A review by olivyre
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? No

5.0

Spoilers!

Isn’t orange a lovely colour? I love the front cover of this book. It compelled me to buy it. I was not disappointed. One might say I was appointed?

This was the first lesbian relationship I’ve ever read ever (or seen in general since I’ve never watched one either) so I was super enthusiastic about that. I dogeared all the cute moments of Ead and Sabran because I thought if this was going to be my favourite book, I have to read it properly and not care if the spine is broken etc.

I was quite literally wiggling my feet in happiness from the cuteness of Sabran and Ead. 

I very much liked the women as the main characters as normally epic fantasy is covered head to toe in men with the occasional really badass woman, but this one turned that on its head. 

And there were dragons and pirates and courts with nobles and queens and romance and an itty bit of spice and it was *chef’s kiss*. 

The world building as well. I swear they went to every place on those amazing looking maps and each place was its own. I loved referencing where they were in the map and especially liked that Ead circled around places rather than journeying straight through and never returning anywhere. It made the story come together.

And when Niclays’ perspective linked with Ead’s through Sulyard and then Tané linked with Niclays and everything came together – it was so satisfying.

I just loved this book.

Actually there was something I didn’t like: the huge build up to the Nameless One and they were defeated so fast and we never learnt why it was bad other than vague stuff about the Grief of Ages. Maybe that’s in the prequel.

And I think this should have been a series. It was a lot to fit in one book so some things were sacrificed (Tané and Susa, Ead and Chassar, the ladies of the bedroom, idk what Aralaq was, how they realised Crest was the cupbearer, how they defeated her so fast, I’d have lived more background stuff with Ead in the Priory). Yeah this would have been one epic series. A series would’ve been perfecto.

‘‘I think you a self-righteous fool whose head is harder than a rock. And I would not change you for the world.’

Sabran finally looked at her.

‘Tell me, Eadaz uq-Nāra,’ she said softly, ‘am I a greater fool to want you still?’

Ead crossed the space between them. ‘No more a fool than I,’ she said, ‘to love you as I do.’’