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A review by libralita
Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes
5.0
I finally got the money to finally order the next book in the Falling Kingdoms series and I couldn’t be more excited. Also I’ve been watching Arrow and that young man on the cover with the red hood reminds me an awful lot of someone else in Arrow.
So our story begins with Lysandra’s village being burned down because her people didn’t think tell a guy nicknamed “the king of blood” no, would end up with them dead.
“The king’s lips stretched back from his teeth in a smile that would look warm and genuine to all who did not know the darkness behind it. ‘I hope you are as pleased as I am about this road. I know it’s been a difficult time for everyone and I take no pleasure in the blood spilled in the process.’”—page 16
His nickname is “the king of blood”, so doubtful.
It’s then revealed that King Gaius plans about creating this imperial road. He also reveals that he’s ending Aron and Cleo’s engagement. Instead Cleo will be marrying Magnus.
“‘Huh.’ Brion said. ‘I wasn’t expecting that at all.’”—page 19
Really? Because I totally was. I’m rapidly discovering that one problem with this series is it’s predictable. I can generally tell who’s going to die and what’s going to happen. Despite this, it does manage to be enjoyable because the world itself is still really interesting.
Over with Jonas, he recruited Lysandra to his rebel group, Lys is kind of annoying. She just whines about wanting to do something. So they finally go to a road building camp and she sees someone from her old town. This girl turns out to be crazy soon all hell breaks lose and the only that really stops it is a tornado. In the sanctuary the watchers and immortals think that their magic is going to the mortal world and their world is dying so that’s going on.
Speaking of the sanctuary, the king has a new advisor who’s a 4,000 year old watcher who he has dream sex with. He also wants to find the power and take over the world (Of course.) and Melenia has heard a prophecy that the King will make her, the queen. This book is fucking weird.
Now Jonas has a plan to kidnap Cleo, I at first thought this was a horrible idea but he actually had a someone what decent plan. He manages to kidnap Cleo and I feel really bad for Nic first he finds out Cleo has been kidnapped and then the king snaps Mira’s neck. I actually kind of didn’t really see that coming. But any way I feel bad for the guy.
Back at the palace with Magnus, Lucia wakes up but it’s revealed that Queen Althea has been keeping her daughter asleep because the Queen believes that Lucia’s power will consume her and turn her evil. Going back to this story being predictable I did see that Althea was actually making Lucia sleep and I predicted that the queen was going to die. Which I was really sad about because up until she talked about killing Lucia and making all those blood sacrifices I really liked the queen. She was such a sad character because she just has this awful husband and has had a really poor life. So that sucks.
Over in the wild lands Cleo is kind of getting the hang of living with the rebels. When it’s revealed that the king is sending all his soldiers to find her because he won’t meet the rebel’s demands to stop the road being built. The soldiers are just murdering anyone who gets in their way. The soldiers also find the rebels’s camp so they have to scatter. Jonas and Cleo hide together they fight and then they kiss.
Jonas and Cleo, it was a little less insta-love-y than Theon and Cleo but boy did it come out left field. Rhodes writing romance is so weird because it’s like she foreshadows and sets up that two characters are going to get together and immediately they get together. There’s no build up, there’s no real character interaction. Which I guess is kind of nice because you don’t have to really sit through the love banter but…still is so odd. Also poor Nic, he aint leaving that friend zone.
So that happens then they devise a plan for Jonas and his group to kill Magnus and Gaius during the wedding. Some red wedding shit really. Cleo goes back to the palace and then Jonas meets up with his group.
Cleo returns and the king is really suspicious of Cleo. However we don’t have time for that because Magnus is really sad about his mom being dead. It’s a pretty sad scene when he starts crying in front of Cleo. Then he tells Cleo about Mira being dead. So heartbreaking.
Things aren’t going well for Jonas. Falling apart.
“Magnus gave her a look. ‘Oh, not at all. Since helping to take her father’s kingdom and destroy her life, I couldn’t help but fall really in love with her. Yes, obviously it was arranged.’”—page 235
That sass, though.
So the wedding begins and just before Magnus and Cleo get married Jonas and the rebels reveal themselves. Jonas has Magnus with blade against his neck. But like an idiot Jonas monologues. Turns out the king had a bunch of guards hidden in the crowd. So the rebels are overwhelmed and then all hell breaks lose. An earth quake happens and nearly kills Gaius but Magnus saved him.
Despite this being as bloody as the red wedding Gaius is dick, after slapping Cleo around and nearly killing her they continue. In the ruined temple, Magnus and Cleo are married.
Meanwhile Lucia is getting magic lessons from a witch.
“‘I can do fire magic myself. Allow me to demonstrate.’ The witch’s forehead wrinkled as she studied the bare wicks of the candles. It was an amusing sight as she strained, her face scrunching with effort as if she was seated upon a chamber pot.”—page 265
She’s not as good as Lucia. So Lucia nearly murders her. Which I fully understand, I always want to murder incompetent teachers. But seriously, this is our first look at how Lucia’s magic is corrupting her.
At the after wedding feast in the palace the king is being a lying bastard. Cleo gets seriously drunk and Ashur gives Cleo a dagger incase she wants to kill Magnus. She doesn’t because Magnus is too quick for her. There’s this really weird not sex scene between Magnus and Cleo. This whole marriage thing is so weird.
Then the wedding tour starts at Limeros, and this part is pretty boring. The only really interesting thing is that Cleo’s ring lights up when she touches this wheel thing that watchers made, Magnus nearly gets assassinated by Lys’s brother and Cleo and Magnus kiss.
After the wedding tour, Magnus joins Aron on a hunt for Jonas and also to follow the king’s request to go meet up with Xanthus. The guy in charge of making the king’s road. This is when I really start to hate Aron. Brion gets captured and the bastard Aron killed Brion. Brion has been my favorite character and predicted that he was going to die but dammit it made me so sad. Then Aron nearly rapes a girl. Then it’s revealed that undering the kid’s command Aron killed Althea. My other kind of favorite character. Fuck Aron and I know Magnus was like it was so unsatisfying to kill Aron but for me it was beautiful. Magnus is now my favorite character for killing the fucker.
Back in Auranos, we see Cleo and Lucia meet for the first time and Cleo’s ring acts up. But we also see Cleo getting under Lucia’s skin which I kind of like. Later Nic confuses his love for Cleo and asks her to run away with him but she rejects him. He gets drunk and Ashur shows and up. Then Ashur kisses Nic and I totally called that Ashur would be gay.
Back in Paelsia, Jonas and the rebels decide to invade the camp sight so that they kidnap Xanthus and Magnus. Jonas tries but is killed then is brought back to life by Phaedra who takes her human form. Magnus shows up and than Xanthus. Xanthus kills Phaedra and leaves. Then the camp burst into magical flames. Jonas runs away.
Lys has been captured with 5 other rebels, Lys is put in a cell with her brother. It’s revealed that Lucia will be sacrificed and the whole world will burn.
The story ends with Cleo promising to help Lucia with her powers.
Over all this book had similar problems to the first book, it’s predictable and romance comes out of nowhere. However, it was still really fun and I will continue with the series.
Spoiler
So our story begins with Lysandra’s village being burned down because her people didn’t think tell a guy nicknamed “the king of blood” no, would end up with them dead.
“The king’s lips stretched back from his teeth in a smile that would look warm and genuine to all who did not know the darkness behind it. ‘I hope you are as pleased as I am about this road. I know it’s been a difficult time for everyone and I take no pleasure in the blood spilled in the process.’”—page 16
His nickname is “the king of blood”, so doubtful.
It’s then revealed that King Gaius plans about creating this imperial road. He also reveals that he’s ending Aron and Cleo’s engagement. Instead Cleo will be marrying Magnus.
“‘Huh.’ Brion said. ‘I wasn’t expecting that at all.’”—page 19
Really? Because I totally was. I’m rapidly discovering that one problem with this series is it’s predictable. I can generally tell who’s going to die and what’s going to happen. Despite this, it does manage to be enjoyable because the world itself is still really interesting.
Over with Jonas, he recruited Lysandra to his rebel group, Lys is kind of annoying. She just whines about wanting to do something. So they finally go to a road building camp and she sees someone from her old town. This girl turns out to be crazy soon all hell breaks lose and the only that really stops it is a tornado. In the sanctuary the watchers and immortals think that their magic is going to the mortal world and their world is dying so that’s going on.
Speaking of the sanctuary, the king has a new advisor who’s a 4,000 year old watcher who he has dream sex with. He also wants to find the power and take over the world (Of course.) and Melenia has heard a prophecy that the King will make her, the queen. This book is fucking weird.
Now Jonas has a plan to kidnap Cleo, I at first thought this was a horrible idea but he actually had a someone what decent plan. He manages to kidnap Cleo and I feel really bad for Nic first he finds out Cleo has been kidnapped and then the king snaps Mira’s neck. I actually kind of didn’t really see that coming. But any way I feel bad for the guy.
Back at the palace with Magnus, Lucia wakes up but it’s revealed that Queen Althea has been keeping her daughter asleep because the Queen believes that Lucia’s power will consume her and turn her evil. Going back to this story being predictable I did see that Althea was actually making Lucia sleep and I predicted that the queen was going to die. Which I was really sad about because up until she talked about killing Lucia and making all those blood sacrifices I really liked the queen. She was such a sad character because she just has this awful husband and has had a really poor life. So that sucks.
Over in the wild lands Cleo is kind of getting the hang of living with the rebels. When it’s revealed that the king is sending all his soldiers to find her because he won’t meet the rebel’s demands to stop the road being built. The soldiers are just murdering anyone who gets in their way. The soldiers also find the rebels’s camp so they have to scatter. Jonas and Cleo hide together they fight and then they kiss.
Jonas and Cleo, it was a little less insta-love-y than Theon and Cleo but boy did it come out left field. Rhodes writing romance is so weird because it’s like she foreshadows and sets up that two characters are going to get together and immediately they get together. There’s no build up, there’s no real character interaction. Which I guess is kind of nice because you don’t have to really sit through the love banter but…still is so odd. Also poor Nic, he aint leaving that friend zone.
So that happens then they devise a plan for Jonas and his group to kill Magnus and Gaius during the wedding. Some red wedding shit really. Cleo goes back to the palace and then Jonas meets up with his group.
Cleo returns and the king is really suspicious of Cleo. However we don’t have time for that because Magnus is really sad about his mom being dead. It’s a pretty sad scene when he starts crying in front of Cleo. Then he tells Cleo about Mira being dead. So heartbreaking.
Things aren’t going well for Jonas. Falling apart.
“Magnus gave her a look. ‘Oh, not at all. Since helping to take her father’s kingdom and destroy her life, I couldn’t help but fall really in love with her. Yes, obviously it was arranged.’”—page 235
That sass, though.
So the wedding begins and just before Magnus and Cleo get married Jonas and the rebels reveal themselves. Jonas has Magnus with blade against his neck. But like an idiot Jonas monologues. Turns out the king had a bunch of guards hidden in the crowd. So the rebels are overwhelmed and then all hell breaks lose. An earth quake happens and nearly kills Gaius but Magnus saved him.
Despite this being as bloody as the red wedding Gaius is dick, after slapping Cleo around and nearly killing her they continue. In the ruined temple, Magnus and Cleo are married.
Meanwhile Lucia is getting magic lessons from a witch.
“‘I can do fire magic myself. Allow me to demonstrate.’ The witch’s forehead wrinkled as she studied the bare wicks of the candles. It was an amusing sight as she strained, her face scrunching with effort as if she was seated upon a chamber pot.”—page 265
She’s not as good as Lucia. So Lucia nearly murders her. Which I fully understand, I always want to murder incompetent teachers. But seriously, this is our first look at how Lucia’s magic is corrupting her.
At the after wedding feast in the palace the king is being a lying bastard. Cleo gets seriously drunk and Ashur gives Cleo a dagger incase she wants to kill Magnus. She doesn’t because Magnus is too quick for her. There’s this really weird not sex scene between Magnus and Cleo. This whole marriage thing is so weird.
Then the wedding tour starts at Limeros, and this part is pretty boring. The only really interesting thing is that Cleo’s ring lights up when she touches this wheel thing that watchers made, Magnus nearly gets assassinated by Lys’s brother and Cleo and Magnus kiss.
After the wedding tour, Magnus joins Aron on a hunt for Jonas and also to follow the king’s request to go meet up with Xanthus. The guy in charge of making the king’s road. This is when I really start to hate Aron. Brion gets captured and the bastard Aron killed Brion. Brion has been my favorite character and predicted that he was going to die but dammit it made me so sad. Then Aron nearly rapes a girl. Then it’s revealed that undering the kid’s command Aron killed Althea. My other kind of favorite character. Fuck Aron and I know Magnus was like it was so unsatisfying to kill Aron but for me it was beautiful. Magnus is now my favorite character for killing the fucker.
Back in Auranos, we see Cleo and Lucia meet for the first time and Cleo’s ring acts up. But we also see Cleo getting under Lucia’s skin which I kind of like. Later Nic confuses his love for Cleo and asks her to run away with him but she rejects him. He gets drunk and Ashur shows and up. Then Ashur kisses Nic and I totally called that Ashur would be gay.
Back in Paelsia, Jonas and the rebels decide to invade the camp sight so that they kidnap Xanthus and Magnus. Jonas tries but is killed then is brought back to life by Phaedra who takes her human form. Magnus shows up and than Xanthus. Xanthus kills Phaedra and leaves. Then the camp burst into magical flames. Jonas runs away.
Lys has been captured with 5 other rebels, Lys is put in a cell with her brother. It’s revealed that Lucia will be sacrificed and the whole world will burn.
The story ends with Cleo promising to help Lucia with her powers.
Over all this book had similar problems to the first book, it’s predictable and romance comes out of nowhere. However, it was still really fun and I will continue with the series.