When a Royal dies, the realms elect the one to take their place. By reasons Camaria does not know, her realm elects her as the next Royal. Now that she is the new-found sixteenth Royal of the nation of Mirabelle, Cam embarks on a journey with her sisters and a young huntsman to the four realms of the nation to complete training in the four kinds of magic. Once she has completed this training, she … she will then be permitted to consume her annual amount of magic and possess manifested powers. Her ventures are unexpectedly steeped in precarious events when Cam discovers a secret plan of revolt, a past she never knew, and an ancient people group thought dead who call themselves the Spirit Followers.
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For a first book in a series, this one isn’t actually bad at all. I was surprised it did so well even with a slight bumpy road in the middle. It definitely isn’t like what I expected at all.
The story focused on Camaria’s journey to become the next Royal. She never thought on her sixteenth birthday that she would be selected to become the next Royal and that she had to go through heavy and intense training in order to become one. And she never thought that she would learn something important along the way and had to fight in a battle against evil.
The story was a very well-written story and I truly appreciate the author’s effort in making such an intricate story. The fantasy world that were shown in the story is totally new to me. I never read anything like this one before; where each realm has different and unique types of magic. It was amazing learning what kind of magic does each realm possess. And which god do the people from each realm pray to.
Also, learning more about each realm and witnessing the differences it has from one another was truly epic. Especially when it involved a lot of its history with the Spirit Followers (the kind ancient group) and the Shadow Bearers (the evil group). Through Cam’s and the other main characters POVs, I learned a lot of things about each realm and which one is evil and which one is not. Everything about these realms are connected, especially when Spirit Followers are involved. I was glad to be able to witnessed everything that happened in the story. It truly amazed me how this complex world is easy to uncover and understand.
There was a ton of action in the story which I truly enjoyed reading, because a fantasy story need to have an intense action scenes and this one doesn’t disappoint me for the most part. It was an action-packed fantasy story, and even with lots of action I was still hoping for the end battle to have an epic action between Camaria and the other Spirit Followers against Apollyon, Leviathan and the Shadow Bearers. The end battle was a bit of a letdown, I was preparing myself to see an epic action but all I got was just a small action that wasn’t as epic as I hoped for. But I’m counting on the sequel to have more epic action scenes, especially during a huge battle!
The story was quite surprising in some parts, and it was hard to predict how it will go next or how it will end. I usually can predicted how fantasy stories will end and what will happens next and most of my predictions came true, but this one was hard because it has lots of plot twists that I didn’t see coming. And also, the twists was so shocking that it had my jaw-dropped! I feel so satisfied with the twists and turns, and it wasn’t a lame twists but one that will have your mind stop working and you need to take a break to process everything. It was truly an unpredictable story. Once the truth was revealed, I finally connected the dots and see clearly the connection that everything and everyone has.
I also wanted to say that the world-building was pretty massive and unique. Like I said earlier, I never read anything like this before. It was a very well-developed world and I can imagined the hard work that the author had to do before building this new fantasy world and trying to write it is obviously hard. And developing it in order to make it more realistic and more flesh out won’t be easy of course especially describing its settings, but had to give props to the author for having a big imagination and thinking widely in order to create this complex and amazing world. As a reader, I also had to open my mind widely in order to imagine this new world and also to process everything that the story tells.
The ending was very shocking. It was a huge WTF moment! Honestly, I was shocked just like Cam and Peter did after finding out what happens to Mirabelle. That was truly a huge game changer for the sequel and I seriously eager to start reading the sequel in order to find out the ‘how’ and ‘why.’ The story ended in a shocking and huge cliffhanger, and in my honest opinion, it was the best and epic way to end a story because it makes us, the readers excited for the continuation. That was the cleverest ending, I have lots of theories in my mind on who was the culprit and I can truly imagined how intense Cam’s and the other characters journey will be next.
Let’s talk about the characters. The main protagonist of the story, Camaria is the star of the story and the other main characters Peter, Fiera, Terra, Caleb, Lia, Amelia, Riah, Saffira and Owen also get to shine in the story through their own respective POV chapter. The story focused on Cam’s journey and she always accompanied by the main characters throughout her journey. As the main protagonist, she is a very brave young woman and can make a decisions like an adult. I fully understood her confusion at times, but I know deep down she knows what’s best for her.
All of these characters have a story of their own to tell, and they get the time to do so since they got a chapter that were told through their POVs. From their POVs, I get to know more about them and learn everything about their pasts. These character suffered a lot of hurtful things in their lives and yet they were so brave in facing so many challenges during their time in discovering the truths about each realms in Mirabelle. They don’t have a smooth journey, but they know so well just how to survived.
These characters doesn’t always make good decisions, especially Cam because her decision is proven to be wrong the whole time and in the end it bit her. She was a bit reckless and sometimes it annoyed me. Her personality wasn’t as great as the other characters, but I can see that she was trying her best the whole time. She suffered a lot of things and having to deal with losing two people who she witnessed their deaths in front of her eyes was pretty hard on her. She had nightmares and I felt sorry for her.
I loved seeing the bond between Cam and the rest of her sisters. The loved they have for each other shine so bright and with Terra out of the picture, it must’ve hurt them knowing what happened to her. These sisters do have a strong and powerful bond and it was shown in the story that nothing can separate these sisters from each other. Fiera being the oldest always took a good care of her sister and Cam being appointed as the new Royal feels like she holds the responsibilities of protecting her sisters and making sure they’re safe. I’m looking forward to see more of them in the next book.
Lastly, the romance! A story like this doesn’t focus much on the romance since there are far more greater things that should become the focus of the story, especially when a greater evil still alive somewhere. Even with the whole magical elements and the focus on the greater good vs evil, the romance in the story also has its own part. I’m glad that the author doesn’t focus too much on the romance and made it as the side focus.
Peter and Cam is a great pairing since these two spend lots of time together and the time they spend together not only develop their characters but also it develop the kind of relationship they will have, and as for now the author focus on their friendship first but I can sense something more will develop later on. Peter and Cam is so compatible together in so many ways, and the tension was high when they shared a scene together. No one can deny the strong chemistry they both have, and I’m truly looking forward to see what the author has in store for them in the next book. There are still a lot more to learn about Peter’s past and I hope to see more of it being shown in the sequel.
Honestly, I would recommend this book for the lovers of epic-fantasy. This isn’t like the casual and normal fantasy stories, but this one is definitely fall into the category of epic-fantasy. The whole story definitely worth the read for fantasy fans. I loved it and truly loved it. It might not be perfect for some, but it definitely worth the read.