Silent Kingdom

I LOVED this book! I was captivated the whole way through! Rachel did an amazing job telling an enthralling story that will leave you wanting more! I thought it was so interesting reading from the perspective of someone who couldn’t speak. Also, can we talk about how cute Halia and Avrik’s relationship is?! I’m ready for the next one!

Great start to an exciting series!

It was definitely an enjoyable book. Lots of fascinating thing happened in the story, and I was so captivated by its pure beauty. Totally loved it!

This book follows the journey of Halia, a royal princess from Misroth who were sentenced to death by her own father for speaking the truth. Eventually, she survived and escaped to Evren living a new life as Elena. There, she met a guy named Avrik who later become her best friend. 4 years later, a shocking news about her kingdom reached her ears and her gift suddenly make a reappearance, making her made a decision to leave her new life behind in order to save her kingdom.

This book does remind me of The Remnant Chronicles a bit, from the characters to the storyline. I suddenly felt a little bit nostalgic about the whole thing. Honestly, I really did enjoy this one. I loved the concept of speaking the truth, glad that the author used it in the story and make it unique. ‘Truth’ is Halia’s gift, she had this visions where she can see and know things without actually seeing it and learning about it. Her gift is unique, and her gift is what makes her automatically speak the truth about what she saw in her visions. She obviously can’t lie, no matter how hard she try, she will always speak the truth. When her vision suddenly disappeared and she turned mute for 4 years, I was shocked and honestly worried that she might not be able to speak again. Little did I know that it all has something to do with her vision.

It’s very rare to have a protagonist like Halia, whose gift is to speak the truth. ‘Truth’ is what matters the most, even in real life, truth always matters, and even though it can be hurtful, it can also be helpful. Most people rather take the lies than the truth, because they were afraid of the truth, but to me, I rather take the truth than the lies. This book portrayed what the truth can do to people, how much the truth affected a person, and the portrayal of it was solid and on point. This is one of the reason why I loved this book and find it unique. This type of book is very hard to find, this is the first time I ever read anything with this concept.

There wasn’t a lot of action in this book, only a few, but even those few actions were epic and well-written. My most favorite action scene was when Halia faced her father in the final two chapters, it just shows how far her character has changed, but it was a good change. Also, the plot twists, it was all unpredictable, I totally didn’t see it all coming! Especially the first chapter that showed how Halia’s uncle was killed, I was like “Damn, I’m just on chapter one and this already happened!” I never thought the author would do that on the very first chapter.

The whole story does flow so well, and the whole plot does make sense. At first, I don’t understand what Halia’s father’s motive was for doing what he did, but after I found out later on, I totally understood it and can see clearly why he did what he did, but still he was pretty evil. Everything was well-plotted, there’s always been a reason why certain things happened the way it is.

It ended in a cliffhanger, you know how I feel about it! Even though it was a clever way to end a story, but it was also makes me want to scream because of the way it ended. I’m so eager to find out what happens next, and I can’t wait any longer! The frustration was real! But it also kind of hinting the readers on what to expect in the next book, and setting up everything for the continuation. I can tell from that ending, the next book will be a lot more intense than this one. This one has its own intense moments too, but like I said there’s not much, only a few.

The world-building was unique, and beautiful. Even though we didn’t get to see much of the places that was mentioned in this book, but just the little description of it makes me so excited to see it, well hopefully in the upcoming books. The story takes place in both Misroth and Evren. Both are unique on its own, but I find Evren to be more beautiful than Misroth. Misroth kinda look miserable, the way I see it, the people had to live in fear because of their current king. But I do hope to see more of it.

I loved the pacing of the story, I hope it remain the way it is because it was interesting enough already. It’s not too slow or too fast, just fast but not too fast (if you know what I mean), and I was very glad of it because if the pacing is slow or too slow, I might get bored and just completely not in the mood to continue/finish it. The pacing was fine, and I admit at certain point I was nervous it might somehow slow down, but luckily it didn’t.

The characters were amazing and unique on their own way, especially the main characters. Some can be easily read, some are difficult to understand. Each of the characters that appear in the story plays an important part and each contributed something into the story, whether it was small or big. We get to see how these characters come together and why they are so important.

Halia is a royal princess, who later took up a new identity named Elena. Whether she’s Halia or Elena, she’s still the same person, just with different personality. When I read the book and get to the part where she became Elena, I can see the difference in her character. Her personality changed once she become Elena, but a small part of her that is Halia still lived inside of her. She’s very sassy, fierce, strong and brave. But deep inside, she had to live with guilt and shoulder her own burden. She masked away all the hurt and the pain so that others won’t see it. I truly felt her, and can relate to her situation. She acted so maturely, she speak so highly and has a clever way with words, she also make a proper and careful decisions, and everything about her character is so likable. She is literally the best, and always up for a challenge.

Avrik, the hero of the story is also as likable as Halia/Elena, but the final moment of him and her hurts me more. He’s so charming and very friendly and is the only one who talks the whole time he was with Halia, because she can’t speak due to her speaking ability suddenly gone temporarily. There’s not much we can learn about him, only a few, about his hobby, his background, and also a few of his thoughts about the current situation he and Halia faced. So, I hope he get his own chapters that can help the readers understand him more and learn all the things that he hide. Avrik as a person is just so kind and genuine, he truly cares about the people he hold dear. He’s so great to have in this story, definitely another character that everyone can easily love aside from Halia.

Narek is the captain of the royal guard, even though he’s younger than majority of the guards but was named captain after the deal he made with Halia’s father. He’s not that older than Halia, they were about the same age as Halia described at one point in the story. He definitely is a mysterious person. I don’t get what he wants, what his motive in all of this, and why he was so hateful toward Halia and quickly switched side from being on Halia’s father’s side to Halia’s side. I was so suspicious of him, and I can’t trust him yet, or maybe ever! He definitely have a hidden motive/agenda of his own, but what, I still didn’t know. There’s a lot to learn about him, and why his character was written to be moody, cold, harsh, rude, hateful, and a bit evil. His character is the one that I had a hard time trying to read, I seriously want to know what’s his deal, but I got nothing. If there’s a lot of boxes, he is definitely the one box that no one can successfully open so easily.

Overall, the book was great and the story was interesting and very enjoyable. I devoured it deeply and honestly, I feel so happy reading this one. It was due to the part of Halia’s journey in Evren. It was like Evren is real, and that I was actually there. That place just bring a smile to my face. Even though the chapters was too long, but it hold just as much important information. There is definitely no fillers, just straight up to the point and basically everything is important. I’m excited to see what happens in the sequel.

I found the writing a little immature. Not as bad as some other Indie authors, but not professional either.