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The Emperor's Arrow
Grand Prize Winner of Harlequin's 2015 So You Think You Can Write contest
Debut author Lauren D.M. Smith delivers an epic fantasy romance in this soaring tale of a kickass warrior and the emperor she's honor-bound to defend
The bride candidates have been summoned. Their numbers are many, yet only one is an Amazzi warrior. Only one would give her life to protect him.
Evony of Aureline, warrior of her people, has no intention of becoming a hideous old man's bride. Though her people have sworn their loyalty to the legendary emperor Galen, Evony knows little of courts and intrigue. It's simply not her world.
Yet it's on the palace training grounds where Evony's archery skills gain her the respect of soldiers and legates alike. The emperor himself takes notice of the beautiful, ruthless warrior. In turn, the young, steely eyed Galen is nothing at all what Evony expected.
This man could very well conquer her heart. But does he feel the same?
As the rivalry among the remaining bride candidates intensifies and the plot for the throne unfolds, Evony must make a grave choice: fulfill her destiny and protect her people or follow her heart and pursue true love.
Either way, the honor of the Amazzi people and the future of the empire now rests with Evony of Aureline. For she is the Emperor's Arrow.
This book is approximately 74,000 words
Edited by Angela James
Debut author Lauren D.M. Smith delivers an epic fantasy romance in this soaring tale of a kickass warrior and the emperor she's honor-bound to defend
The bride candidates have been summoned. Their numbers are many, yet only one is an Amazzi warrior. Only one would give her life to protect him.
Evony of Aureline, warrior of her people, has no intention of becoming a hideous old man's bride. Though her people have sworn their loyalty to the legendary emperor Galen, Evony knows little of courts and intrigue. It's simply not her world.
Yet it's on the palace training grounds where Evony's archery skills gain her the respect of soldiers and legates alike. The emperor himself takes notice of the beautiful, ruthless warrior. In turn, the young, steely eyed Galen is nothing at all what Evony expected.
This man could very well conquer her heart. But does he feel the same?
As the rivalry among the remaining bride candidates intensifies and the plot for the throne unfolds, Evony must make a grave choice: fulfill her destiny and protect her people or follow her heart and pursue true love.
Either way, the honor of the Amazzi people and the future of the empire now rests with Evony of Aureline. For she is the Emperor's Arrow.
This book is approximately 74,000 words
Edited by Angela James
181 pages, ebook
First published July 18, 2016
113 people are currently reading
2227 people want to read
About the author
Lauren D.M. Smith
3 books89 followersI'm a huge geek, book fiend, and someone who refuses to grow up (Popcorn for dinner is a perfectly legitimate decision. As is sliding down banisters). I have a bad case of wanderlust that has taken me all over the world, I've lived in three countries now and visited many more. This has also led me to have a rather...eclectic series of jobs up until now.
I have finally settled down in a small village just outside of my hometown with my long-suffering husband and our daughter. He puts up with my bouts of insanity and fan-girling and he even tolerates me forcing him to cosplay.
Right now I work in Brockville in marketing/events and spend most of my free time reading, writing, binge-watching shows, or swearing up a storm while playing video games.
I have finally settled down in a small village just outside of my hometown with my long-suffering husband and our daughter. He puts up with my bouts of insanity and fan-girling and he even tolerates me forcing him to cosplay.
Right now I work in Brockville in marketing/events and spend most of my free time reading, writing, binge-watching shows, or swearing up a storm while playing video games.
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June 7, 2025
The Emperor's Arrow
~ a unique twist featuring Amazonians where we get a strongass heroine, a crafty emperor sprinkled with intrigue, betrayal, and....a Bachelor-style contest for the Emperor to find a wife !!!
So Evony enters the contest, but she's doesn't fit in with the rest of the contests. being a badass princess warrior.
She’s too outspoken, too wild, too big, and not very lady-like! *oh wow. the horror. the absolute horror.*
“The way everyone reacted to her was beginning to make her feel like some kind of beast, as if she was a wolf that someone had let into the flock and that everyone was hoping would pass them by.”
But, that’s not all! Evony doesn't a shiiiit about the contest. she doesn’t wanna become an Empress; she’s just looking for a … STUD!!! And she starts a list of potential fathers of her future child by scooping out how powerful all the guards are
Evony's POV was hilarious and realistic on how an Amazon who believes in equality of women when suddenly thrust into patriarchy would react! She was so brutal and I loved every witty line
She has strong opinions and doesn't give a flying shit about titles
“Rakin studied her for a moment. “This was by order of his imperial majesty,” he said, stressing the title the tiniest bit.
She took a step closer so that there was barely a hand’s difference between the two of them. “Then tell his imperial majesty that he is an idiot!” she snapped”
but now... my main complaints:
Secondary characters... they were just not memorable... like at all.
I can't even think to name a single one. which sucks ass cuz I like my character dynamics ! I want some banter dammit. I want Evony to make friends and enemies with the contestants who have actual characteristics for me to remember them by.
The world building it was kinda weird because the concept was really unique but the author just chose not to .. build off of it *bitch why*ノಠ_ಠノ
i was actually really interested in this world with a crazy warlord and female warriors !! but we never really left the settings or dynamic beyond the throne room. bummer man
Overall it was a good story with action and adventure, mixed with a sweet romance, to have me satisfied till I closed the book. Evony's character was a breatheee of amazon glorious air that I just friggen loved and looking back... she was just way 2 much a baddie for these punks. it was pathetic how underpowered the enemies were in comparison that I would love to see Evony taking over army to be first female commander there or some shit in the next one, I mean can you FuCkInG imagine how funny that would be?? Amazon baddie becoming a leader and having to fight with ego pricks soldiers. someone write that shit down and send it to me to review
“They were straining, but holding. But she didn’t know how long that would last. She wished she had more arrows, more people, more time to prepare. This was the hand she’d been dealt, and it was the hand she was going to have to play. And more than anyone else, she wanted to win.”
So Evony enters the contest, but she's doesn't fit in with the rest of the contests. being a badass princess warrior.
She’s too outspoken, too wild, too big, and not very lady-like! *oh wow. the horror. the absolute horror.*
“The way everyone reacted to her was beginning to make her feel like some kind of beast, as if she was a wolf that someone had let into the flock and that everyone was hoping would pass them by.”
But, that’s not all! Evony doesn't a shiiiit about the contest. she doesn’t wanna become an Empress; she’s just looking for a … STUD!!! And she starts a list of potential fathers of her future child by scooping out how powerful all the guards are
Evony's POV was hilarious and realistic on how an Amazon who believes in equality of women when suddenly thrust into patriarchy would react! She was so brutal and I loved every witty line
She has strong opinions and doesn't give a flying shit about titles
“Rakin studied her for a moment. “This was by order of his imperial majesty,” he said, stressing the title the tiniest bit.
She took a step closer so that there was barely a hand’s difference between the two of them. “Then tell his imperial majesty that he is an idiot!” she snapped”
but now... my main complaints:
Secondary characters... they were just not memorable... like at all.
I can't even think to name a single one. which sucks ass cuz I like my character dynamics ! I want some banter dammit. I want Evony to make friends and enemies with the contestants who have actual characteristics for me to remember them by.
The world building it was kinda weird because the concept was really unique but the author just chose not to .. build off of it *bitch why*ノಠ_ಠノ
i was actually really interested in this world with a crazy warlord and female warriors !! but we never really left the settings or dynamic beyond the throne room. bummer man
Overall it was a good story with action and adventure, mixed with a sweet romance, to have me satisfied till I closed the book. Evony's character was a breatheee of amazon glorious air that I just friggen loved and looking back... she was just way 2 much a baddie for these punks. it was pathetic how underpowered the enemies were in comparison that I would love to see Evony taking over army to be first female commander there or some shit in the next one, I mean can you FuCkInG imagine how funny that would be?? Amazon baddie becoming a leader and having to fight with ego pricks soldiers. someone write that shit down and send it to me to review
“They were straining, but holding. But she didn’t know how long that would last. She wished she had more arrows, more people, more time to prepare. This was the hand she’d been dealt, and it was the hand she was going to have to play. And more than anyone else, she wanted to win.”
June 10, 2016
If you liked the writing style of Poison Study, I’m sure you’ll like this book too! Attention: only the style is similar, not the sotry!
The heroine, Evony, is a bride candidate for emperor Galen. And you realize, as soon as the book starts, that she’s not your usual Empress material! She’s first and foremost an Amazzi warrior! She’s very. Very skiller with her bow…
But, that’s not all! She doesn’t want to become an Empress; she’s just looking for a … STUD!!! And she starts the list of potential fathers of her future child immediately! LOL
She’s hoping that she will find her lifemate, but she’ll be content with a good, intelligent, handsome stud!
The Amazzi warriors are kind of Amazon warrior women, but they have a big plus on them: Amazzi don’t kill their male offspring: they love their males and treat them as equals.
So, Evony enters the contest, but she’s not accepted by all the other contenders. She’s too outspoken, too wild, too big, not enough lady-like!
I liked her immensely!! She’s hilarious in her honesty and the way she treats and speak to Galen!
Evony raised her eyebrows. “It’s the term my people refer to you as. It means ‘the man we bow to’.
I’m surprised you’re unfamiliar with it.”
He blinked and then frowned slightly. “Why would that surprise you?”
“We are your people. I would have thought you would be familiar with our word for you. TheAmazzi have been the allies of the Fuscienne before your family became emperors.”
“Then you are displeased with me?”
Evony shrugged. “No. Merely surprised.”
“You are not particularly respectful,” Emperor Galen said, eyeing her.
………………..
The emperor frowned slightly. “You always call me Adnuhom. Is it necessary?”
“No. I’d thought using your title was more appropriate, but if you don’t care for it, that’s fine then, Galen.”
………………
“I will of course reward your efforts. Do you wish to be empress?”
She snorted. “No. I came because you requested a daughter of our clan. Once I’m released from thiscompetition, I will complete my secondary mission and return home.”
The wrinkle reappeared in his forehead. “What is your secondary mission?”
As he was the Adnuhom, Evony saw no reason not to tell him. “To find a man who is suitable to act as stud to me. I would like to find a lifemate like my mother did, but I’m not certain I’ll be able to. But it is my duty and honour to bring children into our clan. Since I was already to come to the mainland, it was decided that I should do this as well and save myself a trip later.”
Galen was good too, but not even near as much as Evony!
He’s honorable and hot, but he too stiff and Evony is just what he needs!
The story is pretty simple and you already know what will happen, but I still enjoyed the trip toward the end! All thanks to the very easy to read writing style, which was the perfect mix between fun, witty dialogue, good descriptions and fast paced action.
I don’t know if the author intends to write the sequel (or to make this a series), but if she will I’m sure I’ll be reading it! :)
The heroine, Evony, is a bride candidate for emperor Galen. And you realize, as soon as the book starts, that she’s not your usual Empress material! She’s first and foremost an Amazzi warrior! She’s very. Very skiller with her bow…
But, that’s not all! She doesn’t want to become an Empress; she’s just looking for a … STUD!!! And she starts the list of potential fathers of her future child immediately! LOL
She’s hoping that she will find her lifemate, but she’ll be content with a good, intelligent, handsome stud!
The Amazzi warriors are kind of Amazon warrior women, but they have a big plus on them: Amazzi don’t kill their male offspring: they love their males and treat them as equals.
So, Evony enters the contest, but she’s not accepted by all the other contenders. She’s too outspoken, too wild, too big, not enough lady-like!
I liked her immensely!! She’s hilarious in her honesty and the way she treats and speak to Galen!
Evony raised her eyebrows. “It’s the term my people refer to you as. It means ‘the man we bow to’.
I’m surprised you’re unfamiliar with it.”
He blinked and then frowned slightly. “Why would that surprise you?”
“We are your people. I would have thought you would be familiar with our word for you. TheAmazzi have been the allies of the Fuscienne before your family became emperors.”
“Then you are displeased with me?”
Evony shrugged. “No. Merely surprised.”
“You are not particularly respectful,” Emperor Galen said, eyeing her.
………………..
The emperor frowned slightly. “You always call me Adnuhom. Is it necessary?”
“No. I’d thought using your title was more appropriate, but if you don’t care for it, that’s fine then, Galen.”
………………
“I will of course reward your efforts. Do you wish to be empress?”
She snorted. “No. I came because you requested a daughter of our clan. Once I’m released from thiscompetition, I will complete my secondary mission and return home.”
The wrinkle reappeared in his forehead. “What is your secondary mission?”
As he was the Adnuhom, Evony saw no reason not to tell him. “To find a man who is suitable to act as stud to me. I would like to find a lifemate like my mother did, but I’m not certain I’ll be able to. But it is my duty and honour to bring children into our clan. Since I was already to come to the mainland, it was decided that I should do this as well and save myself a trip later.”
Galen was good too, but not even near as much as Evony!
He’s honorable and hot, but he too stiff and Evony is just what he needs!
The story is pretty simple and you already know what will happen, but I still enjoyed the trip toward the end! All thanks to the very easy to read writing style, which was the perfect mix between fun, witty dialogue, good descriptions and fast paced action.
I don’t know if the author intends to write the sequel (or to make this a series), but if she will I’m sure I’ll be reading it! :)
edited
April 6, 2016I love a first kiss scene and while I was editing, I thought this between the emperor and Evony is wonderful!
“You are aware Amazzi don’t typically have much trade in intrigue? I’m not certain how much use I will be, but I will certainly do all I can.”
“I can ask nothing less,” he said, with a tiny quirk of his lips that seemed to be the closest thing to a smile to cross his face. Evony often wondered why nothing seemed to please this man. “I will of course reward your efforts. Do you wish to be empress?”
She snorted. “No. I came because you requested a daughter of our clan. Once I’m released from this competition, I will complete my secondary mission and return home.”
The wrinkle reappeared in his forehead. “What is your secondary mission?”
As he was the Adnuhom, Evony saw no reason not to tell him. “To find a man who is suitable to act as stud to me. I would like to find a lifemate like my mother did, but I’m not certain I’ll be able to. But it is my duty and honour to bring children into our clan. Since I was already to come to the mainland, it was decided that I should do this as well and save myself a trip later.”
Galen stared at her, his lips parted slightly. He blinked slowly a few times before his gaze narrowed. He ran his stare over all of her then met her eyes again. “That…That may work well for both of us.”
“What do you mean?”
“We both seek the same thing: Heirs. You would like a daughter, and I would need a son to succeed me. If I cannot find a suitable woman to become empress and you cannot find a man to suit yourself, we could pair up until we both had our heir. I imagine I would be considered suitable.”
It was Evony’s turn to stare for a moment. She could hardly argue with him, not when he was the Adnuhom. Legend said that one of the ancestresses of her clan had become the lifemate of one of the Fuscienne men which had forged the alliance that persisted today. Which made Galen practically Amazzi. He seemed healthy, strong, and intelligent. She imagined any children of his would be the same. It was certainly an interesting offer, but she wasn’t without concerns. “How can you be certain we’re compatible physically?” she asked, thinking back to the stories some of her aunts and cousins had told her. “It would be difficult to produce multiple children if we aren’t.”
“There is a simple method to test that,” he said, taking a step towards her.
“What is it?” Evony asked, leaning forward. No one had told her you could test for that! If she could learn this test, it could make it easier to find a suitable man, and maybe even a lifemate!
“Like this,” he said, reaching out and pulling her towards him. An arm snaked its way around her waist so her body was pressed into his, while his other hand cradled the back of her head. His warm, soft lips were against hers in a moment. Evony opened her mouth to say this wasn’t a test and was rewarded by the entrance of his tongue.
Evony tried to pull away a little at that and made a little noise of protest that quickly died away. Because was Galen was doing with his tongue and lips made her flush all over. His lips opened and closed around her lips, while his tongue explored her mouth like it belonged there. He was even so bold as to flick her tongue with his.
The new sensations brought a familiar tightness to her breasts and lower. He had to feel the way her nipples stood up, given the way her chest was pressed into his. She knew her face was flushed, her skin feeling hot, the familiar tug of need making her shift her weight. It was so much stronger than she’d ever felt it before. Her body wanted this and more.
Without thinking about it first, Evony began to reciprocate. She did her best to match his lips movements, pressing herself even more closely against him, one arm going around his neck, the other wrapped into the folds of his tunic. This seemed to encourage Galen and he pushed himself forward, forcing Evony to back up until she was against the wall.
With the full force of his hard body against her, Evony found herself enveloped in Galen’s scent, a clean, faintly spicy smell that made the space between her legs get even tighter. His lips continued their delicious assault on hers and Evony fought back as best she could. From the way Galen shifted against her, Evony thought she was doing well, until he moved away.
As he pulled away and the comparatively cooler air hit where his body had been, a little whine came from the back of Evony’s throat. She didn’t want to stop. Not so soon at least. Her chest heaved, and Evony realized she was warm all over and slightly out of breath, like she’d been running.
Galen was breathing harder as well, but he seemed to be handling it better if the way he was focused on straightening his tunic was any indication. Once he was finished, he looked at her. “I believe we are very compatible.”
“You are aware Amazzi don’t typically have much trade in intrigue? I’m not certain how much use I will be, but I will certainly do all I can.”
“I can ask nothing less,” he said, with a tiny quirk of his lips that seemed to be the closest thing to a smile to cross his face. Evony often wondered why nothing seemed to please this man. “I will of course reward your efforts. Do you wish to be empress?”
She snorted. “No. I came because you requested a daughter of our clan. Once I’m released from this competition, I will complete my secondary mission and return home.”
The wrinkle reappeared in his forehead. “What is your secondary mission?”
As he was the Adnuhom, Evony saw no reason not to tell him. “To find a man who is suitable to act as stud to me. I would like to find a lifemate like my mother did, but I’m not certain I’ll be able to. But it is my duty and honour to bring children into our clan. Since I was already to come to the mainland, it was decided that I should do this as well and save myself a trip later.”
Galen stared at her, his lips parted slightly. He blinked slowly a few times before his gaze narrowed. He ran his stare over all of her then met her eyes again. “That…That may work well for both of us.”
“What do you mean?”
“We both seek the same thing: Heirs. You would like a daughter, and I would need a son to succeed me. If I cannot find a suitable woman to become empress and you cannot find a man to suit yourself, we could pair up until we both had our heir. I imagine I would be considered suitable.”
It was Evony’s turn to stare for a moment. She could hardly argue with him, not when he was the Adnuhom. Legend said that one of the ancestresses of her clan had become the lifemate of one of the Fuscienne men which had forged the alliance that persisted today. Which made Galen practically Amazzi. He seemed healthy, strong, and intelligent. She imagined any children of his would be the same. It was certainly an interesting offer, but she wasn’t without concerns. “How can you be certain we’re compatible physically?” she asked, thinking back to the stories some of her aunts and cousins had told her. “It would be difficult to produce multiple children if we aren’t.”
“There is a simple method to test that,” he said, taking a step towards her.
“What is it?” Evony asked, leaning forward. No one had told her you could test for that! If she could learn this test, it could make it easier to find a suitable man, and maybe even a lifemate!
“Like this,” he said, reaching out and pulling her towards him. An arm snaked its way around her waist so her body was pressed into his, while his other hand cradled the back of her head. His warm, soft lips were against hers in a moment. Evony opened her mouth to say this wasn’t a test and was rewarded by the entrance of his tongue.
Evony tried to pull away a little at that and made a little noise of protest that quickly died away. Because was Galen was doing with his tongue and lips made her flush all over. His lips opened and closed around her lips, while his tongue explored her mouth like it belonged there. He was even so bold as to flick her tongue with his.
The new sensations brought a familiar tightness to her breasts and lower. He had to feel the way her nipples stood up, given the way her chest was pressed into his. She knew her face was flushed, her skin feeling hot, the familiar tug of need making her shift her weight. It was so much stronger than she’d ever felt it before. Her body wanted this and more.
Without thinking about it first, Evony began to reciprocate. She did her best to match his lips movements, pressing herself even more closely against him, one arm going around his neck, the other wrapped into the folds of his tunic. This seemed to encourage Galen and he pushed himself forward, forcing Evony to back up until she was against the wall.
With the full force of his hard body against her, Evony found herself enveloped in Galen’s scent, a clean, faintly spicy smell that made the space between her legs get even tighter. His lips continued their delicious assault on hers and Evony fought back as best she could. From the way Galen shifted against her, Evony thought she was doing well, until he moved away.
As he pulled away and the comparatively cooler air hit where his body had been, a little whine came from the back of Evony’s throat. She didn’t want to stop. Not so soon at least. Her chest heaved, and Evony realized she was warm all over and slightly out of breath, like she’d been running.
Galen was breathing harder as well, but he seemed to be handling it better if the way he was focused on straightening his tunic was any indication. Once he was finished, he looked at her. “I believe we are very compatible.”
August 22, 2016
If I had to describe this book to someone, it'd be The Selection if the protagonist was Katniss while channelling Wonder Woman, and all set in a fantasy version of Ancient Rome.
This sounds awesome, right? Especially when I actually liked The Selection. And, at first, this book is the best. It was on the fast track for a four star. The protagonist was sensible and non-nonsense, could fight and fend for herself, there was a conspiracy, and a distinctive lack of misunderstandings. Sure, there was the predictable "I trip on the Love Interest, and don't realize it's him because I think he's old and ugly and he's actually smoking hot". But hey, I'm flexible, you can get away with that if you give me a good book.
But as the book went on, it went from a solid four to a one star in parts. And that broke my heart.
Right, from the start: the protagonist is an Amazi (because Amazon would be too obvious) who is sent to the mainland to participate in a contest to determine the new Empress. The daughters of nobility all around have been summoned and they vie for the position and the right to marry the Emperor (who's pretty much Alexander the Great via Caesar, instead of avenging his horse, he was avenging his sister). There is a conspiracy to kill the Emperor, and by hosting this contest, he feels it is the best way to pull his invisible enemies out in the open, as he knows some of the nobles are behind this, but not which ones.
Now, this right here is the set-up for an amazing book.
Unfortunately, this is not it.
Instead, the book only focuses on how special Evony is, how good she is in battle, and how all warriors in the castle are inferior to her. I have some issues with that portrayal (especially seeing how Rome worked, and how military service was mandatory) but hey, it's a fantasy, I can dig it. What I can't dig is that there is this amazing plot waiting to happen and Evony doggedly avoids it. Instead of dealing with the other girls, trying to figure out who the ones working against the emperor are, she snubs them except for her sidekick, and totally fails her mission.
That's right: the Emperor gives her a mission (because the Amazons in this world are renowned for being super loyal to the Emperor despite refusing to accept the habits of the mainland, which I thought was awesome) to find out who might be in the conspiracy by befriending the other girls and she totally ignores it. Instead she just hangs out with the warriors and constantly shows them how much more awesome she is.
And this ties to another problem: the other girls. If the Selection was bad in that most of them had little development, in Arrow of the Emperor... they have none. There is the obligatory evil bitch, and the saintly long-suffering BFF of the MC and everyone else just blurs into each other. The secondary characters in this book are terrible, and the fact that the MC is the only warrior amongst them enhances the "special snowflake" syndrome that annoys the fuck out of me. At least in the Selection and the Hunger Games, while the MCs were competent in their own rights, there were other people who were just as good: the guys from the Legacy tributes were far better warriors than Katniss (and she only defeats them by a mix of luck and cunning), and the other girls in the Selection, while not talented musicians, were just as beautiful as America and more competent in other areas. Evony is... well, a snowflake. And that makes the world boring. Oh SO boring. And just like that, an amazing plot is dead. Because Evony has no interest in dealing with the other girls, and because they are not well built as characters, the revelation of who was involved falls flat. I felt no shock or emotional connection. Hell, for a while, I was hoping it was the BFF just so it would make me feel _something_. But nope. It was one of the highly undefined and uninteresting girls who I knew nothing about. It would be an amazing plot to pursuit, with Evony trying to wade in a world she understood nothing of, fighting something, for once, that couldn't be defeated with blade and bow.
Then, there's the issue of the book forgetting it's supposed to be an original work and not just a Selection rip-off. The Selection lays the rules about how the choosing of the queen goes pretty early on: it's not just a way to get a wife for the prince - it's a television spectacle, a concocted reality show -- while the prince does get to choose his bride, he can't appear to favour any contestant too much as to create tension. While this is taken from the Hunger Games and how it is handled, the Selection does it a lot better. Not because it's a better book (it's not) but because there is so much you can spin and fake in a show where the main interest is for children to kill each other. On the other hand, the Selection's concept is all about hype and maintaining interest and drama as much as possible, because there is limited interest in the concept of a single guy choosing a favourite among a ton of girls. Most of the time, the choice is done earlier on (as happens in the Selection) but it has to be spun for as long as possible to keep audience interest.
Now, Arrow was meant to be a completely different kettle of fish: this was an Emperor determining his wife. There was no show, no spectacle, no anything. But every now and then, the book forgot it was NOT the Selection and tried to give us reasons like "Evony can't enter the archery contest because the public would see it with her being favoured over the others".
Look, there were NO RULES other than "You have to pass the trials we give you". This is about AN EMPEROR choosing a bride, not a televised show to calm down the masses (now, if the Emperor had a circus where the brides fought to death for the right of marrying him... that'd be a lot more interesting). There is no reason why Evony couldn't go to the archery contest, because even if it was favouring her, the damn Emperor could do whatever he wanted, as this was a set up to unroot a conspiracy, not a popularity contest. The book starts with a totally different concept and set of rules, but then starts to act according to another set of rules completely unrelated and directly lifted from the Selection.
And this falls into the issue of how the book is, well, incredibly stupid when politicking and intrigue are involved. The author clearly has issues writing anything on the topic, and she just tacked on the conspiracy to have an excuse for a battle in the final scene. I would have praised the emperor if his idea for the contest would be to get the daughters of all the nobles and keep them in the palace as "hostages" so they would not dare to launch an attack while they were there. In turn, this would give him more time to ferret out the conspiracy. Or, he could actually do this as a trap: set himself as a target, allowing the girls to get close to him and discreetely have them watched all the time. It would offer his enemies a too good opportunity to get to him, and all the Emperor would need to do would be to include a couple of plants (like Evony and maybe other girls from trusted friends) and let them act.
But nope. He did claim to want to use the seeking of a bride as a way to ferret the conspiracy. However, as girls got sent home because they failed trials, there was no way for him to know if they were part of the conspiracy or not. Unless being anti-Emperor automatically made you superskilled. Or protected with Plot Armour (which, obviously, was what happened in the book, because, SPOILER, the involved party was never kicked out of the competition).
TL;DR: this book has an amazing book inside of it. It has a great, super concept, and the building blocks for an a super clever book with an interesting and different main character. Unfortunately, this is little more than a first draft of that book. It fails in most accounts, with a weak setting, underdeveloped secondary characters, nebulous motivations and shaky plot.
And it breaks my heart to say so, because I had LOVED how amazing it sounded in paper. I am not sure if it was time or maturity that failed the author - if she needed more time to finish the book (as it was a contest) or if she simply needs to get more experience as a writer. This author can do better than this, I am sure, and I look forward to reading her future endeavours.
This sounds awesome, right? Especially when I actually liked The Selection. And, at first, this book is the best. It was on the fast track for a four star. The protagonist was sensible and non-nonsense, could fight and fend for herself, there was a conspiracy, and a distinctive lack of misunderstandings. Sure, there was the predictable "I trip on the Love Interest, and don't realize it's him because I think he's old and ugly and he's actually smoking hot". But hey, I'm flexible, you can get away with that if you give me a good book.
But as the book went on, it went from a solid four to a one star in parts. And that broke my heart.
Right, from the start: the protagonist is an Amazi (because Amazon would be too obvious) who is sent to the mainland to participate in a contest to determine the new Empress. The daughters of nobility all around have been summoned and they vie for the position and the right to marry the Emperor (who's pretty much Alexander the Great via Caesar, instead of avenging his horse, he was avenging his sister). There is a conspiracy to kill the Emperor, and by hosting this contest, he feels it is the best way to pull his invisible enemies out in the open, as he knows some of the nobles are behind this, but not which ones.
Now, this right here is the set-up for an amazing book.
Unfortunately, this is not it.
Instead, the book only focuses on how special Evony is, how good she is in battle, and how all warriors in the castle are inferior to her. I have some issues with that portrayal (especially seeing how Rome worked, and how military service was mandatory) but hey, it's a fantasy, I can dig it. What I can't dig is that there is this amazing plot waiting to happen and Evony doggedly avoids it. Instead of dealing with the other girls, trying to figure out who the ones working against the emperor are, she snubs them except for her sidekick, and totally fails her mission.
That's right: the Emperor gives her a mission (because the Amazons in this world are renowned for being super loyal to the Emperor despite refusing to accept the habits of the mainland, which I thought was awesome) to find out who might be in the conspiracy by befriending the other girls and she totally ignores it. Instead she just hangs out with the warriors and constantly shows them how much more awesome she is.
And this ties to another problem: the other girls. If the Selection was bad in that most of them had little development, in Arrow of the Emperor... they have none. There is the obligatory evil bitch, and the saintly long-suffering BFF of the MC and everyone else just blurs into each other. The secondary characters in this book are terrible, and the fact that the MC is the only warrior amongst them enhances the "special snowflake" syndrome that annoys the fuck out of me. At least in the Selection and the Hunger Games, while the MCs were competent in their own rights, there were other people who were just as good: the guys from the Legacy tributes were far better warriors than Katniss (and she only defeats them by a mix of luck and cunning), and the other girls in the Selection, while not talented musicians, were just as beautiful as America and more competent in other areas. Evony is... well, a snowflake. And that makes the world boring. Oh SO boring. And just like that, an amazing plot is dead. Because Evony has no interest in dealing with the other girls, and because they are not well built as characters, the revelation of who was involved falls flat. I felt no shock or emotional connection. Hell, for a while, I was hoping it was the BFF just so it would make me feel _something_. But nope. It was one of the highly undefined and uninteresting girls who I knew nothing about. It would be an amazing plot to pursuit, with Evony trying to wade in a world she understood nothing of, fighting something, for once, that couldn't be defeated with blade and bow.
Then, there's the issue of the book forgetting it's supposed to be an original work and not just a Selection rip-off. The Selection lays the rules about how the choosing of the queen goes pretty early on: it's not just a way to get a wife for the prince - it's a television spectacle, a concocted reality show -- while the prince does get to choose his bride, he can't appear to favour any contestant too much as to create tension. While this is taken from the Hunger Games and how it is handled, the Selection does it a lot better. Not because it's a better book (it's not) but because there is so much you can spin and fake in a show where the main interest is for children to kill each other. On the other hand, the Selection's concept is all about hype and maintaining interest and drama as much as possible, because there is limited interest in the concept of a single guy choosing a favourite among a ton of girls. Most of the time, the choice is done earlier on (as happens in the Selection) but it has to be spun for as long as possible to keep audience interest.
Now, Arrow was meant to be a completely different kettle of fish: this was an Emperor determining his wife. There was no show, no spectacle, no anything. But every now and then, the book forgot it was NOT the Selection and tried to give us reasons like "Evony can't enter the archery contest because the public would see it with her being favoured over the others".
Look, there were NO RULES other than "You have to pass the trials we give you". This is about AN EMPEROR choosing a bride, not a televised show to calm down the masses (now, if the Emperor had a circus where the brides fought to death for the right of marrying him... that'd be a lot more interesting). There is no reason why Evony couldn't go to the archery contest, because even if it was favouring her, the damn Emperor could do whatever he wanted, as this was a set up to unroot a conspiracy, not a popularity contest. The book starts with a totally different concept and set of rules, but then starts to act according to another set of rules completely unrelated and directly lifted from the Selection.
And this falls into the issue of how the book is, well, incredibly stupid when politicking and intrigue are involved. The author clearly has issues writing anything on the topic, and she just tacked on the conspiracy to have an excuse for a battle in the final scene. I would have praised the emperor if his idea for the contest would be to get the daughters of all the nobles and keep them in the palace as "hostages" so they would not dare to launch an attack while they were there. In turn, this would give him more time to ferret out the conspiracy. Or, he could actually do this as a trap: set himself as a target, allowing the girls to get close to him and discreetely have them watched all the time. It would offer his enemies a too good opportunity to get to him, and all the Emperor would need to do would be to include a couple of plants (like Evony and maybe other girls from trusted friends) and let them act.
But nope. He did claim to want to use the seeking of a bride as a way to ferret the conspiracy. However, as girls got sent home because they failed trials, there was no way for him to know if they were part of the conspiracy or not. Unless being anti-Emperor automatically made you superskilled. Or protected with Plot Armour (which, obviously, was what happened in the book, because, SPOILER, the involved party was never kicked out of the competition).
TL;DR: this book has an amazing book inside of it. It has a great, super concept, and the building blocks for an a super clever book with an interesting and different main character. Unfortunately, this is little more than a first draft of that book. It fails in most accounts, with a weak setting, underdeveloped secondary characters, nebulous motivations and shaky plot.
And it breaks my heart to say so, because I had LOVED how amazing it sounded in paper. I am not sure if it was time or maturity that failed the author - if she needed more time to finish the book (as it was a contest) or if she simply needs to get more experience as a writer. This author can do better than this, I am sure, and I look forward to reading her future endeavours.
July 20, 2016
When I saw that this debut author was the winner of the 2015 So You Think You Can Write contest sponsored by Harlequin, I was excited to try it. I also love to try fantasy romance and this one seemed to fit the bill. I initially loved the world and the heroine - but by the end of the book, I had many frustrations.
Evony is our heroine and she is an Amazzi warrior. She comes from a land full of warriors and she is very skilled at combat and an amazing archer. Wanting to provide children to her people, she is on the hunt for a stud -- she isn't too concerned about finding a lifemate, as long as she can find a man who is both physically and mentally approved to give her a healthy child.
Everyone in the world is loyal to the mighty Emperor Galen. He has conquered all lands and tales are told about how power-mad he is and how beastly his nature can be. With this knowledge and gossip floating through her mind, Evony is summoned by the Emperor, as is one woman from every land, to go through a series of tests - after which, Galen will choose his bride. It's like a fantasy version of the television show, The Bachelor. Galen does need a bride, but he is also searching for those who want to rebel against him.
Evony arrives along with all the other women and immediately gets put to her first test - they have one hour to find an object that best represents what an empress should be. The field is then narrowed to twenty...contestants... and the story goes on from here. More tests for the women, both physical and theory and Evony finally meets the brutal, scary Galen who actually turns out to be a lovely gentleman. I think it would have been more fun if Galen did posses a more big and scary personality at first - to see how Evony handled him. But he is actually quite calm and sometimes I forgot he is the man who conquered the entire world.
At first, I loved Evony. She is bad ass, kick ass - any type of ass you can think off. She is a warrior and she is mature and level-headed and I thought she would start as a great foe/partner to the fierce Galen. But as the story progresses, Evony excels at everything. Every test - whether physical or mental, she has answers for. I wanted her to succeed, obviously, but she had zero faults. So it made the competition with the other women null and void, because she was obviously the clear winner from the start. She had to remind people all the time that she was an Amazzi warrior, if they ever threw doubt her way. Another frustration is that I got a little bored by the competition. It just didn't go anywhere. Evony would always be superior and the story would go in a circle around this theme.
My biggest frustration though is the romance. Quite quickly, Galen realizes that Evony can be a big asset to him, and smartly so. He wants to get to the bottom of why his sister was killed. He brought in a girl from each noble family to see if he could "smoke out those who plotted against him, as well as give him leverage against them." He notices how smart and capable Evony is and asks her to be his eyes and ears around the other women when he can't be there. She felt like an adviser to him, and then they start making out. It felt awkward to me. This is only told in Evony's point of view so I don't know the intimate thoughts Galen was having, but Evony was not having very intimate thoughts about him. There chemistry was great as adviser/advisee, but not great as romantic lovers. There was no sexual tension and even when the "I love you" came it didn't feel right at all.
If the romance had been really strong - I think I could have let the other stuff that bothered me go.
So yes, I've dumped on this one a bit but at the same time, that foundation for a fun fantasy is there. The world is there, and Evony had a chance to be a really cool heroine. It just missed the mark for me.
Grade: C-
Evony is our heroine and she is an Amazzi warrior. She comes from a land full of warriors and she is very skilled at combat and an amazing archer. Wanting to provide children to her people, she is on the hunt for a stud -- she isn't too concerned about finding a lifemate, as long as she can find a man who is both physically and mentally approved to give her a healthy child.
Everyone in the world is loyal to the mighty Emperor Galen. He has conquered all lands and tales are told about how power-mad he is and how beastly his nature can be. With this knowledge and gossip floating through her mind, Evony is summoned by the Emperor, as is one woman from every land, to go through a series of tests - after which, Galen will choose his bride. It's like a fantasy version of the television show, The Bachelor. Galen does need a bride, but he is also searching for those who want to rebel against him.
Evony arrives along with all the other women and immediately gets put to her first test - they have one hour to find an object that best represents what an empress should be. The field is then narrowed to twenty...contestants... and the story goes on from here. More tests for the women, both physical and theory and Evony finally meets the brutal, scary Galen who actually turns out to be a lovely gentleman. I think it would have been more fun if Galen did posses a more big and scary personality at first - to see how Evony handled him. But he is actually quite calm and sometimes I forgot he is the man who conquered the entire world.
At first, I loved Evony. She is bad ass, kick ass - any type of ass you can think off. She is a warrior and she is mature and level-headed and I thought she would start as a great foe/partner to the fierce Galen. But as the story progresses, Evony excels at everything. Every test - whether physical or mental, she has answers for. I wanted her to succeed, obviously, but she had zero faults. So it made the competition with the other women null and void, because she was obviously the clear winner from the start. She had to remind people all the time that she was an Amazzi warrior, if they ever threw doubt her way. Another frustration is that I got a little bored by the competition. It just didn't go anywhere. Evony would always be superior and the story would go in a circle around this theme.
My biggest frustration though is the romance. Quite quickly, Galen realizes that Evony can be a big asset to him, and smartly so. He wants to get to the bottom of why his sister was killed. He brought in a girl from each noble family to see if he could "smoke out those who plotted against him, as well as give him leverage against them." He notices how smart and capable Evony is and asks her to be his eyes and ears around the other women when he can't be there. She felt like an adviser to him, and then they start making out. It felt awkward to me. This is only told in Evony's point of view so I don't know the intimate thoughts Galen was having, but Evony was not having very intimate thoughts about him. There chemistry was great as adviser/advisee, but not great as romantic lovers. There was no sexual tension and even when the "I love you" came it didn't feel right at all.
If the romance had been really strong - I think I could have let the other stuff that bothered me go.
So yes, I've dumped on this one a bit but at the same time, that foundation for a fun fantasy is there. The world is there, and Evony had a chance to be a really cool heroine. It just missed the mark for me.
Grade: C-
July 23, 2016
The Emperor’s Arrow is a masterfully blending of The Bachelor meets Xena Warrior Princess .
Evony is a strong female warrior with mad archery skills. She finds herself thrust into a contest to become the bride of the Emperor. Evony has absolutely no interest in becoming the Emperor’s chosen bride but it is almost immediately apparent that she is going to make her mark on the competition just by being herself.
Evony requests the right to keep her fighting skills up and begins to train with the men, quickly earning their respect and admiration. Galen keeps his true identity from Evony while he trains beside her.
Betrayal makes it certain that Evony will need to use her skills to defend Galen and his people.
I loved Evony, I wasn’t a big fan of Galen. That being said, I still really enjoyed this story.
Smith pens a tale that hauls the reader right in and keeps you invested till the end.
Kudos on this debut, The Emperor’s Arrow will keep me coming back for more.
I received this ARC copy of The Emperor's Arrow from Carina Press in exchange for a honest review. This book is set for publication July 18, 2016.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Written by: Lauren D. M. Smith
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: July 18, 2016
Sold by: Carina Press
ASIN: B01EEXM9AC
Genre: Romantic Fantasy
Barnes & Noble | Amazon | itunes
Reviewed for:
Evony is a strong female warrior with mad archery skills. She finds herself thrust into a contest to become the bride of the Emperor. Evony has absolutely no interest in becoming the Emperor’s chosen bride but it is almost immediately apparent that she is going to make her mark on the competition just by being herself.
Evony requests the right to keep her fighting skills up and begins to train with the men, quickly earning their respect and admiration. Galen keeps his true identity from Evony while he trains beside her.
Betrayal makes it certain that Evony will need to use her skills to defend Galen and his people.
I loved Evony, I wasn’t a big fan of Galen. That being said, I still really enjoyed this story.
Smith pens a tale that hauls the reader right in and keeps you invested till the end.
Kudos on this debut, The Emperor’s Arrow will keep me coming back for more.
I received this ARC copy of The Emperor's Arrow from Carina Press in exchange for a honest review. This book is set for publication July 18, 2016.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Written by: Lauren D. M. Smith
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: July 18, 2016
Sold by: Carina Press
ASIN: B01EEXM9AC
Genre: Romantic Fantasy
Barnes & Noble | Amazon | itunes
Reviewed for:
July 14, 2023
How to describe this book? It's like if Wonder Woman entered the Selection series by Keira Cass. It honestly feels a bit like Wonder Woman fanfiction but that is not meant as a negative.
Evony won a contest amongst her warrior clan and was chosen to go to the mainland to be entered in a contest for the emperor to select his next empresses. She did not realize that was her "prize" and wants to compete with honor, but also is not actually interested in leaving her island clan. She does have a side mission. Since there are few men on her island that are not relatives, she is going to find a man "stud".
Galen is the young emperor who suspects that a coup is forming. He is bringing a daughter from every noble family in to spy on them.
I love books where the cultures clash. Most feel like Evony is a barbarian and she has a hard time understating their mainland ways.
This is a fantasy romance, although it's very low fantasy. There are no mythical creatures or superpowers.
Similar reads: Promise of fire by Amanda Bouchet has another strong female main character. Fantasy of frost by Kelly St Clare has similar culture clashing.
Evony won a contest amongst her warrior clan and was chosen to go to the mainland to be entered in a contest for the emperor to select his next empresses. She did not realize that was her "prize" and wants to compete with honor, but also is not actually interested in leaving her island clan. She does have a side mission. Since there are few men on her island that are not relatives, she is going to find a man "stud".
Galen is the young emperor who suspects that a coup is forming. He is bringing a daughter from every noble family in to spy on them.
I love books where the cultures clash. Most feel like Evony is a barbarian and she has a hard time understating their mainland ways.
This is a fantasy romance, although it's very low fantasy. There are no mythical creatures or superpowers.
Similar reads: Promise of fire by Amanda Bouchet has another strong female main character. Fantasy of frost by Kelly St Clare has similar culture clashing.
February 7, 2017
4.5 Stars!
This is a good story with enough action and adventure, mixed with a sweet romance, to have me satisfied as I close the book. That said, I thought the premise of this being similar to The Selection fell short. There wasn't much by way of relationships between the anyone other than the Emperor and the main protagonist. There was only mild cat-fighting one would expect, but the relationship between the two main characters seemed more one-sided and while I cared deeply about the girl, I never quite identified with the guy. It felt like he was flawed but we could have gone deeper.
I still enjoyed the read though and found it an enjoyable way to spend my Sunday afternoon.
This is a good story with enough action and adventure, mixed with a sweet romance, to have me satisfied as I close the book. That said, I thought the premise of this being similar to The Selection fell short. There wasn't much by way of relationships between the anyone other than the Emperor and the main protagonist. There was only mild cat-fighting one would expect, but the relationship between the two main characters seemed more one-sided and while I cared deeply about the girl, I never quite identified with the guy. It felt like he was flawed but we could have gone deeper.
I still enjoyed the read though and found it an enjoyable way to spend my Sunday afternoon.
May 15, 2021
🆗 World-building
🆗 Action
🆗❌ Characters
❌ Convenient and incoherent plot
❌ Predictable / Cliché
DNF at 54%
This book is not bad, but it's not good either. It is a case of bland and cliché characters, with an ordinary back-story and a very predictable story (with some parts that did not make much sense sometimes).
Evony is a badass warrior send to the emperor's castle with 25 other girls from every noble family of the land to enter a contest to find the next empress.
The first thing that bothered me is the fact the main character, Evony, says from the very beginning that she does not want to be part of the competition and that she wishes to be sent home as early as possible. Yet, when the first test arrives, she passes it cleverly instead of just failing it on purpose (because she still wants to compete with honor). I get that the author probably wanted to convey the feeling that she was their only because of duty and honor and that she had no interest at all in ruling and marrying, but the sentiment kind of fell short when she missed a golden chance to go back home a few hours after arriving and complaining about the competition and the wedding that would follow, and then proceeds to do well at every test and to talk about the fact that she still had plenty of time until she was eliminated. She could have kept her honor intact, but still try a little less hard is all I am saying.
She also conveniently runs into the emperor without knowing that it's him because he is young and smoking hot instead of being an old grumpy guy as she previously thought. As I said, there is nothing really bad about this book, but nothing really good either.
The titles are also a little bit confusing; they just appear as the story goes on and we have to figure out what they mean and where they are in the political hierarchy. I also had so much trouble differentiating the secondary characters because they were named with titles that I couldn't understand and they came from lands that were named but never described.
The plot takes forever to settle. Evony was asked to help figure out who was against the emperor and instead of trying to make herself useful, she complains about the other girls and stays as far away from them as she can. Nothing happens for the first half of the book besides some silly tests to eliminate candidates.
This is might be a case of "it's not you, it's me" because I see many 4 stars and 5 stars reviews for this book, but I am not hooked up yet and I have no interest in finishing this book.
🆗 Action
🆗❌ Characters
❌ Convenient and incoherent plot
❌ Predictable / Cliché
DNF at 54%
This book is not bad, but it's not good either. It is a case of bland and cliché characters, with an ordinary back-story and a very predictable story (with some parts that did not make much sense sometimes).
Evony is a badass warrior send to the emperor's castle with 25 other girls from every noble family of the land to enter a contest to find the next empress.
The first thing that bothered me is the fact the main character, Evony, says from the very beginning that she does not want to be part of the competition and that she wishes to be sent home as early as possible. Yet, when the first test arrives, she passes it cleverly instead of just failing it on purpose (because she still wants to compete with honor). I get that the author probably wanted to convey the feeling that she was their only because of duty and honor and that she had no interest at all in ruling and marrying, but the sentiment kind of fell short when she missed a golden chance to go back home a few hours after arriving and complaining about the competition and the wedding that would follow, and then proceeds to do well at every test and to talk about the fact that she still had plenty of time until she was eliminated. She could have kept her honor intact, but still try a little less hard is all I am saying.
She also conveniently runs into the emperor without knowing that it's him because he is young and smoking hot instead of being an old grumpy guy as she previously thought. As I said, there is nothing really bad about this book, but nothing really good either.
The titles are also a little bit confusing; they just appear as the story goes on and we have to figure out what they mean and where they are in the political hierarchy. I also had so much trouble differentiating the secondary characters because they were named with titles that I couldn't understand and they came from lands that were named but never described.
The plot takes forever to settle. Evony was asked to help figure out who was against the emperor and instead of trying to make herself useful, she complains about the other girls and stays as far away from them as she can. Nothing happens for the first half of the book besides some silly tests to eliminate candidates.
This is might be a case of "it's not you, it's me" because I see many 4 stars and 5 stars reviews for this book, but I am not hooked up yet and I have no interest in finishing this book.
July 16, 2016
From reading the description of this book and looking at the cover I had a good idea of what this book would be. I thought it would be about a warrior woman protecting an emperor. I thought it would be full of action scenes and maybe some big battles.
I was wrong. I didn't get any of those things. Instead this book turned out to be a fantasy version of The Bachelor.
There were three things about this book that really grated on me.
1) I found it pretty boring. By 60% I still felt like nothing had happened. Our main character had completed some tasks, managed to make all men love her (bar one) and saved the emperor from an assassination attempt. Not much else. I thought there would be action and fun. No. There was noting fun to be found.
2) It was a bit reparative. Too many kissing scene's, too many confrontations with the other vapid, bitchy wanna be bridezilla's in the competition. Too many archery practise scenes (I know she can shot a bow, I don't need to be reminded every five pages). To many descriptions of her forest at home.
3) The characters had zero personality. Evony is perfect at everything but she lacks any type of charm. Galen is no better. I knew very little about who they were as characters and this really made this book hard to like. It also had a negative effect on the romance which I found I didn't care much about.
Clearly this one was not for me.
July 12, 2016
For a debut novel this is pretty impressive. I loved the idea of this almost Amazonian like heroine and her attitude was simply devinely funny. Evony is a proud warrior and has no dreams of being an Empress but still tries her best to make her people proud. The simple fact of the matter though is her competition are not really the sharpest tools in the box and Evony quickly stands out . Yet political intruige ( which Evony has no experience of) and traitors at large mean pretty soon her skills are really put to the test!
Ok the very obvious romance angle needed a bit of polish for me . Evony fell vibrant but alas Galen perhaps not so much and don't get me started on their intimate scenes because hey clever hands and odd words just didn't do it for me. Yes I just felt uncomfortable which was a shame as I'd been well and truly sucked into the story in spite of not being enamoured with Galen. In fact if it had lacked any real sex and been a YA read I think I might have been happier.
The last third had me reeling as Evony turned into the Energiser bunny! I kid you not! That woman does not quit . The enemies of Galen just felt too stupid to live and the instant about face at the end seemed a little rushed but nevertheless I did enjoy this book and would happily read more from the author .
I was gifted a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Ok the very obvious romance angle needed a bit of polish for me . Evony fell vibrant but alas Galen perhaps not so much and don't get me started on their intimate scenes because hey clever hands and odd words just didn't do it for me. Yes I just felt uncomfortable which was a shame as I'd been well and truly sucked into the story in spite of not being enamoured with Galen. In fact if it had lacked any real sex and been a YA read I think I might have been happier.
The last third had me reeling as Evony turned into the Energiser bunny! I kid you not! That woman does not quit . The enemies of Galen just felt too stupid to live and the instant about face at the end seemed a little rushed but nevertheless I did enjoy this book and would happily read more from the author .
I was gifted a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
June 4, 2016
I can understand why this book won the contest -- it was hard to believe that this is a debut author.
With a cool twist on the Amazonian legends, a strong heroine, a crafty emperor, intrigue, betrayal, and....a Bachelor-style contest to find the Emperor a wife?
That last part is not nearly as ridiculous as it sounds, and combined with great pacing, interesting characters, and just the right amount of steam and action, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
While the HEA wasn't exactly what I'm used to, and the chemistry between our protagonists not necessarily there from the beginning, I still enjoyed romance, and was happy with the way things worked out in the end.
Overall a very solid 4/5
With a cool twist on the Amazonian legends, a strong heroine, a crafty emperor, intrigue, betrayal, and....a Bachelor-style contest to find the Emperor a wife?
That last part is not nearly as ridiculous as it sounds, and combined with great pacing, interesting characters, and just the right amount of steam and action, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
While the HEA wasn't exactly what I'm used to, and the chemistry between our protagonists not necessarily there from the beginning, I still enjoyed romance, and was happy with the way things worked out in the end.
Overall a very solid 4/5
February 10, 2017
3.5 stars
It's a really quick book. It feels more like a short story. I had lots of problems with this book
1) The secondary characters where not memmorable.
2) There was no chemestry between the couple plus insta-love
3) lack of world building.
Anyway, it was still very enjoyable and fun. There where some really great moments and we'll written sex scenes too so I think this author could write way better stuff in the future!
It's a really quick book. It feels more like a short story. I had lots of problems with this book
1) The secondary characters where not memmorable.
2) There was no chemestry between the couple plus insta-love
3) lack of world building.
Anyway, it was still very enjoyable and fun. There where some really great moments and we'll written sex scenes too so I think this author could write way better stuff in the future!
October 26, 2022
the fact that she lets out an obnoxious war cry whenever she is annoyed or wants attention. I WANT TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT T_T
January 24, 2018
** 2 Stars- It's okay **
Great story, atrocious execution.
I loved how it was about a bachelorette contest, but the writing was just poor and frustrating.
The sexual tension clashed with the writing style.
It was also disappointing to discover that Evony wasn't like Xena or some other strong female character. Would I recommend this book to anyone? No.
Great story, atrocious execution.
I loved how it was about a bachelorette contest, but the writing was just poor and frustrating.
The sexual tension clashed with the writing style.
It was also disappointing to discover that Evony wasn't like Xena or some other strong female character. Would I recommend this book to anyone? No.
March 16, 2021
I nearly gave this book three stars, because for all its faults, I just kept turning the pages, plus heroine Evony was a fantastic lead character. Then I went back and looked at my notes and realized that everything I felt was wrong with the story was only enhanced by the end of the book.
First, at 50% of the way into the book literally nothing of importance has taken place. That is a lot of wasted space. And somewhat boring space. All of the action takes place in the last 25% of the book, and even the battle scenes aren't that well scripted.
Galen, as a character, is distant and disconnected. I still don't really understand how warrior Evony could fall for him. It seems she feels he is lonely and has a talented tongue. Though he is an emperor who conquered the world, and known to be harsh and relentless, there is virtually none of that behavior on display during the timeline of the story. Beta is a better descriptive. He is beta to his two main advisors, beta to Evony except when seducing her, and then he cedes battle strategy to a 13-year-old boy he has known for 30 minutes. Galen, as the "hero" of the story, is ineffectual throughout.
There was an overall lack of finesse to the writing. At times it felt juvenile and stilted. So much so that the sex scenes, although well written, seemed out of place with the tone of the storytelling.
The world building is inconsistent. Some things are overly described, such as mucking stalls, but the overall political situation is a confused mess.
Yet for all of that, I very much liked Evony and the interaction she had with many of the bride candidates and her own clan. She was a gem, and totally made this book salvageable. She was interesting, surprising, smart, brave and unique. Smith hit a bullseye (a little archery humor there) with Evony.
First, at 50% of the way into the book literally nothing of importance has taken place. That is a lot of wasted space. And somewhat boring space. All of the action takes place in the last 25% of the book, and even the battle scenes aren't that well scripted.
Galen, as a character, is distant and disconnected. I still don't really understand how warrior Evony could fall for him. It seems she feels he is lonely and has a talented tongue. Though he is an emperor who conquered the world, and known to be harsh and relentless, there is virtually none of that behavior on display during the timeline of the story. Beta is a better descriptive. He is beta to his two main advisors, beta to Evony except when seducing her, and then he cedes battle strategy to a 13-year-old boy he has known for 30 minutes. Galen, as the "hero" of the story, is ineffectual throughout.
There was an overall lack of finesse to the writing. At times it felt juvenile and stilted. So much so that the sex scenes, although well written, seemed out of place with the tone of the storytelling.
The world building is inconsistent. Some things are overly described, such as mucking stalls, but the overall political situation is a confused mess.
Yet for all of that, I very much liked Evony and the interaction she had with many of the bride candidates and her own clan. She was a gem, and totally made this book salvageable. She was interesting, surprising, smart, brave and unique. Smith hit a bullseye (a little archery humor there) with Evony.
July 17, 2016
This book is like The Selection with fewer dresses and more archers, or Poison Study with many more factions to keep straight. I like what Smith is going for but it falls short for me.
The good:
- Competence porn, I love thee. Evony is very good at what she does - shooting things with arrows. She is kick ass, knows it, and doesn't let anyone boss her around. You go, girl.
- Some of the language usage is neat - I like "brightness" as a title for the young ladies. It just feels right in the world.
The not-so-good:
- Evony has no faults and never really messes up. The only thing she sucks at seems to be gardening, a non-issue when you're an archer.
- A lot of potential brides are introduced all at once and I did my best to remember who is who... only to have a sizable number eliminated quickly. I would have liked it if the important characters were emphasized earlier, with fewer facts about characters that only last a few pages.
- There are a lot of factions and areas of the kingdom and their names all blend together. Evony's speech describing her corner of the world is repeated several times with the same content while other areas are barely described.
- I love a feminist book, I really do, but this novel wears its ideals on its sleeve, tunic, and ball cap. You're hit over the head repeatedly.
- Galen is boring and hard to understand as a character. I don't really get how he falls in love with Evony or believe the relationship at all.
- The writing isn't as solid as I would like.
While I can't heartily recommend this book I'll still keep an eye out for Smith's next to see how she grows as a writer.
Thanks to Carina Press and NetGalley for providing a review copy.
The good:
- Competence porn, I love thee. Evony is very good at what she does - shooting things with arrows. She is kick ass, knows it, and doesn't let anyone boss her around. You go, girl.
- Some of the language usage is neat - I like "brightness" as a title for the young ladies. It just feels right in the world.
The not-so-good:
- Evony has no faults and never really messes up. The only thing she sucks at seems to be gardening, a non-issue when you're an archer.
- A lot of potential brides are introduced all at once and I did my best to remember who is who... only to have a sizable number eliminated quickly. I would have liked it if the important characters were emphasized earlier, with fewer facts about characters that only last a few pages.
- There are a lot of factions and areas of the kingdom and their names all blend together. Evony's speech describing her corner of the world is repeated several times with the same content while other areas are barely described.
- I love a feminist book, I really do, but this novel wears its ideals on its sleeve, tunic, and ball cap. You're hit over the head repeatedly.
- Galen is boring and hard to understand as a character. I don't really get how he falls in love with Evony or believe the relationship at all.
- The writing isn't as solid as I would like.
While I can't heartily recommend this book I'll still keep an eye out for Smith's next to see how she grows as a writer.
Thanks to Carina Press and NetGalley for providing a review copy.
September 5, 2016
After a slow start, this was okay. It had that same feeling of 'The Selection' though less lame since Evony pretty much didn't want to be there other than to shoot arrows and get knocked up.
It read really YA, but then somewhat explicit sexy-times. So.
I would have liked heaps more backstory re: the Empire and Evony's clan, but I believe this is a standalone. Still, it was a fine read for a Sunday night where wine was involved.
It read really YA, but then somewhat explicit sexy-times. So.
I would have liked heaps more backstory re: the Empire and Evony's clan, but I believe this is a standalone. Still, it was a fine read for a Sunday night where wine was involved.
November 10, 2016
Bow girl warrior Evony leaves her idyllic lady-friendly forest island home and journeys to the imperial palace on the mainland. Ha ha, suck it, her sisters have said. She’s won a shooting competition, and as a ‘prize’ she’s been selected to take part in Emperor Galen’s bride finding contest.
Galen has conquered the entire world for personal reasons. He needs to settle down at some stage, and getting a princess or noble girl from each of the big families in charge of each of the big provinces gives him the opportunity to interview for the position. Plus, someone’s trying to kill him, so having all of these girls around is part of a vague plan to work out who that is.
Evony’s family have a long-held loyalty to Galen’s family, and even though he didn't call on them to help conquer world, she’s going to do her best at his contest. She doesn’t imagine she’ll have any chance of winning, so her secondary objective is to find a hot man and have sex. I thought this was a perfectly great plan and I would have been 100% behind her ‘I’m a forest chick gone wild’ sexy adventures, but she’s not in it for just the sex. She wants a baby. Mildly disappointing.
This ‘Xena on the Bachelor’ plot is an enjoyable setup, and there were some interesting details. Evony is older than the other girls. Her looks are never specifically described: she’s tall, she has long hair tied back in a pony tail. I liked that this didn’t matter: that she was so comfortable in her skin that it never bothered her to worry what anyone else really thought.
She also very specifically refuses to get bogged down with a lot of mean girl nonsense. While that’s admirable, the other option would have been to do away with the mean girl aspect entirely, or play out the challenge in a different way. Evony stands out because she’s a warrior. The other women are more vaguely defined: they seem in general to be obedient to a patriarchy and have some defined set of behaviours and expectations around rank and privilege.
Evony makes friends with a girl who is shy and sweet. Evony makes enemies with a girl who is a bitch. It works that Evony refuses to engage. She is very clear on what her skills are. She’s a warrior and she’s a leader. She’s not had to work out political intricacies, and that could have been an interesting challenge for her. Instead, Smith makes her world simpler, so that Evony can win.
The challenge parts of the bridal competition are, with one exception, boring and pointless. The characters even acknowledge that they are boring and pointless, since what Galen and his supporters are trying to do is to keep the women around long enough to work out who the bad guy is.
There are two types of people in this world: those who watch Survivor challenges, and those who play with their phones until the ‘good bits’ are back on. If you’re in the play with your phone category, the nothing challenges won’t matter to you. They mattered to me.
That one exception is the second challenge, and since it occurs really early in the book I’m not treating it as a spoiler. The women are all given their own rooms in a section of the palace and bed down for the night. Evony wakes when she realises she’s under attack. She disables her assailant and goes across the hall to deal with the man attacking her new BFF, Admina. It’s at this point that this guy, realising he might die, lets her know that this is part of test. Evony is extremely angry, but backs off.
Ultimately, the whole point of the test was maintaining loyalty while terrified, which is garbage. It’s also framed with this weird explanation about how the women may some day come under attack and if that happens, they need to take some unspecified action that will delay their rape, death, abduction, until the burly men arrive to rescue them. SERIOUSLY??
Moving on. Evony starts impressing all the soldiers with her fighting prowess, and offers pointers on shooting arrows and how a group of them with swords could maybe learn to disarm a woman with a knife, if they try really hard. Sigh.
She and Galen start to hang out, and Galen gives her some stupid mission to find out who is disloyal, which Evony pragmatically tells him is not within her skill set. It’s not going to matter because she can solve every problem with her knife or her bow.
Evony tells Galen about her stud finding plan, and he volunteers. Galen is also incredibly pragmatic, and offers to let Evony keep the girl heirs for arrow shooting, and he’ll keep the boy heirs for ruling the world. He seals the deal with a sexy up against the wall snogfest that has Evony’s lady parts tingling.
Evony actually has some intimate knowledge of her own lady parts, which made me like her more.
But the problem is … even as the snogfests increased in intensity, Galen and Evony were so cold-bloodedly pragmatic that the passionate scenes felt a little jarring. I like a bit of build up, a bit of longing and emotional connection and uncertainty, but that doesn’t really happen here. And there’s no talking. Galen decides it’s time, and they just get right down to it.
He did have the charming alpha ‘if you get hurt I will carry you around and make a big fuss’ moments, and Evony had the charming ‘quit fussing, I’m competent’ moments. As a couple, they had passion and chemistry, but I found the romance overall a little lacking.
This was a fun romance with a few tweaks on the warrior girl story. I liked it, but ultimately thought it promised more than it delivered.
January 19, 2017
Actual Rating: 2.5 Stars
The rating was a solid 3 star for the fantasy but the romance just didn’t flow for me. The romance was a tentative 2 stars.This was a 50/50 read for me. Good and bad. I thought this would have worked better as a fantasy with focus on the world/people and shady politics rather than the romance. The pacing was off and with the ending so open ended, it just didn’t work for me. The plot was okay and the mystery a bit of a snooze. TBH it read like a fanfic YA.
So what I loved about this read:
* The strong female protagonist – Evony was the painfully honest, straight forward heroine I wish we’d see more of in books and TV. She was definitely a memorable character.
* The intrigue of court life – the plot for a coup is always interesting to me. The who, what, and why of it always makes me wonder . . . in other words, I was entertained with the idea.
* The action – This has a few assassination attempts, and one full on coup with a big battle at the end. There is descriptive scenes of violence, blood and death. This bloodthirsty reader, actually quiet enjoyed all these parts. Although at times they read very clinical – like step by step instructions – I still found myself really into these parts.
* The Amazzi – the island, the people, the tradition and culture sounds very Amazon/Wonder Woman and I liked that.
* The cover – it definitely grabbed my attention however, even though she is described as having dark hair, the rest of this image is pretty spot on when it comes to Evony. What can I say? I like covers that match their insides. J
What didn’t work for me:
* The blind trust/loyalty the Amazzi have for Galen. Especially since Evony sees his character flaws, yet after only a handful of days, she is willing to fight and die for him. Not because he has proven himself a great leader, or even a good person. This is all done simply because he was born into the role and her people have always bowed down to his people. I wanted there to be justification, real reason behind having these tough ballsy warriors defend Galen so hard.
* The ruse of the Bride Competition – The Emperor, Galen, has heard rumors there is a plot to overthrow him. So he devices a plan to bring daughters of all the noble families of his empire to the palace and compete for the position of Empress, when in actuality he is testing their loyalty to him. The whole thing was just far fetched. The “tests” didn’t really weed anyone out. It read like a really bad reality TV – without all the cat fights and drunken brawls.
* Galen – he is primarily the reason why this whole book felt off for me. I didn’t see any growth or change in Galen. When we meet him he is a closed off ruler. He suspects everyone of plotting against him, has only a select few he can trust and because of the death of his sister, years ago, is emotionally stunted. I get it, he is a powerful man/boy but even his interactions with Evony were stark, awkward and the most unromantic courtship of all time!
* So many people/names/colors! – Maybe this will be just me, but there were so many people all throughout this book that is was hard to keep track of them all. Not only were the names confusing but they were all supposed to be color coordinated to their region/noble house but it was too many to keep straight.
* Ages – I like to know how old the characters are in the book. The author never mentions the age of Evony, Galen, or Admina. The only one who gets a concrete confirmed age is Evony’s little brother Marnin (he’s 13). IDK this really bugged me.
So I'm rounding this to a 2.5 star read. I would recommend if you want to try your hand at some fantasy that has a pretty strong female lead. But if your looking/wanting heavy romance, this might be a pass for some.
The rating was a solid 3 star for the fantasy but the romance just didn’t flow for me. The romance was a tentative 2 stars.This was a 50/50 read for me. Good and bad. I thought this would have worked better as a fantasy with focus on the world/people and shady politics rather than the romance. The pacing was off and with the ending so open ended, it just didn’t work for me. The plot was okay and the mystery a bit of a snooze. TBH it read like a fanfic YA.
So what I loved about this read:
* The strong female protagonist – Evony was the painfully honest, straight forward heroine I wish we’d see more of in books and TV. She was definitely a memorable character.
* The intrigue of court life – the plot for a coup is always interesting to me. The who, what, and why of it always makes me wonder . . . in other words, I was entertained with the idea.
* The action – This has a few assassination attempts, and one full on coup with a big battle at the end. There is descriptive scenes of violence, blood and death. This bloodthirsty reader, actually quiet enjoyed all these parts. Although at times they read very clinical – like step by step instructions – I still found myself really into these parts.
* The Amazzi – the island, the people, the tradition and culture sounds very Amazon/Wonder Woman and I liked that.
* The cover – it definitely grabbed my attention however, even though she is described as having dark hair, the rest of this image is pretty spot on when it comes to Evony. What can I say? I like covers that match their insides. J
What didn’t work for me:
* The blind trust/loyalty the Amazzi have for Galen. Especially since Evony sees his character flaws, yet after only a handful of days, she is willing to fight and die for him. Not because he has proven himself a great leader, or even a good person. This is all done simply because he was born into the role and her people have always bowed down to his people. I wanted there to be justification, real reason behind having these tough ballsy warriors defend Galen so hard.
* The ruse of the Bride Competition – The Emperor, Galen, has heard rumors there is a plot to overthrow him. So he devices a plan to bring daughters of all the noble families of his empire to the palace and compete for the position of Empress, when in actuality he is testing their loyalty to him. The whole thing was just far fetched. The “tests” didn’t really weed anyone out. It read like a really bad reality TV – without all the cat fights and drunken brawls.
* Galen – he is primarily the reason why this whole book felt off for me. I didn’t see any growth or change in Galen. When we meet him he is a closed off ruler. He suspects everyone of plotting against him, has only a select few he can trust and because of the death of his sister, years ago, is emotionally stunted. I get it, he is a powerful man/boy but even his interactions with Evony were stark, awkward and the most unromantic courtship of all time!
* So many people/names/colors! – Maybe this will be just me, but there were so many people all throughout this book that is was hard to keep track of them all. Not only were the names confusing but they were all supposed to be color coordinated to their region/noble house but it was too many to keep straight.
* Ages – I like to know how old the characters are in the book. The author never mentions the age of Evony, Galen, or Admina. The only one who gets a concrete confirmed age is Evony’s little brother Marnin (he’s 13). IDK this really bugged me.
So I'm rounding this to a 2.5 star read. I would recommend if you want to try your hand at some fantasy that has a pretty strong female lead. But if your looking/wanting heavy romance, this might be a pass for some.
June 16, 2016
Review for: The Emperor's Arrow by Lauren D.M. Smith
Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3/5
SUMMARY: Evony, an Amazzi warrior and member of clan Aureline, has been summoned as a bride candidate for the Emperor. Though she has no intention of marrying the Emperor, her loyalty to the Empire and her honor demand that she participate. However, as she get’s to know Emperor Galen, she realizes that he is nothing like what she thought, and she finds herself wanting to get to know him. As the rivalry among the remaining bride candidates intensifies and the plot to overtake the throne unfolds, Evony must make a grave choice: fulfill her destiny and protect her people or follow her heart and pursue true love.
REVIEW:
This book was good. There were a lot of things that I really loved about this book, especially the fact that Evony was a total badass, and I really like the Amazonian-like culture that she came from. I also liked that she never really changed for a man, and was hell-bent on being accepted as she was. I also really liked Admina, who was such a sweetheart, as well as Chana. I just wish we got to know a little bit more about her and some of the other bride candidates because they all seemed so interesting.
However, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Smith’s writing style. I felt that it was stiff and repetitive in some areas, and was more of a tell and not show, which is not my favorite style type. BUT that does not mean that other people won’t like her writing! I also felt that the romance was lacking in build up, and I felt that the readers weren’t able to really get a sense of Evony and Galen’s relationship. To me, it felt that their relationship seemed less romantic than friendly, and went from 0-100 in no time with no indication of how either character really felt for the other. While there was some world-building, I was hoping for a little more. Evony’s culture was explained a decent amount, however we were given no explanation of how Galen “conquered the world”, how big this world was, or really any explanation of the mainland’s culture.
Overall, I think that this is a good book, especially for Smith’s debut novel. There were a couple things that I wish would had been a little different, as I had really wanted to give this book a higher rating.
*(I received a copy from Carina Press and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3/5
SUMMARY: Evony, an Amazzi warrior and member of clan Aureline, has been summoned as a bride candidate for the Emperor. Though she has no intention of marrying the Emperor, her loyalty to the Empire and her honor demand that she participate. However, as she get’s to know Emperor Galen, she realizes that he is nothing like what she thought, and she finds herself wanting to get to know him. As the rivalry among the remaining bride candidates intensifies and the plot to overtake the throne unfolds, Evony must make a grave choice: fulfill her destiny and protect her people or follow her heart and pursue true love.
REVIEW:
This book was good. There were a lot of things that I really loved about this book, especially the fact that Evony was a total badass, and I really like the Amazonian-like culture that she came from. I also liked that she never really changed for a man, and was hell-bent on being accepted as she was. I also really liked Admina, who was such a sweetheart, as well as Chana. I just wish we got to know a little bit more about her and some of the other bride candidates because they all seemed so interesting.
However, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Smith’s writing style. I felt that it was stiff and repetitive in some areas, and was more of a tell and not show, which is not my favorite style type. BUT that does not mean that other people won’t like her writing! I also felt that the romance was lacking in build up, and I felt that the readers weren’t able to really get a sense of Evony and Galen’s relationship. To me, it felt that their relationship seemed less romantic than friendly, and went from 0-100 in no time with no indication of how either character really felt for the other. While there was some world-building, I was hoping for a little more. Evony’s culture was explained a decent amount, however we were given no explanation of how Galen “conquered the world”, how big this world was, or really any explanation of the mainland’s culture.
Overall, I think that this is a good book, especially for Smith’s debut novel. There were a couple things that I wish would had been a little different, as I had really wanted to give this book a higher rating.
*(I received a copy from Carina Press and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review)
November 25, 2016
Evony is a warrior of the Amazzi, a matriarchal clan from a small island. She has never visited the mainland before but she has been chosen to represent her clan at a contest to decide the Emperor's new bride. Evony has no interest in becoming Empress but her clan has sworn fealty to the Emperor's family so she will do her duty and compete. She intends to use her time on the mainland to attempt to find a life mate, or at least someone with good genes to impregnate her, before she goes back to the island to do her duty to her clan.
The Emperor's Arrow is an impressive debut from Lauren D.M. Smith, it's a fantasy romance so expect a lot of focus on the relationship between Evony and Emporer Galen but the author has created a pretty interesting world too and I enjoyed what we've seen of it. I would have absolutely loved more background information though, I wanted to spend more time with Evony's clan and to learn more about the world in general and I think this could have been the start to a brilliant series. As I understand it it's a completely stand alone story which is a shame because there was so much more to explore.
Evony is a great character, she's a fierce warrior who has absolutely no interest in court etiquette or playing nice with the other women in the contest. She's there out of duty and not because she wants to become the Emperor's bride but it's her reluctance to win that makes her stand out from the others. Galen is intrigued by this strong woman who knows exactly what she wants and he enjoys spending time with someone with such a refreshing attitude. Evony has no need to suck up to Galen so she tells it like it is and she is happy to call him out when he's making unreasonable demands. The two actually fit really well together and I enjoyed the romance between them.
I'll definitely be watching out for more from this author, I believe her next book is another stand alone fantasy romance (Enveloping Shadows) but I'm hoping that she'll choose to revisit Evony and Galen, or at least their world but from another character's point of view, at some point in the future.
Source: Received from publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
The Emperor's Arrow is an impressive debut from Lauren D.M. Smith, it's a fantasy romance so expect a lot of focus on the relationship between Evony and Emporer Galen but the author has created a pretty interesting world too and I enjoyed what we've seen of it. I would have absolutely loved more background information though, I wanted to spend more time with Evony's clan and to learn more about the world in general and I think this could have been the start to a brilliant series. As I understand it it's a completely stand alone story which is a shame because there was so much more to explore.
Evony is a great character, she's a fierce warrior who has absolutely no interest in court etiquette or playing nice with the other women in the contest. She's there out of duty and not because she wants to become the Emperor's bride but it's her reluctance to win that makes her stand out from the others. Galen is intrigued by this strong woman who knows exactly what she wants and he enjoys spending time with someone with such a refreshing attitude. Evony has no need to suck up to Galen so she tells it like it is and she is happy to call him out when he's making unreasonable demands. The two actually fit really well together and I enjoyed the romance between them.
I'll definitely be watching out for more from this author, I believe her next book is another stand alone fantasy romance (Enveloping Shadows) but I'm hoping that she'll choose to revisit Evony and Galen, or at least their world but from another character's point of view, at some point in the future.
Source: Received from publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
July 24, 2016
What do you get when you cross Game of Thrones with The Bachelor? THE EMPEROR'S ARROW, natch!
Winning an archery competition against her sisters should have been exciting for Evony of Aureline, but when the "prize" is being sent to the mainland as a potential bride for Emperor Galen Fuscienne, she's disgusted. The old man is known for being a horrible person, but her dread turns to a strange intrigue as the bride competition gets underway and not only is the emperor not hideous, but he's also a decent man. Generations of her people have made sacred vows to protect the Fuscienne bloodline, and when he reveals that there's a plot against him, Evony is determined to help stop it. She has no desire to be an empress, but she takes her vows seriously nonetheless. Between pacts and friendships and deceit and treachery, nothing is as it seems on the mainland, but if anyone can keep the emperor safe, it's Evony.
THE EMPEROR'S ARROW is the debut novel by Ms. Smith, and is the Grand Prize winner of Harlequin's So You Think You Can Write contest. I'd describe it as a mash-up of Game of Thrones and The Bachelor, with backstabbing royal courts, backstabbing bitches, power plays and some hot love scenes. This is not my typical genre, so it did take me awhile to get into the story, but once I did, I found it to be a unique and enjoyable read.
The setting felt to be like Ancient Greek or Roman times, with the formality of nobility and rank. I enjoyed the uniqueness of the Amazzi people. For tribes made up of primarily women, they're warriors with a sense of honor that runs deep for the protection of the Fusciennes. I liked the thought of this group of wild women flipping gender roles on their ass.
Bottom Line: Though this book wasn't really my cuppa, it's still a unique and enjoyable read that I wouldn't mind reading more about. - See more at: http://www.theromancereviews.com/view...
- See more at: http://www.theromancereviews.com/view...
Winning an archery competition against her sisters should have been exciting for Evony of Aureline, but when the "prize" is being sent to the mainland as a potential bride for Emperor Galen Fuscienne, she's disgusted. The old man is known for being a horrible person, but her dread turns to a strange intrigue as the bride competition gets underway and not only is the emperor not hideous, but he's also a decent man. Generations of her people have made sacred vows to protect the Fuscienne bloodline, and when he reveals that there's a plot against him, Evony is determined to help stop it. She has no desire to be an empress, but she takes her vows seriously nonetheless. Between pacts and friendships and deceit and treachery, nothing is as it seems on the mainland, but if anyone can keep the emperor safe, it's Evony.
THE EMPEROR'S ARROW is the debut novel by Ms. Smith, and is the Grand Prize winner of Harlequin's So You Think You Can Write contest. I'd describe it as a mash-up of Game of Thrones and The Bachelor, with backstabbing royal courts, backstabbing bitches, power plays and some hot love scenes. This is not my typical genre, so it did take me awhile to get into the story, but once I did, I found it to be a unique and enjoyable read.
The setting felt to be like Ancient Greek or Roman times, with the formality of nobility and rank. I enjoyed the uniqueness of the Amazzi people. For tribes made up of primarily women, they're warriors with a sense of honor that runs deep for the protection of the Fusciennes. I liked the thought of this group of wild women flipping gender roles on their ass.
Bottom Line: Though this book wasn't really my cuppa, it's still a unique and enjoyable read that I wouldn't mind reading more about. - See more at: http://www.theromancereviews.com/view...
- See more at: http://www.theromancereviews.com/view...
November 27, 2016
DNF at 66%. I knew this was more of a romance than straight-up fantasy when I decided to read it, but I figured the mostly-positive reviews were a good sign. Unfortunately, our protagonist isn't much more developed than your typical Harlequin novel. (And anyway, there are certainly better-developed female main characters out there in the Harlequin romance world.)
Evony is about as Mary Sue as a female protagonist can be. She's fearless, intelligent, a perfect fighter, kind to everyone, and beautiful. She never makes a mistake or slips up in anyway. Everyone around her is awed by her or jealous of her. As you can probably imagine at this point, from a reader's point of view, she's boring as hell.
Galen, the love interest, is slightly more developed, but only slightly. He's somehow managed to conquer the world (literally), but how he did that is never explained. Despite his powerful position, Galen is somehow thoughtful, intelligent, and fair. All of his employees seemingly love him. Galen is also, naturally, young and handsome. We never see him make a mistake that costs lives or even had any real consequence at all, which is a pretty impressive feat when you rule the world.
The only part of his job the reader is exposed to is the paperwork, which...wtf? Even Galen is bored by this, and it's not much better for the reader.
I really wouldn't recommend this book. I know it supposedly won some kind of romance writing contest, but the writer has a long way to go in terms of developing their writing skills, especially showing and not telling. All of the important information is conveyed through page-long info dumps to the reader. And really, I could probably overlook that if the two main characters had any actual CHEMISTRY between them, but they're about as compelling as two pieces of cardboard.
Evony is about as Mary Sue as a female protagonist can be. She's fearless, intelligent, a perfect fighter, kind to everyone, and beautiful. She never makes a mistake or slips up in anyway. Everyone around her is awed by her or jealous of her. As you can probably imagine at this point, from a reader's point of view, she's boring as hell.
Galen, the love interest, is slightly more developed, but only slightly. He's somehow managed to conquer the world (literally), but how he did that is never explained. Despite his powerful position, Galen is somehow thoughtful, intelligent, and fair. All of his employees seemingly love him. Galen is also, naturally, young and handsome. We never see him make a mistake that costs lives or even had any real consequence at all, which is a pretty impressive feat when you rule the world.
The only part of his job the reader is exposed to is the paperwork, which...wtf? Even Galen is bored by this, and it's not much better for the reader.
I really wouldn't recommend this book. I know it supposedly won some kind of romance writing contest, but the writer has a long way to go in terms of developing their writing skills, especially showing and not telling. All of the important information is conveyed through page-long info dumps to the reader. And really, I could probably overlook that if the two main characters had any actual CHEMISTRY between them, but they're about as compelling as two pieces of cardboard.
August 14, 2016
bor·ing not interesting; tedious.
synonyms: tedious, dull, monotonous, repetitive, unrelieved, unvaried, unimaginative, uneventful; characterless, featureless, colorless, lifeless, insipid, uninteresting, unexciting, uninspiring, unstimulating, uninvolving; unreadable, unwatchable; jejune, flat, bland, dry, stale, tired, banal, lackluster, stodgy, vapid, monochrome, dreary, humdrum, mundane;
mind-numbing, wearisome, tiring, tiresome, irksome, trying, frustrating;
informaldeadly, ho-hum, dullsville, dull as dishwater, plain-vanilla
synonyms: tedious, dull, monotonous, repetitive, unrelieved, unvaried, unimaginative, uneventful; characterless, featureless, colorless, lifeless, insipid, uninteresting, unexciting, uninspiring, unstimulating, uninvolving; unreadable, unwatchable; jejune, flat, bland, dry, stale, tired, banal, lackluster, stodgy, vapid, monochrome, dreary, humdrum, mundane;
mind-numbing, wearisome, tiring, tiresome, irksome, trying, frustrating;
informaldeadly, ho-hum, dullsville, dull as dishwater, plain-vanilla
December 11, 2016
I liked it much more the first time I read it. On reread, I have a few more issues but nothing that would discourage me from reading more from this author.
Original comment:
A few editing issues. Awesome story, loved the Big Reveal. I hope to see more from this author.
Original comment:
A few editing issues. Awesome story, loved the Big Reveal. I hope to see more from this author.
February 5, 2017
3.5 stars.
A fun story with a kickass heroine.
But I disappointed with the ending, feel incomplete, oh well...
A fun story with a kickass heroine.
But I disappointed with the ending, feel incomplete, oh well...
December 9, 2016
This wasn't a terrible book. But neither was it anything great. I finished it a few hours ago but to write this review, I had to look through the book to remember what even happened. That could be because I began skimming from about 70% onwards because it was so predictable, but it was also missing that hook to grab me in. The premise seemed pretty amazing, but it never delivered. The idea that the emperor had gathered these women to root out a conspiracy could've been used as a twist later on, and created tension by his actions differing from what he feels, but instead it was revealed straightaway. And it didn't even make sense in the end!! He didn't keep these women hostage, to guarantee no uprising from their families, he just sent them home without really knowing anyway!
There was zero chemistry between the two as well. Galen came across as a cold fish who had random outbursts, and I just didn't feel them together. They also got together so quick, there was no real challenge or anything interesting.
Evony herself was a special snowflake who was just so much more incredible than all the bland bride candidates around her, because she could fight. I love strong characters who can fight, but please acknowledge that women can be badass without knowing how to shoot an arrow. Some of my favourite characters have been ones who use their brains. Instead, no one really had a brain. There was the stereotypical bitchy queen bee, then the stereotypical quiet and lovely best friend. Ugh, spare me.
The world building was in part good, but also quite bad sometimes. An Amazonian race of warrior women called the Amazzi? PLEASE be a little more creative than that. These very similar words happened a few times, like with hours and the distances. It was just strange and tripped me up. And the titles of all the women were interesting, but were never explained! Not even alluded to, ever!
What's up with the cover, anyway? Evony never wears anything like that, and it looks more modern than fantasy like.
So I completely lost interest in this by the end. It's more a 2.5 stars than a 2, because I was interested in it for the most part, but there were a lot of problems.
There was zero chemistry between the two as well. Galen came across as a cold fish who had random outbursts, and I just didn't feel them together. They also got together so quick, there was no real challenge or anything interesting.
Evony herself was a special snowflake who was just so much more incredible than all the bland bride candidates around her, because she could fight. I love strong characters who can fight, but please acknowledge that women can be badass without knowing how to shoot an arrow. Some of my favourite characters have been ones who use their brains. Instead, no one really had a brain. There was the stereotypical bitchy queen bee, then the stereotypical quiet and lovely best friend. Ugh, spare me.
The world building was in part good, but also quite bad sometimes. An Amazonian race of warrior women called the Amazzi? PLEASE be a little more creative than that. These very similar words happened a few times, like with hours and the distances. It was just strange and tripped me up. And the titles of all the women were interesting, but were never explained! Not even alluded to, ever!
What's up with the cover, anyway? Evony never wears anything like that, and it looks more modern than fantasy like.
So I completely lost interest in this by the end. It's more a 2.5 stars than a 2, because I was interested in it for the most part, but there were a lot of problems.
June 1, 2016
I really wanted to love this book. Honestly, I'd give the first half of the book a solid 4 stars, and the second half just 2. I really like Evony's character. She was strong, intelligent and not your typical ditsy heroine. But, her relationship with Galen was totally flat. No chemistry at all. I"m not sure if it was the lack of chemistry or the writing in general, but I think those had to have been the most awkward sex scenes I've ever read. Overall the book is just ok. With some care, it could be much better.
I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
September 27, 2016
3*
While overall this book was a very good firs effort and a decent adventure story, for me if did suffer from the following shortfalls:
1. The world-building was ambiguous - you get the feel of ancient Rome - type era but that is all.
2. Secondary characters, specially other contestants are so poorly defined, they are more like a shadows around the edges.
3. The biggest disappointment for me - Galen. For someone who he is suppose to be , his character is extraordinary bland without any presence or charisma.
While overall this book was a very good firs effort and a decent adventure story, for me if did suffer from the following shortfalls:
1. The world-building was ambiguous - you get the feel of ancient Rome - type era but that is all.
2. Secondary characters, specially other contestants are so poorly defined, they are more like a shadows around the edges.
3. The biggest disappointment for me - Galen. For someone who he is suppose to be , his character is extraordinary bland without any presence or charisma.
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