Book: The Demon King (Seven Realms #1)
Author: Cinda Williams Chima
Genre: High Fantasy, Adventure, Romance (YA)
Rating: 5/5
Page Count: 506 (Paperback)
Favorite Character: Raisa, I believe, I did love Han, though. (And secondary characters it would have to be Dancer and Amon, I think, just because they're awesome, but so are a lot of these characters).
Plot: (From
Goodreads)
When 16-year-old Han Alister and his Clan friend Dancer encounter three underage wizards setting fire to the sacred mountain of Hanalea, he has no idea that this event will precipitate a cascade of disasters that will threaten everything he cares about.
Han takes an amulet from one of the wizards, Micah Bayar, to prevent him from using it against them. Only later does he learn that it has an evil history—it once belonged to the Demon King, the wizard who nearly destroyed the world a millennium ago. And the Bayars will stop at nothing to get it back
Han’s life is complicated enough. He’s the former streetlord of the Raggers—a street gang in the city of Fellsmarch. His street name, Cuffs, comes from the mysterious silver bracelets he’s worn all his life—cuffs that are impossible to take off.
Now Han’s working odd jobs, helping to support his family, and doing his best to leave his old life behind. Events conspire against him, however. When members of a rival gang start dying, Han naturally gets the blame.
Meanwhile, Princess Raisa ana’Marianna has her own battles to fight. As heir to the Gray Wolf throne of the Fells, she’s just spent three years of relative freedom with her father’s family at Demonai Camp—riding, hunting, and working the famous Clan markets. Now court life in Fellsmarch pinches like a pair of too-small shoes.
Wars are raging to the south, and threaten to spread into the high country. After a long period of quiet, the power of the Wizard Council is once again growing. The people of the Fells are starving and close to rebellion. Now more than ever, there’s a need for a strong queen.
But Raisa’s mother Queen Marianna is weak and distracted by the handsome Gavan Bayar, High Wizard of the Fells. Raisa feels like a cage is closing around her—and an arranged marriage and eroded inheritance is the least of it.
Raisa wants to be more than an ornament in a glittering cage. She aspires to be like Hanalea—the legendary warrior queen who killed the Demon King and saved the world. With the help of her friend, the cadet Amon Byrne, she navigates the treacherous Gray Wolf Court, hoping she can unravel the conspiracy coalescing around her before it’s too late.
Review:
There are really mixed reviews on this book, that I kind of found surprising, but everyone has their own opinion. This book was a little slow to start out and you don't really know who you're suppose to believe and you're wondering, you know, 'what the hell is happening in this world,' but overall this book was amazing. And, really, it's not that slow for long and I love when they just kind of drop you in the world and then explain it along the way. Which is why I gave it a 5/5 rating.
I loved the writing in this book and how the two characters are written and how everyone is a little linked, but they don't even realize it. And this world is amazing, when there's a past that has something awful and it's over 500 years old, I am instantly interested in that. Mostly because I will always believe that the popular story isn't the most true one, isn't what really happened. And it's so interesting for the characters to still be living in the shadow of these people who loved so long ago, in this book it was about 1000 years, and it's just so intriguing.
And I also really enjoyed the world they're living in, not just the world in general, and how our two main characters see things so differently, even if they're seeing the same things. It's just so interesting for them to learn and grow through the book separately. I thought it was interesting that the two characters weren't together at the beginning, like they weren't best friends, and I really enjoyed that, because if they were, we wouldn't have been able to see the such different perspectives. I have just never read a book like this, with the two main characters so separate, but I think that might be one reason why I loved this book so much.
Overall, to sum up my kind of long review, I really loved this book. I found the characters really lovable, they both clicked with me really early, Raisa pretty much immediately. The characters, writing, world, and a lot more is amazing in this book. So if you're thinking the beginning is slow, then keep going, it's definitely worth it!
