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Kingsbane (Empirium, #2)

Claire Legrand

Start date: February 1, 2020

Finish date: February 29, 2020

Discussion: Book of the Month

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What Members Thought

Feb 15, 2019 Jenn rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, disappointed, arc, read-in-2019, royalty, 3-star-reads, books-i-own

Again, I am so sad to be giving another book in this series only 3 stars, but I just had so many issues with it and it was extremely hard for me to get through. I kept losing interest and didn't want to finish. Which is sad because I love the core idea of this trilogy. There's just so much going on that it really disrupts the flow of the book. Also, there will probably be spoilers of the first book.

In Furyborn we were introduced to Rielle and Eliana- two "Queens" who were somehow connected to e ...more

97 likes · Like · see review

Nov 13, 2020 Jenn rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 3-star-reads, books-i-own, fantasy, royalty, young-adult, signed-copies, read-in-2020, wordy-af

In my second reading of this book I found that I still had the same issues as the first time around. I didn't really expect a different outcome, but I was hoping that reading them back to back would really tie them together. If anything, it pointed out the drastic difference in characters from the first to second book. And honestly, makes me a little nervous for the final installment.

I will say that this time around I did like Eliana a little more, which surprised me. I really started to feel t ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Apr 21, 2019 Kayleigh {K-Books} rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

Kingsbane Review on K-Books

"We are the light against the darkness; and we must continue to burn brightly, so others may find their way out."

There are no words to explain just how excited I am to have read Kingsbane. After I finished Furyborn I just couldn't wait to read the sequel... I just needed to know what was going to happen so badly. So when I was offered an ARC of Kingsbane, I jumped at the chance... I am now in two minds as to whether that was wise. On the one hand it's one of the be ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jun 01, 2019 Dr. Andy rated it really liked it

Shelves: queer-author, read-2019, queer-rep-bisexual

4.5/5

My feelings are still simmering about this book, but boy oh boy was it a wild adventure! Kingsbane picks up right after the events of Furyborn. Eliana is trying to master her powers that were awoken and dealing with the consequences of Navi's capture. Rielle has been announced as Sun Queen and she must serve Celdaria while holding Corien's influence over her at bay.

This was a huge book, but it flew by so quickly! I was completely invested in the story-line, characters and learning more abou 4.5/5

My feelings are still simmering about this book, but boy oh boy was it a wild adventure! Kingsbane picks up right after the events of Furyborn. Eliana is trying to master her powers that were awoken and dealing with the consequences of Navi's capture. Rielle has been announced as Sun Queen and she must serve Celdaria while holding Corien's influence over her at bay.

This was a huge book, but it flew by so quickly! I was completely invested in the story-line, characters and learning more about the world of Empirium. I was quickly swept away by the drama of this story, as Kingsbane progresses the timelines of Eliana & Rielle begin to draw closer and even intersect. I love the duality of this story and how both girls are painted gray. Even in the future, I'm still wondering which girl is the Sun Queen and which is the Blood Queen.

Throughout Kingsbane, we see Rielle struggle with what Celdaria and the world expect of a Sun Queen, what her friends expect and what Corien expects. All this expectation begin to way down on Rielle and we see how the burden of power becomes such a strain for her. I still wouldn't say Rielle is plain evil, but she does develop a darker side of her power throughout this novel. It was interesting that this time around I felt more attached to Eliana's story. While I loved Rielle in Furyborn, there was something missing in her POV this time around. Her strange attachment to Corien made me want to strangle something as well.

I really enjoyed Eliana this time around. I loved seeing her explore her power and begin training (or attempting) to train with it. I can't wait to see what she can do when she truly awakens her gifts. While Rielle has a more tradition quest, Eliana's journey focuses more on helping Navi stay alive and figuring out how to bring down the Empire. Eliana & Simon do develop a plan, though seeing it play out wasn't quite as exciting as I hoped. These two really do need to work on their scheming skills. Though there is some time travel in this and I really loved seeing this come into play. The consequences were very intriguing.

Okay and then there was the ending. The extremely intense WTF ending. Man I am seriously scared for both Eliana & Rielle. At the end of Kingsbane they're both in precarious and most likely dangerous situations. I can't wait to see how they'll deal with them and to see how everything is resolved. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 21, 2021 Aneta rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own, new-adult, supernatural, fantasy, doctena-serie, read-in-english, lgbt

My expectations for Kingsbane were up the roof and they weren't met at least not as much as I hoped so. Don't get me wrong I still really like this story but I had some problems with it. My problems are mainly in first half of this book.

We still follow Rielle and Eliana but these aren't only POV's we are getting this time and it pleasantly surprised me. I'm glad I had change to take a glimpse of other character's mind. I had a little problem with characters, especially in the beginning. I just f ...more

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Feb 16, 2023 Maddie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Well this carried on well from the first one and even though I didn't remember much from that one, I didn't feel lost. There was enough recap at the right time to carry me along. I loved the insertion of random other POVs, and the ending of this book was explosive! I can't wait for the finale! ...more

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