Review: Kingsbane

Ｔｉｔｌｅ： Kingsbane

Ａｕｔｈｏｒ： Claire Legrand

Ｓｅｒｉｅｓ： Book 2

Ｒａｔｉｎｇ： ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

＊Ｎｏｔｅ： You can find the review for Book 1 here.

In this sequel to the instant New York Times bestseller Furyborn, two queens, separated by a thousand years, connected by secrets and lies, must continue their fight amid deadly plots and unthinkable betrayals that will test their strength—and their hearts.

Rielle Dardenne has been anointed Sun Queen, but her trials are far from over. The Gate keeping the angels at bay is falling. To repair it, Rielle must collect the seven hidden castings of the saints. Meanwhile, to help her prince and love Audric protect Celdaria, Rielle must spy on the angel Corien—but his promises of freedom and power may prove too tempting to resist.

Centuries later, Eliana Ferracora grapples with her new reality: She is the Sun Queen, humanity’s long-awaited savior. But fear of corruption—fear of becoming another Rielle—keeps Eliana’s power dangerous and unpredictable. Hunted by all, racing against time to save her dying friend Navi, Eliana must decide how to wear a crown she never wanted—by embracing her mother’s power, or rejecting it forever.

“You are the light of the world, and you will guide us home.”

Kingsbane took me a lot of time to get through, but I think compared to Furyborn it went by a little quicker. I connected to the characters better than before and was a little more invested in the story, but I think the biggest hurdle was this book was so long. It could still only hold my attention for a few days at a time before I needed a break. That being said, I think both characters’ developments were interesting and I liked most of the plot. My main issue with the story itself was the ending, but I’ll touch more on that later.

As I said, the story pulled me in more than before. I think going into the book knowing the connection between Eliana and Rielle helped. Not to mention, Rielle’s story always interested me more than Eliana because I wanted to see her progression from “Sun Queen” to Blood Queen.

I enjoyed seeing Rielle’s character development in this book. In the first book, it was a little hard to see how Rielle could have fallen so far, but it made a little more sense in Kingsbane. As Rielle continued to test the limits of her power and is held up to strict standards as the Sun Queen, she starts to see herself as being above the average citizen. The weight of the world is put on her shoulders and though she’s given the pressure of protecting those around her, Rielle’s every action and decision is constantly put into question. She’s expected to be perfect and her powers either make everyone fear or admire her in a way that leaves her very lonely. Then there’s also the fact that her powers make her forget she is still human. She pushes herself too hard at times and craves respect and attention. Though she is prideful, Rielle has a good heart.

Knowing all of that, her decision at the end of the book would make sense… if not for one huge plot hole. It made no sense to me that Rielle would immediately overlook Corien’s betrayal just because others had turned on her. It would’ve been better if she hadn’t known Corien was behind it. As it is, I actually didn’t enjoy that particular plot twist. I considered Rielle to be far too smart to go running to someone who had betrayed her considering she wasn’t very forgiving throughout the rest of the book/series.

As for Eliana, her development was much improved over the first book, though it still didn’t capture my attention as much as Rielle’s. I think the main problem was that her development was slow. Not just with her magic (which she still couldn’t really control by the end of the book), but in her role as a leader. I really wanted to see Eliana step up and take charge of her destiny, but she spent far too much time denying and questioning it.

Another point I didn’t really enjoy was the romance. Just like in the last book, I ti didn’t approve of the relationship between Simon and Eliana. It still seemed very weird to me for them to be together when Simon held her as a baby. Not to mention that Simon seemed so stoic that I didn’t understand what Eliana saw in him. I just didn’t feel any chemistry between them and didn’t really care for this angle.

The overall plot was fine and interesting, but I still felt like it was dragged out. Both Furyborn and Kingsbane are painfully long and I definitely think there’s a lot that could’ve been cut out. Although I didn’t like how things ended with Rielle, I was a little more curious when it came to Eliana. I’m kind of worried about what this will mean for Simon and if it will make any sense, but I guess I’ll see in Lightbringer. But, overall, this was marginally better than Furyborn and I’m looking forward to seeing how this all ends for Eliana and Rielle.