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

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

4.25

An immersive, thrilling, lush read! After the 200 page mark, I was off to the races hoping to unfold the mystery and action as fast as I could. I really enjoyed Ead, Tane, and Loth’s POVs, and loved all of the dragon content.

I do think this should have been split into multiple books (the instant gratification of reading the whole story at once rather than waiting for installments was satisfying! But!!), the pacing was really uneven and the world building learning curve was steep. I would have liked to spend more time learning about The Priory and Lasia and also some of the other nations we didn’t cover,
I think that would have made the conclusion and eventual coming together of leaders more impactful
. And that could only really be done by having more books to deeply explore places where we only skipped over them (and maybe spend less time in some of the more boring, menial Inys stuff). I also deeply disliked Niclays Roos’ chapters (tbh I kinda skimmed them sorry), I think his character could have been completely removed and we would have had the same impact. The ending felt so rushed compared to the rest of it, so spending more time there would have also been nice.

All in all, this was a wonderful fantasy novel that felt daunting at first but quickly became a story a couldn’t put down. Great characters, action, and world-building, I can’t wait to get to the prequel!
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