A review by lindca
Kingdom of Exiles by Maxym M. Martineau

2.0

I had a difficult time getting through this, at one point setting it aside and later coming back to it. The idea behind the story with the beast charmers was intriguing, but I was frustrated and disappointed with its execution.

To begin with, I found Leena and Noc’s thoughts and emotions to be at odds with their supposed characters. Leena was presented as a pragmatic woman who had forged a tough life for herself after being exiled and who was at least somewhat worldly when it came to men. Yet her puppy love-like thoughts about Noc nearly from the start seemed out of place and a bit silly. In addition, her almost virginal blushing routine when one of the assassins took off his shirt and came on to her seemed odd for someone who admittedly enjoyed uncomplicated physical relationships with men. Similarly, Noc was supposed to be a detached killer who eschewed personal entanglements yet he too quickly succumbed to the pitter pat puppy love when he saw Leena. When the insta-love turned into real love, I never really bought into it.

In addition, Leena too often was outright stupid in her actions.

Spoiler

She too quickly trusted Noc and the others and repeatedly depleted her energies, leaving herself vulnerable, sometimes for no good reason. She missed the obvious loophole in Noc’s vow not to let his men kill her. She claimed she was forced to sell her beasts to survive, but she easily could have used her own beasts’ abilities (healing, creating food, etc.) and sold her services through them to make a living. Heck, she could have worked waiting tables or other jobs nonmagical people did. There were other instances I can’t recall offhand.

I found myself being exasperated with her (and Noc) for much of the book.

While there were some unanswered questions left at the end of the book, particularly about Noc’s history, I am not drawn enough to the story to read another book in the series to find the answers.