Falling Kingdoms- Morgan Rhodes BOOK TALK

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I loved this book. So blimmin' much. This book was such a great testament as to why fantasy is my favourite genre. It was complex, intriguing, surprising and exciting. I would describe it as a mix of Game of Thrones, Throne of Glass and Poison Study... meaning it was a whole lot of awesome.
Yes, it took some concentration to begin with because it takes time to learn all the names, rules and histories of the world but once you've got that down... it's so rewarding. There was a small character guide at the beginning of the book which was very handy to help me remember the names. It's true that fantasy books take longer to get into but that's just because you need to completely learn an entire world... and that takes time. But once you have, fantasy plots are the most intricate, rewarding and satisfying reads.
And that's why I'm so pumped to dive into the rest of this series.

AMAZON

GOODREADS

SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD
When you have books with multiple narratives, there's always the ones you like more than others. My favourites at the moment has to be Cleo and Magnus! They're the most interesting and deep characters. Jonas is next on my list of favourites (sometimes he was a tad annoying) and Lucia comes in at last place. She was okay but I found her a little too pathetic for my taste. Who knows? Her character may grow a lot over the span of the series but, for now, the Cleo and Magnus chapters are the ones that have me grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

Starting with the prologue, it immediately cemented my hatred of Sabina. What a bitch! She double crossed her sister and took who I instantly assumed was Lucia. This was such a strong start the book even though a few of the details went over my head.
We then switched to the present day where we followed Cleo, Aron, Theon and Mira over in Paelsia (which I always pronounce wrong but I don't even care). They go to buy to wine and the relationship dynamics are instantly obvious. I hated Aron from the start but quite liked Cleo. And it was also pretty obvious from the beginning that Theon would be her love interest- maybe a little on the predicable side.
But, suddenly, we have this major fight over the wine prices and Aron- the little bugger- goes and kills Tomas! My jaw was a little slack at this part because I wasn't expecting such a brutal fight- at least, not this early into it! Tomas' brother, Jonas, quickly vows revenge and, just like that, I'm completely and utterly invested in this book.

We then move to Limeros where we meet Magnus who I also love. Though, I got some major Game of Thrones vibes when we discovered he was harbouring incestuous feelings for his sister. And, then it hit me... (way too late, may I add). They're not siblings! For some reason, I momentarily forgot that Lucia was the child taken from birth and thought they were actually brother and sister. But, with the knowledge of Lucia's true heritage, it made me that more excited to see what would happen between them.
We also got some small chapters throughout the book of the Sanctuary. I found some of the magic aspects of this book a little hard to follow but, overall, it was nicely done. We got to see snippets of these Watchers spying on the normal world as birds. This is an interesting plot and will no doubt play a bigger part in the rest of the series.
We go back to Jonas and he's in full revenge kick and wants to storm the Auranos castle to kill Aron and Cleo. Luckily, he has his good old friend, Brion to stop him from doing anything in the height of stupidity. Instead, they head off to meet with Chief Basilius with the intentions of starting a revolution. Jonas quite cleverly manipulates the Chief's daughter, Laelia in order to get close to her father and, honestly, I'm quite interested to see what happens when he finally breaks off the relationship because she will sure not be happy. Once getting Chief Basilius on board, they get ready to head to Limeros with the plans of joining up with King Gaius in an attempt to overthrow Auranos.

Meanwhile, with Cleo, she's struggling with her engagement announcement with Aron and I feel so sorry for her because Aron is a complete and utter ass. We find out the secret that he has over her- that she slept with him which would tarnish her purity as an heir. We see more of her relationship with Theon and I could go as far to say I shipped them... though, I did think from the very start that they're whole relationship was done a little quickly and only served as a plot device.
Cleo also has to deal with the fact that her sister, Emelia is dying and I just loved this layering of plots. So much was going and it made the story so rich and interesting. We learn more about Emelia's past and about Watchers which prompts Cleo to go to Paelsia in search of a way to heal her sister. Theon refuses to go with her but, that doesn't stop good ol' determined Cleo. And Nic, of course, helps them both escape. We had a little cliche-ness occur when it's implied that Nic has feelings for Cleo because it's just that over-done tragic love that a guy best friend has for the girl despite her never feeling the same way. But... it didn't bother me that much.
Over in Limeros, we had Lucia finding out about her powers and learn how to use them whilst trying to hide them. Obviously, she instantly tells Magnus but he's sure to keep it quiet to protect her and begins to help her channel the powers.
The Paelsian forces finally reach Limeros and Chief Basilius is quick to make a deal with King Gaius in terms of joining their forces to take over Limeros. The deal required a sacrifice and, though I knew King Gaius was brutal and cruel, I wasn't expecting his to so casually slit Tobias' throat like he did. It was another jaw drop moment for me but it was awesome at the same time!!! Yes, I like a little bloodshed.

Sabina crops up again as she tried to seduce Magnus into making her his mistress and it was all kinds of cringe and I'm all kinds of grateful that Magnus rejected the heck out of her. But, being the psychopathic bitch that she is, she didn't like that one bit and reveals a whole bunch of stuff to Magnus- mainly including the fact that Lucia isn't his sister!!! I'm so happy Morgan Rhodes didn't drag out the not-knowing for too long because that's always so frustrating to read.
Lucia comes in, having not heard about her true heritage, and she kills Sabina which was amazing. Lucia may be seem a little weak and timid in this book but I have great hopes that she'll grow a lot stronger in the coming books and I'm so excited to see where her character development takes her.
Meanwhile, a lot happens to Cleo. We had Theon set off on his quest to find and rescue Cleo and he mentioned how he was falling in love with her and, as sweet as that was, I knew it wasn't going to last. Funnily enough, I wrote in my notes "I don't think their ship's endgame- Theon's too expendable." Which, I have to say, whilst patting myself on the back, was spot on.
Cleo and Nic stumbled across this old woman, Eirene, who proceeds to dump a load of exposition on them about the history of the Watchers and the Goddesses, Cleiona and Valoria. While this was a bit of an information dump, it helped me understand a lot more of what's at stake and how the Watchers may join into this story.
Jonas quickly finds out where Cleo is and jumps at the opportunity to take her after what she contributed to the death of his brother. I loved this point in the book because all of our main protagonists' plot lines were beginning to interlink and head towards each other and it was so exciting to follow! Jonas had no trouble taking Cleo and the clever girl managed to bargain for Nic's freedom because that's just how nice she is. I like how Cleo may not be physically strong but is smart and can figure her way out of things easily. It's not always brute and brawn you can rely on.
But.... in this case, her brains only got Nic free and not her. She did make a valiant attempt at a runner but Jonas chased her down easily enough. After a lot of (quite entertaining) squabbling, he locks her in a shed and I couldn't help but feel that he'd started to sympathise with her slightly? Like I said, Cleo is smart and her simply talking to him is enough to raise his doubts over whether he's actually doing the right thing.
Over with Magnus, he confronts his mum about Lucia's true heritage to see if they're truly not related. and I'm so happy this was confirmed to him!! Magnus is then sent to retrieve Cleo so they can use her as leverage- which King Gaius is very quick and happy about throwing in King Corvin's face.
But before Magnus can get to collect Cleo, Nic and Theon manage to help her escape and this scene was so much fun! It was intense and had me on the edge of my seat. We slowed down a little for Cleo and Theon to confess their undying love for each other and... it's okay, I suppose. It felt a little quick but I made my peace with that.

Magnus shows up to take Cleo once more and this section had me gasping and shouting like crazy. Theon kills two of Magnus' guards and it's all great but.... the idiot turned his back. I did have a little bit of a Feminist issue with this whole section because Cleo is saying is stuff like '[Theon] saved me once. He'd save me again.' I really thought Cleo would be a strong and independent heroine but through this whole scene, she's just waiting for a man to save her! I get that her talents are more in intellect but it just irked me how damsel-esque she was being.
Magnus kills Theon and, while I was super shocked, I wasn't too sad because Theon had always felt too expendable. To me, Theon felt like just a plot device through the whole story- something to motivate Cleo's vengeance in the future without such a big and important character being killed off. That's it.
Nic comes in to save Cleo from Magnus and they run off together and back to Auranos. King Corvin is obviously angry that she left but his relief overcrowds his rage. Cleo has a nice scene with her sister which was nice and I can see Emelia being a very motivational character for Cleo to aspire to be like.
Magnus also returns home to Limeros with his tail between his legs because he failed to retrieve Cleo like King Gaius had ordered him to. In his hazed mind-frame, he decides to do the stupidest thing he ever could've done!!  He kisses Lucia and tells her all about her true heritage and why they can be together which... was probably the wrong way to go about doing things. After her rejecting him (who else saw that coming, huh?), Magnus turned all cold and harsh to hide away his true feelings in a good ol', cliche, YA fashion.
And, suddenly, it's happening. Limeros and Paelsia began riding for Auranos, ready to attack. King Gaius had Lucia in tow as their secret weapon. We also had Jonas who was finally questioning King Gaius' full intentions and agenda for allying with Paelisa. Too little, too late, Jonas. Gods, they were so naive when striking a deal with Gaius- of course he's planning to double cross you!
As the battle starts, Cleo deals with her own internal struggle and I feel so sorry for her! She finds the Watcher's beans (Eirene turning out as a Watcher) and she goes to give them to Emelia. As soon as she went to heal Emelia, I felt my stomach drop. Because, of course, she'd be too late and her sister would be dead. It was such a gut-wrenching moment.

Meanwhile, Gaius' forces close in and he uses Lucia to break into the castle walls. This works but throws Lucia into a coma which... I don't particular care about. I like Lucia but don't particular love her so her comatose state doesn't really bother me.
Now that the castle is under attack, Cleo runs and bumps into none other than Magnus. I loved this exchange because these guys are my favourite characters and the scene was just so intense! Cleo throws in his face that he killed the boy she loved and you could just tell that he was affected by it- Magnus is many things but he's not cruel. Cleo then manages to escape and finds her father.
Again with the heart-breaking things happening to Cleo! Hasn't the girl been through enough?! King Corvin gives her the amethyst that would allow her to wield the Kindred before dying.
I feel so sorry for Cleo. She lost the three people she loved most in the world in a single book! And she's still super strong and perseveres! That's exactly why I love her so much.
After this, Auranos is quickly defeated and Gaius wastes no time getting to business. He kills Basilius and I was not surprised at all. Honestly, Basilius deserved to die for how bloody stupid and naive he was. He was so blindly trusting and I don't believe for a second that he had magic- what a con!
Jonas managed to escape with Brion and now a true rebellion is being born. He finds Cleo and gives her a message to be ready and I'm so excited to see where this takes us!
Finally, Magnus finds and kidnaps Cleo but Cleo is full of a new goal- to fight and take back her throne. And I am sooooo excited!!!!!!

Overall, this book was stunning! The world was created beautifully and every page was as gripping and action-packed as the next.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment your thoughts. Stay amazing!
Chloe