Kingsbane: Claire Legrand: 2 (The Empirium Trilogy)

Absolutely loved this book. Did not think I would be able to get in to it. By the time difference. But wow. Gutted have to wait until October for the final book. The suspense at the end of the book is really unfair lol. I would of waited until October to read them. I hate waiting for the next books and I try to make Sure all books are released first but had to tempt my self.

It’s a struggle at times to care about these characters.

OMG!! This book did not disappoint. Its pacy and it provided an interesting insight into Rielle. I love so many of the characters and this book did develop them further. There were different moments when my heart literary BROKE and I had to take a break to emotionally process (I know). And that plot twist... A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!

I am in awe of the amazing storytelling the author has achieved in this book. Such an incredible read and I need a few days to process everything that happened before I even look at the final book

I am 100% biased I love Claire Legrand, I love furyborn so I was never not going to love this. It’s amazing, so brilliant, well written, the same characters I loved I love even more and no spoilers but how am I going to make it without book 3 , I have to wait how long ! It’s so good it’s unfair and torture to wait for the next.

Rielle and Eliana. Two queens, a thousand years apart, living in a world torn asunder by centuries of war between angels and humans, the latter led by their saints. Rielle named the Sun Queen against the wishes of her influential adversaries, glories in her dazzling power over nature and the elements. While the burden to save humanity rests on her shoulders, she is plagued by dark impulses and a dangerous temptation that could change the fate of the world should she give way to it. The consequences of her choices and actions are felt by Eliana, her daughter, flung into a far-off future, and forced to come to terms with her lineage and the power she has inherited. As Rielle sets off on a perilous quest to save humanity from the wrath of the angels, Eliana struggles to assume Rielle’s mantle and the role her mother has left her. Facing overwhelming odds, fear caused by their powers, and malevolent hostility from angels and humans alike, the stories of Rielle and Eliana play out against epic backdrops of warring kingdoms, shifting allegiances, and the elemental forces of both nature and magic, linking mother and daughter across time. The prophecy of the rise of two queens, the Sun Queen and the Blood Queen, is coming to pass, but at what cost to Rielle and Eliana, and the world it is their destiny to save? Continuing the story begun in Furyborn, Kingsbane is set in a vividly imagined and realised world in which the energy of the empirium binds everything together. Given depth and resonance by in-world quotations from ancient tomes, religious texts, and folk tales, the mythos established here is prodigious in its scope, echoing the Christian fall of the angels with their jealousy of humans and intensely charismatic, menacingly alluring Satan-like leader, the angel Corien. There are shades too of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, with the varying and fascinating characterisation of the angels and their differing motivations, and even with George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, with its array of kings and kingdoms, queens and councils, and aristocratic houses. That being said, the Empirium Trilogy has its own unique vision, creating a sweeping, original universe peopled with interesting and diverse characters. However, some of the other POVs besides Rielle and Eliana feel somewhat jarring at times. While many of the characters are complex and well-rendered, Rielle’s love interest, Prince Audric, often feels too good to be true: even within the realm of fantasy, he is such a perfect prince, friend, lover etc. that this reviewer had to suspend disbelief at times or was waiting for the other shoe to drop. The end unveils unexpected twists regarding other characters, for which the author leaves subtle portents that are not immediately apparent but become clear when looking back, cleverly setting up a cliff-hanger ending to lead into the third book. A recommended read for fans of compelling, imaginative, and intelligent fantasy. Arwen Evenstar Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

This book was SO GOOD. I cried through the last 5 chapters. I still prefer Rielle over Eliana, but Eliana becomes a much better character in this book. There is f/f and it's a very sex-positive book, which I love. I absolutely can't wait for the third one.

This was a really good sequel - like a reeaaalllly good sequel. Legrand expertly builds on the groundwork from Furyborn, making the world even more vivid, introducing new POVs (which worked wonderfully) and showcases new depths to a lot of the characters. It’s a solid book (both in terms of size and execution), fast paced and really engaging. Parts definitely echoed Furyborn (again we had a kidnapping, a ‘will they won’t they’, major betrayal....) but because the stakes were higher this time, these scenes didn’t feel too repetitive. I absolutely adored Eliana and Simon’s development over the chapters - while it was a little stilted in places - it felt genuine and really made me empathise with them both. Conversely Riellie and Audric did start to push my patience to its limits. There was an imbalance between them being ‘flawless and heroic’ and ‘villainous and out of control’, which went beyond a natural internal conflict I think someone in their positions would have. But despite that I’m still rooting for them and praying that the final installment has some resolution for them! All in all I really enjoyed this book. With all the twists and turns in this book, I’m really psyched to read the final installment - Lightbringer

I haven't finished it yet but as far it is really good i got very engaged with the furyborn one and I'm really loving this.

How will I ever survive waiting for book three? This second book killed me beyond words. I do not know how I will write this review of mine. I'm not sure I have any feelings left, haha. Kingsbane is all kinds of long, and it took me so many days to read it, but I did not mind one bit. Because I loved every word of this lovely book. I have struggled all day long with writing this review. As I did not know how to begin. I still do not. As this book killed me. In good ways, and bad ways. Gave me so much heartbreak. Completely ruined me. Yet it healed me too. Okay, not too much healing, ha. I hope there will be more of that in book three. Just. Oh my gosh. I have read Kingsbane. Which is a book I have waited so so long for. A book I have been dying to read for ages and ages. A book I have been so jealous to see everyone reading but me. And now I have gotten to read it too. Sigh. And I am not sure my heart will ever recover from it, haha. I'm not sure I want it to? Hmm. Claire is the most amazing author and person. I love her beyond words. I have been a fan of her since her first book came out, and have read and loved everything by her since then. She is the kindest person. But my gosh, how I'm angry with her right now, haha. Because this sequel to Furyborn ruined me in all the ways. Everything going wrong. There was so much heartbreak and grief. And so much romance. All of it so rude. But so very perfect too. There is so much that I want to share about this book. But I will not. I will not be sharing spoilers, at least nothing big. Because, gosh, there are so many things I could spoil about this book. But they are all things you must read for yourself. Kingsbane was full of surprises and twists. Most of them bad, haha. But a few happy surprises too, that I loved so very much. As always, the writing was perfection. I had no trouble at all with connecting to the story or the characters. I might have connected a bit too much to everything, ha. As with the first book, this was told from the point of view of Rielle and Eliana. With a very few other point of views later on in the book. Nothing big, but needed, at least for me. I loved getting inside of their heads too. This book is filled with amazing characters and they were all awesome to read about. Although I love my Rielle and Audric and Eliana the most. Remy is still beyond precious. I'm still the most worried for him. How rude. He was truly adorable in this second book, though, and I simply love him so. Best little brother. Rielle was my most precious one in book one. In this one she really tested my love for her. I still love her to pieces. But I am so angry with this girl as well. She was so different in this book. The same person, yet different. She is always angry. And cruel too. And way too rash about everything. Yet she is the sweetest toward Audric. And I loved that the very most. But yes. Rielle was an angry creature in this book. And I'm so mad at her. I'm so worried for her, because of how I fear there was a reason for how she behaved. Oh. This whole book worried me. So many bad things happened. And much worse is yet to come. I'm so not sure how I will survive reading it all, considering I'm still dead after having read this one. Rielle is making me so worried. I love this precious girl so much and I want her to have a happy ending. But I do not know how this will happen. She has done so many bad things now. Then there is Corien. He is there, still awful, but not in this book as much as I had feared. Book three will be worse. My poor heart might not survive it. Then there was my precious Audric. He is in this book a whole lot. He is still the light of everything. He is always there for Rielle, even when she is doing all the stupid things. He is there and loving her and taking care of her. Their romance is all kinds of intense. And also so lovely. And I ship them beyond words. And I worry for them even more. Audric is my love. My life. And he deserves the whole world. Hmph. There are scenes with the gorgeous godsbeast too, and I loved her to pieces. So truly adorable and cute and fierce. There was so much of Ludivine too, and she is so complicated, and Rielle treats her so badly in this book, and it just ruined my heart. Okay, I was kind of angry with Ludivine at times, but I still loved her a lot. And she deserved better from Rielle. Hmph. And then there was Simon. I still do not fully love this man, haha. There are too many things we still do not know about him. But he's there, a lot. There is romance. Maybe. And it was written really well. But oh, I want my Eliana with someone else, still, haha. Still. They are cute. And Simon was written well. And I did like reading about him, truly. I just. I want him as a friend, haha. Yet he was not all bad. But too mysterious. Anyway. Eliana was all kinds of fierce in this second book as well. I loved her inner struggle and such. I loved how she tried her best to save Navi. I loved her friendship with Zahra. I very much loved how she was working with her powers, struggling to understand it all. Trying her best to cope with being the Sun Queen. It was awesome. And I simply adored Eliana. So fierce and cute. So much is going on in this book. In the past and in the future. There are wars. There are deaths. A whole bunch of stunningly written smut. Amazing friendships and romances. I will not share much about the plot only that it was stunning and so much happened. And I am so curious and so worried and I loved it all so. This whole book ruined me. Beyond words. And I could not help but love it so much. I need the third book more than anything. I fear it will ruin me forever. I cannot wait for it, haha. It will be the best one, I'm sure. Kingsbane was everything I had wanted it to be and more. Full of danger and adventures and romance. Such stunning relationships and so many plot secrets. It ruined my heart at all moments. And I could not help but love this even more because of that. This second book have made me even more worried about how everything will end. I am so unsure about my happy ending. I don't know how it will happen. I want it to. I need it to. But I am also beyond positive that the third book will hurt me the most of them all first. Ah. Huge thank you to the publisher, Sourcebooks Fire, for letting me read this most gorgeous book early via Netgalley. I'm so thrilled that I had the chance to read this one early. And oh gosh, I'm getting a print ARC in the mail too, for my collection, and I could not be happier. Sigh. I cannot wait to own all of the finished copies when Kingsbane come out in May. If you have read Furyborn, you truly must read Kingsbane too. It was such a perfect second book. Full of pain. Full of heartbreak. Treasured every moment of reading it. --- This review was first posted on my blog, Carina's Books. Read at the end of February.

𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘦 (𝘌𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺) • “𝘞𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐... 𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦.” • »I can’t say much because I feel if I do it (even if I try to give a synopsis I feel like I will be giving something), it will spoil all the experience of reading this magical book with angry girls fighting for their own freedom. But I will point out that this one DESTROYED ME. It tore out my heart and stabbed it. It made me stressed and hopeful and a crying mess. I had to even make a playlist for some of my fave characters (relationship) because I needed a place to go where I could feel things again, even if hurt. The author knew exactly what to do to make me scream, with her dialogues, story and plot. Just READ this book for the love of god! Read this trilogy!! Rating: 5★ + LOVE ALL THE LOVE

El libro está en perfecto estado, muy bien empaquetado

There was a missing pages and repeating ones in mine. I got up to page 490, then it repeated pages 427 to 458, before continuing on page 523. Really sad since of course I want to read pages 491-522!!