I’m not sure I would have minded that much if the book wasn’t stating in big bold letters that this is a tournament to the death. I expected so much more action because of that… when, in reality, there is maybe 20% of this book that actually shows some action. And when a book is over 500 pages long… it leaves a lot of pages with not much happening to move the plot forward in my opinion, which was a disappointment for me.
I liked the idea of the prophecy, but it stretched for so long with absolutely NO clue on what it actually was. It was just repeating that there is a prophecy over and over without saying anything new and letting us know repeatedly that everyone knew about it… except us and Metztli, apparently. It got frustrating for me to be honest.
That being said, I still think that this was impressive for a debut, I did love the author’s writing, it was good, and she was definitely able to get me intrigued, invested and make me fall for the characters she created. I loved it enough to want to continue the series and know what will happen next for sure. I grew attached (not sure I will get over my heart getting broken like that!!) and I need answers, a vengeance, something, you know?
Huge thanks to the author for the most wonderful PR package. All opinions are my own.
P.s. Sorry for the late post on here, wanted to leave a few weeks after release before I posted this because of my rating but it ended up being a super hectic month and I find myself only posting now.
Let’s start with what I did enjoy! First, the characters were super well crafted, they were easy to love and fun to get to know. I really liked the special bond between siblings, that is something I truly enjoy seeing in books. Both POV were as interesting to me, so I was always looking forward to seeing more of each character. And they had amazing character development throughout the story.
The main idea of the book was intriguing, and I was looking forward to discovering what was truly going on and how the big tournament would evolve. The Aztec mythology was super interesting, loved the culture so much and I wanted to know everything about it.
I did surprisingly quite love both romances in that story. I say surprisingly because I’m not super fond of instant love and one of the romances was that trope. But it was still sweet enough to make me like it and the imminent tournament to the death made it make sense (I’d probably do the same if I knew I could die tomorrow, ya know?). Anyways, Metztli’s story was my favorite though, with so much tension, angst and enemies’ vibes. Not going to lie, her love interest was probably my favorite character (with the dog ofc), I was rooting for him since the start!
Now, on to the things I had trouble with. My first problem was with the length of this book. I won’t mind a lengthy book if it makes me forget it’s actually long, but with this one, I kept waiting for the tournament to start and it really felt like just this: waiting. I think maybe it would have helped if the ratio had been the other way around like a 40% of set up and then 60% of tournament… but the wait was too long for me, and I lost my interest. There was also quite a bit of repetitions in our character’s inner dialogue, which started to get annoying when you are waiting for action to start but feel stuck with the same thoughts on repeat.
Which brings me to a second point: I do like to be in our characters head, but I feel like most of the time it was a lot of telling, thinking, and not a lot of acting, showing things happening. Even through the tournament, there were a lot of chapters where it was mostly waiting and once again getting inner dialogue or exchanges instead of action. I’m not sure I would have minded that much if the book wasn’t stating in big bold letters that this is a tournament to the death. I expected so much more action because of that… when, in reality, there is maybe 20% of this book that actually shows some action. And when a book is over 500 pages long… it leaves a lot of pages with not much happening to move the plot forward in my opinion, which was a disappointment for me.
I liked the idea of the prophecy, but it stretched for so long with absolutely NO clue on what it actually was. It was just repeating that there is a prophecy over and over without saying anything new and letting us know repeatedly that everyone knew about it… except us and Metztli, apparently. It got frustrating for me to be honest.
That being said, I still think that this was impressive for a debut, I did love the author’s writing, it was good, and she was definitely able to get me intrigued, invested and make me fall for the characters she created. I loved it enough to want to continue the series and know what will happen next for sure. I grew attached (not sure I will get over my heart getting broken like that!!) and I need answers, a vengeance, something, you know?
Huge thanks to the author for the most wonderful PR package. All opinions are my own.
P.s. Sorry for the late post on here, wanted to leave a few weeks after release before I posted this because of my rating but it ended up being a super hectic month and I find myself only posting now.