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Royals of Rodina #1
The Compeer
TYPOS AND EDITING ISSUES HAVE BEEN CORRECTED. The wrong manuscript was uploaded originally but has since been replaced with the correct one.
When the humans destroyed the Earth, the gods were forced to wipe it clean and start anew. They created four immortal kings blessed with elemental powers to keep the peace among the new world and regulate their land’s climate.
Thousands of years later, when corruption among the four kingdoms interrupts the delicate balance, a compeer emerges with an unlikely band of allies to defeat the evil infiltrating their land.
Winnie Hayward lives a double life between working her family’s tavern and training in secret with the kingdom’s most respected general.
Thad is the mysterious Winter King with a broody demeanor, a disdain for royal life, and a romantic chip on his shoulder.
When the two meet by chance under false pretenses, they fall into a steamy, whirlwind romance that eventually launches a war between kingdoms.
The Compeer weaves an adrenaline-filled tale with betrayal, romance, humor, and jaw-dropping twists fans of New Adult fantasy romance will devour.
*Book 1 in and completed series*
Contains adult language and situations. Not suitable for those under 18. Please check the author's website or the book itself for content warnings.
When the humans destroyed the Earth, the gods were forced to wipe it clean and start anew. They created four immortal kings blessed with elemental powers to keep the peace among the new world and regulate their land’s climate.
Thousands of years later, when corruption among the four kingdoms interrupts the delicate balance, a compeer emerges with an unlikely band of allies to defeat the evil infiltrating their land.
Winnie Hayward lives a double life between working her family’s tavern and training in secret with the kingdom’s most respected general.
Thad is the mysterious Winter King with a broody demeanor, a disdain for royal life, and a romantic chip on his shoulder.
When the two meet by chance under false pretenses, they fall into a steamy, whirlwind romance that eventually launches a war between kingdoms.
The Compeer weaves an adrenaline-filled tale with betrayal, romance, humor, and jaw-dropping twists fans of New Adult fantasy romance will devour.
*Book 1 in and completed series*
Contains adult language and situations. Not suitable for those under 18. Please check the author's website or the book itself for content warnings.
332 pages, Paperback
First published June 24, 2021
672 people are currently reading
5825 people want to read
About the author
Jamie Applegate Hunter
24 books1,847 followersI love writing unhinged fantasy romance, but I hate writing bios.
Any books posted on my goodreads shelves are books I loved! I judge a book by the vibes and emotions I felt when I finished.
Any books posted on my goodreads shelves are books I loved! I judge a book by the vibes and emotions I felt when I finished.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 228 reviews
November 30, 2022
**the typos and weird bits left out that I mention in this review have since been fixed, but my rating still stands for all the other issues I mention**
I wanted to love this book, but the copious amounts of typos, rushed writing style and weird plot holes were too much. and theres even an entire ending of a chapter thats just gone. Just in the middle of the characters talking it ends off with an unfinished word and the chapter ends. Like what? How did that get over looked? It couldn’t have. So it makes me think the author just wrote her book and self published it instantly with no proof reading what so ever.
I mean, I was so interested in the concept and the world! and the characters are well written, just rushed. Though, there were some character choices that felt off in come places, like their personality/mannerisms suddenly changed to fit the narrative/cause more drama. Tiny spoiler example:
I really feel like if this author had just made use of beta readers, or an editor, then a lot of these issues would have been fixed. but it really seems like she just yeeted her work out into the world with no one else having any contact with the book. Which is a shame really, because with some heavy polishing, this book really could have been something amazing. Like really, there were some amazing quotes and scenes I really loved. but everything just felt rushed, I would have liked to slow down a little and really take in a lot more.
There were so many paragraph breaks, and a ton of time skips. Days are constantly skipped over, and a few times its even weeks of time, and we get like a two or three paragraph scene, then there's a paragraph break and its another couple days later. I know its done to speed the story up and keep it interesting. but it just makes the story seem disjointed and unnatural, and when it happens so often, it disrupts the flow of the story. We rarely get to see the characters just being people, and that makes them feel like puppets on a stage. Every scene is for a set reason/conversation, and it makes the already heavy handed foreshadowing even easier to see.
I'm also really concerned with the amount of 5 star reviews of this book that don't mention any of these issues. Thats why my rating is 1 star, when I honestly would have done 2 or a 2.5/3
Also, this book isn’t spicy at all. This isn't a bad thing, just an observation, everyone likes different levels of spicy in their books and this wasn't it for me. But even when you are objective about it: it’s being marketed by the author as a spicy book and it just isn’t. Yes, there are love scenes, but they way they are done they might as well have been fade to blacks. They are like one to two short paragraphs and that’s it. The two main characters have kinda good chemistry, and the banter between Henry and Thad had enough innuendos and mentions of how well they use their equipment that I was excited to see them in action, but once we get there it’s severely lacking. It’s a lot of telling and not showing. No descriptions, or what either of them are feeling in the moment, just “he did this, then he did this other thing. Then they got dressed.”
Plot hole rant: For a large portion of the book we are left wondering which of the 4 kings is trying to betray the other three, I mean we get a huge and heavy handed hint at the VERY beginning with one character saying "That kings eyes don't match his face, I don't trust him" So its not really a mystery to the reader at all, but I digress. In the middle of this villain enacting his plan he fucking goes himself to the Winter Kings future bride and straight lies to her face and says "he told me to tell you to meet him at this place." Not only is it weird as hell for one king to be another's errand boy, but he just blew his own cover for no reason at all. no reason! Once she gets to the winter king shes instantly like "yeah this king is the one who told me to come to you and blow all your plans with my arrival." and boom, now everyone knows hes behind everything thats been happening. He could have continued pulling strings in the background if he just used a simple messenger instead of journeying out to a random low ranking noble of another kingdom to tell her to go meet her lover somewhere. like what? Why the hell show your hand?
DNF at 56%
I wanted to love this book, but the copious amounts of typos, rushed writing style and weird plot holes were too much. and theres even an entire ending of a chapter thats just gone. Just in the middle of the characters talking it ends off with an unfinished word and the chapter ends. Like what? How did that get over looked? It couldn’t have. So it makes me think the author just wrote her book and self published it instantly with no proof reading what so ever.
I mean, I was so interested in the concept and the world! and the characters are well written, just rushed. Though, there were some character choices that felt off in come places, like their personality/mannerisms suddenly changed to fit the narrative/cause more drama. Tiny spoiler example:
I really feel like if this author had just made use of beta readers, or an editor, then a lot of these issues would have been fixed. but it really seems like she just yeeted her work out into the world with no one else having any contact with the book. Which is a shame really, because with some heavy polishing, this book really could have been something amazing. Like really, there were some amazing quotes and scenes I really loved. but everything just felt rushed, I would have liked to slow down a little and really take in a lot more.
There were so many paragraph breaks, and a ton of time skips. Days are constantly skipped over, and a few times its even weeks of time, and we get like a two or three paragraph scene, then there's a paragraph break and its another couple days later. I know its done to speed the story up and keep it interesting. but it just makes the story seem disjointed and unnatural, and when it happens so often, it disrupts the flow of the story. We rarely get to see the characters just being people, and that makes them feel like puppets on a stage. Every scene is for a set reason/conversation, and it makes the already heavy handed foreshadowing even easier to see.
I'm also really concerned with the amount of 5 star reviews of this book that don't mention any of these issues. Thats why my rating is 1 star, when I honestly would have done 2 or a 2.5/3
Also, this book isn’t spicy at all. This isn't a bad thing, just an observation, everyone likes different levels of spicy in their books and this wasn't it for me. But even when you are objective about it: it’s being marketed by the author as a spicy book and it just isn’t. Yes, there are love scenes, but they way they are done they might as well have been fade to blacks. They are like one to two short paragraphs and that’s it. The two main characters have kinda good chemistry, and the banter between Henry and Thad had enough innuendos and mentions of how well they use their equipment that I was excited to see them in action, but once we get there it’s severely lacking. It’s a lot of telling and not showing. No descriptions, or what either of them are feeling in the moment, just “he did this, then he did this other thing. Then they got dressed.”
Plot hole rant: For a large portion of the book we are left wondering which of the 4 kings is trying to betray the other three, I mean we get a huge and heavy handed hint at the VERY beginning with one character saying "That kings eyes don't match his face, I don't trust him" So its not really a mystery to the reader at all, but I digress. In the middle of this villain enacting his plan he fucking goes himself to the Winter Kings future bride and straight lies to her face and says "he told me to tell you to meet him at this place." Not only is it weird as hell for one king to be another's errand boy, but he just blew his own cover for no reason at all. no reason! Once she gets to the winter king shes instantly like "yeah this king is the one who told me to come to you and blow all your plans with my arrival." and boom, now everyone knows hes behind everything thats been happening. He could have continued pulling strings in the background if he just used a simple messenger instead of journeying out to a random low ranking noble of another kingdom to tell her to go meet her lover somewhere. like what? Why the hell show your hand?
DNF at 56%
November 19, 2022
The writing could have benefitted from an editor, but I found the story itself compelling and unique, the new couple at the end who will be the main couple in the next installment stole my heart, and the last chapters blew my mind.
Based on the tiktoks I saw from the author I suspect the woman will die so the man can be with his true mate/compeer, because making a polyam relationship is so goddamn hard apparently, and if that'll be the case, I'm out, but I really want to continue, because both the plot, the world, the now extended world and the caracters peaked my interest. I just have to be in a "the main character / your favorite character will die" mood for it.
I hope I'm wrong, tho.
Based on the tiktoks I saw from the author I suspect the woman will die so the man can be with his true mate/compeer, because making a polyam relationship is so goddamn hard apparently, and if that'll be the case, I'm out, but I really want to continue, because both the plot, the world, the now extended world and the caracters peaked my interest. I just have to be in a "the main character / your favorite character will die" mood for it.
I hope I'm wrong, tho.
April 19, 2022
3.5* “Don’t you see? You are my soul. Without you, I am no one and nothing.”
I’m not 100% sure how I feel about this one, but I read every single word and I plan to read the next one in the series. So I’m going to say it’s good, but it did take me a little bit to get invested and to be able to understand the world. It’s in third person, so I had a bit of a hard time with that. That said I enjoyed the group of characters and I was intrigued by the plot and just the lore of the world. It’s sort of an ensemble cast that we follow, but the main romance is one set of characters. That’s probably all I can say without spoiling, but yeah.
I’d consider this a mild heat fantasy romance, with found family, and also plot heavy. Kind of game of thrones vibes, but season themed.
I’m not 100% sure how I feel about this one, but I read every single word and I plan to read the next one in the series. So I’m going to say it’s good, but it did take me a little bit to get invested and to be able to understand the world. It’s in third person, so I had a bit of a hard time with that. That said I enjoyed the group of characters and I was intrigued by the plot and just the lore of the world. It’s sort of an ensemble cast that we follow, but the main romance is one set of characters. That’s probably all I can say without spoiling, but yeah.
I’d consider this a mild heat fantasy romance, with found family, and also plot heavy. Kind of game of thrones vibes, but season themed.
June 25, 2021
Woah woah woah woah!!!!! I found this on tiktok and I am OBSESSED. Kindle unlimited has been blowing it out of the water with their books on there lately. This book is THE perfect mixture of action, romance, spice, world building, and best of all humor. Rarely do I find myself laughing this much in a fantasy book but I loved it!! It was so unique and I loved the story line, I appreciated the romance and how it wasn’t the basic enemies to lovers trope. This book was AMAZING I recommend it to anyone who loves NA fantasy!
June 28, 2021
I saw this promoted on tiktok and thought “what the heck, I love free books” and downloaded it. I read a lot of books and honestly some are just not good but I still pull through to the end. I am not at all a book snob. For me, this book was truly just...bad. The only redeeming thing for me (and why I gave it 2 stars instead of 1) is that I think the plot is interesting and has potential to be good.
With that being said, this book reads like a first draft written by a pre-teen. Very much Wattpad vibes. In my opinion everything was extremely underdeveloped. It’s written in 3rd person which automatically makes me hesitant because it’s MUCH harder to invest in a main character that way and I definitely felt that here. I had absolutely no allegiance to any character because we really didn’t get to know them at all. A lot of very *dramatic* scenes were over in 2 paragraphs with very little detail. The world building we get is minimal and all of the character relationships are shallow. The dialogue is childish and again, underdeveloped. Basically every “scene” in this book made me say “give me MORE!!” I really hope the author gets some great beta readers and editors for the future books because I do think the overall concept of this book was interesting, but it needs a ton of work.
With that being said, this book reads like a first draft written by a pre-teen. Very much Wattpad vibes. In my opinion everything was extremely underdeveloped. It’s written in 3rd person which automatically makes me hesitant because it’s MUCH harder to invest in a main character that way and I definitely felt that here. I had absolutely no allegiance to any character because we really didn’t get to know them at all. A lot of very *dramatic* scenes were over in 2 paragraphs with very little detail. The world building we get is minimal and all of the character relationships are shallow. The dialogue is childish and again, underdeveloped. Basically every “scene” in this book made me say “give me MORE!!” I really hope the author gets some great beta readers and editors for the future books because I do think the overall concept of this book was interesting, but it needs a ton of work.
June 26, 2021
DNF @ 22%
I am eight chapters in, and for the sake of the retinas attaching my eyeballs to their sockets, I cannot keep rolling my eyes, so I stop here.
The blatant internalized misogyny and toxic "not like other girls" trope is too much for me to get through. In addition to those fun tropes, we also get:
1) "pretty but doesn't know it"
2) it is okay for men to sleep around and make casual remarks about it but not the women
3) really unnecessary descriptions of everyone's appearances and clothing
4) all other girls except the heroine are frivolous creatures or catty hoes that want to steal the main guy
5) insta-love
6) if your husband dies and you really loved him, you should live the rest of your life as a nun and never remarry
7) typos and random tense changes that could have been easily caught by an editor
8) her POC best friend has her skin and hair compared to food. if you don't understand why that's problematic, please look it up
9) massive info dumping
I am eight chapters in, and for the sake of the retinas attaching my eyeballs to their sockets, I cannot keep rolling my eyes, so I stop here.
The blatant internalized misogyny and toxic "not like other girls" trope is too much for me to get through. In addition to those fun tropes, we also get:
1) "pretty but doesn't know it"
2) it is okay for men to sleep around and make casual remarks about it but not the women
3) really unnecessary descriptions of everyone's appearances and clothing
4) all other girls except the heroine are frivolous creatures or catty hoes that want to steal the main guy
5) insta-love
6) if your husband dies and you really loved him, you should live the rest of your life as a nun and never remarry
7) typos and random tense changes that could have been easily caught by an editor
8) her POC best friend has her skin and hair compared to food. if you don't understand why that's problematic, please look it up
9) massive info dumping
July 8, 2021
DNF at 74%. I really really tried to make it through this one but I just can’t. Writing feels extremely juvenile, full of overused tropes and typos. Everyone magically loves the female MC because she’s “not like other girls” due to her blonde hair and the fact she is tough and likes to fight. The romance is insta-love and they have no chemistry at all.
June 24, 2021
I raged against this book. There is nothing wrong with it- the writing and world building is awesome and there is some nice character development. But I couldn’t stand the romance, it was very insta love and just made me frustrated and mad.
October 15, 2021
Loved the magic system and world that was created in this book! The four courts being the 4 seasons is very cool.
However, I did find this book to read a bit too young for my taste, even though its advertised as NA, it reads too High School. There was also a lack in character and relationship development.
Overall this book had a great setup, but fell flat in the end, Sorry!
Read Via Audiobook.
However, I did find this book to read a bit too young for my taste, even though its advertised as NA, it reads too High School. There was also a lack in character and relationship development.
Overall this book had a great setup, but fell flat in the end, Sorry!
Read Via Audiobook.
July 26, 2022
so incredibly rushed, this could have been drawn out to 2-3 books before dropping the bomb that was that ending. definitely would have enjoyed seeing more of winnie & thad fall in love with each other and getting more character development from all the other characters. the concept is really cool, and im still looking forward to seeing where it goes. i just feel like i haven’t had the chance to truly connect to anyone yet, it jumped around so much and things happened so fast.
May 18, 2022
Really enjoyed it! Wasn't perfect, but it was easy to get into, the magic was interesting, and I enjoyed most of the characters.
Want to read
November 19, 2022'romantic chip on his shoulder' LETS GOOOOOOO
May 16, 2022
I REALLY wanted to like this book…but it was so hard to read. The writing style isn’t great, but I did like the world building, it was interesting. But the characters seemed incredibly immature to me, and I have no emotional connection to any of them, and the romance was Uber cheesy to me. It’s a quick read like too quick. It felt like there was so much happening at one time, and I got super confused about the characters, like “who is that again?” I think the book had a lot of potential but in the end, it wasn’t amazing.
June 2, 2022
1.5*
This is one of those novels that I wanted to love so much more than what I actually did. After seeing this book all over social media, my expectations were high. Unfortunately, The Compeer (book #1) wasn’t worth the time I spent reading it.
The author’s writing style was rushed and felt very juvenile. It read like a book for a much younger crowd and, based on what section of the book you’re in, could fit anywhere between middle-grade to YA to NA. There were several typos as well and this novel could’ve used a bit more editing before being published.
To make matters worse, there was not a single character within this book that I cared about. Not only did the characters seem immature, but there was little complexity or depth to them. I was so disconnected from any emotional attachment. Because everything in this novel happens within a very short timeframe, the relationships they develop amongst each other feel contrived and unbelievable as well. Certain characters developing such close bonds with one another seemed to solely be interwoven to rise a character up for their “goodness” or how “right” a character was to step into their fated role (ex: Winnie and Henry developing an “inseparable” connection so quickly).
Additionally, as a side note, I put this book down for a few days (when I was struggling to get through it) and I had forgotten who certain characters were. When their names were mentioned again, I had to sit there and think, “who’s that?” or go back and be reminded. Either this speaks disastrously for my memory or the characters themselves were extremely interchangeable (i.e. they had the same “voice” within the story) and entirely forgettable. (I’m inclined to believe the latter.)
The fact that relationships are very rushed within the story is also not helped when we have the author telling us about certain connections without showing us how those connections were formed. She immediately jumps to the end (like we shouldn’t question how close the new friends could become and just accept that they are close without evidence of the why’s or how’s they got there). So, even if it would make sense that 2 characters become close (ex: Winnie and Archie while they’ve been imprisoned), as readers, we didn’t get to watch how tight that connection was growing. For Winnie and Archie, it was an immediate BFF friendship solely because they happened to be thrown into the same dark room together. But we’re not shown the fear, trauma, and bonding this would cause, we’re only shown the result.
There are a lot of time jumps which probably didn’t help the “telling” vs “showing” issue either. While the time jumps (of days or sometimes weeks at a time) are something I could’ve lived with, this also allowed the author to make those leaps when it came to the character relationships within this story. We don’t see it, we’re just told it happened during those conveniently skipped over days. This also caused some of the plot to seem really unrealistic. The land that they’re in felt really small, for example, as characters were able to move between the mini “countries” (of Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring) from one paragraph (or one page) to the next. The travel time always felt lightening quick (even if we’re told it took more time). This added to that feeling of the author rushing to re-set her stage between the breaks of time instead of letting the story flow more naturally.
Two side characters meet their demise in this novel (which is supposed to be really sad). Not only did I callously feel nothing for their deaths, but I honestly couldn’t even remember what 2 characters passed away while writing this review until I went back into the book to refresh my memory (). Their deaths were so unimpactful to the story, that they were hardly worth mentioning.
The plot was incredibly dull and I struggled to stay interested or invested in the novel enough to continue. I was just so bored with what was happening and the lack of development didn’t help because neither the characters, the world, or the plot were worth reading.
Plus, there were a ton of plot holes or plot conveniences that didn’t make sense or were odd (and didn’t have a good enough explanation to back it up).
The author is very heavy handed with her foreshadowing as well. It was clear from the beginning who the villain was (or at least the main villain King). Yet this is a “mystery” for a very large portion of the novel. The villain has been planning a coup for a long time yet, he shows his hand very quickly. Of course, this still goes over our Hero’s head (since other drama unfolds with his compeer), but it was a plot hole that didn’t make a lot of sense.
This is one of those novels that I wanted to love so much more than what I actually did. After seeing this book all over social media, my expectations were high. Unfortunately, The Compeer (book #1) wasn’t worth the time I spent reading it.
The author’s writing style was rushed and felt very juvenile. It read like a book for a much younger crowd and, based on what section of the book you’re in, could fit anywhere between middle-grade to YA to NA. There were several typos as well and this novel could’ve used a bit more editing before being published.
To make matters worse, there was not a single character within this book that I cared about. Not only did the characters seem immature, but there was little complexity or depth to them. I was so disconnected from any emotional attachment. Because everything in this novel happens within a very short timeframe, the relationships they develop amongst each other feel contrived and unbelievable as well. Certain characters developing such close bonds with one another seemed to solely be interwoven to rise a character up for their “goodness” or how “right” a character was to step into their fated role (ex: Winnie and Henry developing an “inseparable” connection so quickly).
Additionally, as a side note, I put this book down for a few days (when I was struggling to get through it) and I had forgotten who certain characters were. When their names were mentioned again, I had to sit there and think, “who’s that?” or go back and be reminded. Either this speaks disastrously for my memory or the characters themselves were extremely interchangeable (i.e. they had the same “voice” within the story) and entirely forgettable. (I’m inclined to believe the latter.)
The fact that relationships are very rushed within the story is also not helped when we have the author telling us about certain connections without showing us how those connections were formed. She immediately jumps to the end (like we shouldn’t question how close the new friends could become and just accept that they are close without evidence of the why’s or how’s they got there). So, even if it would make sense that 2 characters become close (ex: Winnie and Archie while they’ve been imprisoned), as readers, we didn’t get to watch how tight that connection was growing. For Winnie and Archie, it was an immediate BFF friendship solely because they happened to be thrown into the same dark room together. But we’re not shown the fear, trauma, and bonding this would cause, we’re only shown the result.
There are a lot of time jumps which probably didn’t help the “telling” vs “showing” issue either. While the time jumps (of days or sometimes weeks at a time) are something I could’ve lived with, this also allowed the author to make those leaps when it came to the character relationships within this story. We don’t see it, we’re just told it happened during those conveniently skipped over days. This also caused some of the plot to seem really unrealistic. The land that they’re in felt really small, for example, as characters were able to move between the mini “countries” (of Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring) from one paragraph (or one page) to the next. The travel time always felt lightening quick (even if we’re told it took more time). This added to that feeling of the author rushing to re-set her stage between the breaks of time instead of letting the story flow more naturally.
Two side characters meet their demise in this novel (which is supposed to be really sad). Not only did I callously feel nothing for their deaths, but I honestly couldn’t even remember what 2 characters passed away while writing this review until I went back into the book to refresh my memory (). Their deaths were so unimpactful to the story, that they were hardly worth mentioning.
The plot was incredibly dull and I struggled to stay interested or invested in the novel enough to continue. I was just so bored with what was happening and the lack of development didn’t help because neither the characters, the world, or the plot were worth reading.
Plus, there were a ton of plot holes or plot conveniences that didn’t make sense or were odd (and didn’t have a good enough explanation to back it up).
The author is very heavy handed with her foreshadowing as well. It was clear from the beginning who the villain was (or at least the main villain King). Yet this is a “mystery” for a very large portion of the novel. The villain has been planning a coup for a long time yet, he shows his hand very quickly. Of course, this still goes over our Hero’s head (since other drama unfolds with his compeer), but it was a plot hole that didn’t make a lot of sense.
April 28, 2022
I received the whole trilogy for review from the amazing Jaime and I am so grateful.
I loved everything about this book and even though it may not be the greatest fantasy book I've ever read...a lot of tiny things pushed it up to 5 stars for me. The romance, the action, and the bantering/humor were what kept me turning the pages. So good.
That ending though....like what!!! I can't even process right now. Messing with my cinnamon roll like that. Anyways...
Great start to this trilogy and I've heard from the author herself that the next book is going to rip my heart out and burn it to ashes. Can't Wait!!
I loved everything about this book and even though it may not be the greatest fantasy book I've ever read...a lot of tiny things pushed it up to 5 stars for me. The romance, the action, and the bantering/humor were what kept me turning the pages. So good.
That ending though....like what!!! I can't even process right now. Messing with my cinnamon roll like that. Anyways...
Great start to this trilogy and I've heard from the author herself that the next book is going to rip my heart out and burn it to ashes. Can't Wait!!
August 12, 2022
I’m honestly surprised. This was really good. It was pretty underwhelming in world building and the characters are pretty shallow but the plot?! The pace? The storyline? All good. Pretty predictable in places but also some cool plot twists! TWO plot twists in just the epilogue. It’s a little lame in writing style but the magic/world makes up for it. Seasonal magic, Avatar (TLA) style magic, kings and power feuds, calanmai events, etc. And this is a short fantasy book so it’s what I expect.
August 14, 2024
i enjoyed, but i also felt like everything was very rushed, i think this book would be much better if was a little bit longer
January 20, 2023
I pulled through this book, but it honestly was quite hard to deal with. The story felt to quick and although I am a fan of "the chosen one" trope this book took it way to far. The idea in itself is interesting enough but from reading it I can actually see a lot of ideas spurred from other books (not that it was intentional). It all felt very juvenile and too unrealistic for me. The characters didn't have any real depth to them and the plot felt like it was constantly at war with itself. There was way to much happening for this book to be less than 300 pages and it really left me confused at points. I don't think I will be reading the next book in this series.
April 6, 2022
Overall consensus: fast paced YA fantasy romance with sex added to make it seem like NA. Decent plot line, but quite boring and predictable, and nothing super unique. Not unenjoyable, but not memorable.
Character review:
Winnie, our heroine:
Winnie was pretty much the quintessential YA heroine. She was insecure because she looked *different* than everyone else, but she was nonetheless flawlessly beautiful. Her personality seemed to consist of: loving weapons/fighting, loving baked goods, and…yeah I don’t think there was much else. I felt no connection to her at all. She didn’t annoy me per she, but she did bore me.
Thaddeus, our hero:
Thad was also pretty blah. He hid his kingly identity from Winnie, which is also quintessential to YA fantasy. He was a jaded lover which made it hard for him to commit/tell the truth to Winnie. At least that’s what we’re told. But he fell in love with Winnie hella fast and told her, so it was weird that his past lover was brought up so much. He did cry though, and I like it when men cry, so I appreciated that. But overall, he just didn’t really seem to have a personality.
Side characters:
This is a first book in a series so I understand that it can be hard to give side characters attention when you’re doing world building, but this author really went for quantity over quality when it came to characters. New characters kept being introduced and I don’t even remember half their names, let alone their personalities or their purpose. I also had an issue with the mom, Suki, because we’re told at the beginning how amazing and wonderful she is, and then she rarely appears, and then in the end she’s like some bad ass mom who dies for her children, but it was just completely glanced over. She seemed like a complete afterthought. Most of the side characters seemed like a complete afterthought, actually.
World building/magic system:
I said earlier that side characters can excusably be pushed aside for world building in first books, but the world building in this was so just as lackluster as the characters. I thought the magic was interesting, but not entirely unique. The idea of kingdoms delegated by seasons is not a new concept and I’ve read it several times before.
The idea of the guardians was unique, and I enjoyed it, but I had some major issues with the overall workings of it. These guardians are supposedly immortal, which is said several times, being thousands of years old. However, both Thad and Winnie have guardians who happen to be really close friends of theirs. Do they fail to realize that these people never age? Thad is also immortal, and to his knowledge only him and his fellow kings are immortal. So how has Henry gotten away with being immortal for so long?
And correct me if I am wrong, but I thought Emmy and Winnie grew up together. So how is Emmy a thousand year old immortal? I think that these issues can be worked out if the lore of the world was fleshed out better or the origin was just explained clearer.
Plot:
This is going to be sort of rapid-fire style:
• Winnie and other girls are not allowed to fight in regiments, yet this is supposedly Thad’s kingdom and has been for 500 years, how has he not dealt with this misogyny/why is it present at all?
• When Archie and Winnie are locked up together, Archie unlocks his chains using wind? How?! Is that even possible?! I don’t buy it.
• Also when Winnie and Archie are locked up together, Winnie tells Archie that he can probably use breath as a part of his wind magic. He thinks she’s so smart for thinking of this. Mans is immortal, and he went his whole life without finding that out on his own?
• Near the end, we learn about some Spring guardians, and the lore of them does not seem to match up with any of the previous guardians lore. Very confusing.
• No one on the entire continent has ever built a boat? Have you never tried to explore? Or at least fished?
Phew. Sorry guys, that was a lot.
Overall, one of my biggest issues was the amount of showing rather than telling. Archie and Winnie where supposed to have this brother sister bond from their time in captivity and I didn’t see any proof of it other then the author saying it. Same with their trauma from captivity, the author said they had trauma, but I never saw proof of it. Other instances like this happened several times throughout the books, and it just really bothered me.
Personal icks that I thought where worth mentioning:
• Modern language/phrasing in a world that has been portrayed as not modern ex. “OK,” and “Mr. Hot Pants” and “Let’s blow this pop stand”
• Any use of the word sexy…I haaaaaate the word sexy
• Fantasy worlds that have the real world as their “past world” - in dystopia this doesn’t bother me, but when you have built your own world and magic system that by all means is in a totally different time period, why is our modern world the past and why are they referencing cell-phones?
• The names the author chose. I’m sorry, but I didn’t like a single name: Archie, Winnie, Thad, Suki? It just was not for me.
• the fact that they defeat the villain, but then a new, unrelated villain is introduced - for me, this always reads as middle grade when there’s a new villain every book, very scooby-doo, Nancy Drew - that’s just my personal opinion on it, other people can obviously feel differently
Overall, this book to me was very lackluster. The writing was boring and a little juvenile and the world building/plotting needs a lot of work in my opinion.
The writing style read as a lower grade YA fantasy (no hate, I still love YA fantasy even though I’ve moved away from it as I’ve gotten older) but the sex scenes (also no hate🌶) were explicit to the point of being NA, so I’m unsure of the audience for this book. I think that older readers will find the writing a little juvenile and younger readers might be off put by the explicitly of it.
Good luck to any and all who read this, I hope you enjoy it more than I did :)
Character review:
Winnie, our heroine:
Winnie was pretty much the quintessential YA heroine. She was insecure because she looked *different* than everyone else, but she was nonetheless flawlessly beautiful. Her personality seemed to consist of: loving weapons/fighting, loving baked goods, and…yeah I don’t think there was much else. I felt no connection to her at all. She didn’t annoy me per she, but she did bore me.
Thaddeus, our hero:
Thad was also pretty blah. He hid his kingly identity from Winnie, which is also quintessential to YA fantasy. He was a jaded lover which made it hard for him to commit/tell the truth to Winnie. At least that’s what we’re told. But he fell in love with Winnie hella fast and told her, so it was weird that his past lover was brought up so much. He did cry though, and I like it when men cry, so I appreciated that. But overall, he just didn’t really seem to have a personality.
Side characters:
This is a first book in a series so I understand that it can be hard to give side characters attention when you’re doing world building, but this author really went for quantity over quality when it came to characters. New characters kept being introduced and I don’t even remember half their names, let alone their personalities or their purpose. I also had an issue with the mom, Suki, because we’re told at the beginning how amazing and wonderful she is, and then she rarely appears, and then in the end she’s like some bad ass mom who dies for her children, but it was just completely glanced over. She seemed like a complete afterthought. Most of the side characters seemed like a complete afterthought, actually.
World building/magic system:
I said earlier that side characters can excusably be pushed aside for world building in first books, but the world building in this was so just as lackluster as the characters. I thought the magic was interesting, but not entirely unique. The idea of kingdoms delegated by seasons is not a new concept and I’ve read it several times before.
The idea of the guardians was unique, and I enjoyed it, but I had some major issues with the overall workings of it. These guardians are supposedly immortal, which is said several times, being thousands of years old. However, both Thad and Winnie have guardians who happen to be really close friends of theirs. Do they fail to realize that these people never age? Thad is also immortal, and to his knowledge only him and his fellow kings are immortal. So how has Henry gotten away with being immortal for so long?
And correct me if I am wrong, but I thought Emmy and Winnie grew up together. So how is Emmy a thousand year old immortal? I think that these issues can be worked out if the lore of the world was fleshed out better or the origin was just explained clearer.
Plot:
This is going to be sort of rapid-fire style:
• Winnie and other girls are not allowed to fight in regiments, yet this is supposedly Thad’s kingdom and has been for 500 years, how has he not dealt with this misogyny/why is it present at all?
• When Archie and Winnie are locked up together, Archie unlocks his chains using wind? How?! Is that even possible?! I don’t buy it.
• Also when Winnie and Archie are locked up together, Winnie tells Archie that he can probably use breath as a part of his wind magic. He thinks she’s so smart for thinking of this. Mans is immortal, and he went his whole life without finding that out on his own?
• Near the end, we learn about some Spring guardians, and the lore of them does not seem to match up with any of the previous guardians lore. Very confusing.
• No one on the entire continent has ever built a boat? Have you never tried to explore? Or at least fished?
Phew. Sorry guys, that was a lot.
Overall, one of my biggest issues was the amount of showing rather than telling. Archie and Winnie where supposed to have this brother sister bond from their time in captivity and I didn’t see any proof of it other then the author saying it. Same with their trauma from captivity, the author said they had trauma, but I never saw proof of it. Other instances like this happened several times throughout the books, and it just really bothered me.
Personal icks that I thought where worth mentioning:
• Modern language/phrasing in a world that has been portrayed as not modern ex. “OK,” and “Mr. Hot Pants” and “Let’s blow this pop stand”
• Any use of the word sexy…I haaaaaate the word sexy
• Fantasy worlds that have the real world as their “past world” - in dystopia this doesn’t bother me, but when you have built your own world and magic system that by all means is in a totally different time period, why is our modern world the past and why are they referencing cell-phones?
• The names the author chose. I’m sorry, but I didn’t like a single name: Archie, Winnie, Thad, Suki? It just was not for me.
• the fact that they defeat the villain, but then a new, unrelated villain is introduced - for me, this always reads as middle grade when there’s a new villain every book, very scooby-doo, Nancy Drew - that’s just my personal opinion on it, other people can obviously feel differently
Overall, this book to me was very lackluster. The writing was boring and a little juvenile and the world building/plotting needs a lot of work in my opinion.
The writing style read as a lower grade YA fantasy (no hate, I still love YA fantasy even though I’ve moved away from it as I’ve gotten older) but the sex scenes (also no hate🌶) were explicit to the point of being NA, so I’m unsure of the audience for this book. I think that older readers will find the writing a little juvenile and younger readers might be off put by the explicitly of it.
Good luck to any and all who read this, I hope you enjoy it more than I did :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 14, 2022
So, this book was a wild ride towards the end. I was pretty on board for most of it, the writing was not the best but the plot had potential. The ending felt rushed and I wasn't sure how they would continue for books 2 and 3. They did however set up book 2 which made me want to continue.. and then the final moments took that away.
January 18, 2023
It was a really good book, it was fast paced but I enjoyed the pace the book was moving at. I really like the pics of different apart from the main ones, that was unique to this writer and something you don’t see often unless it’s a villain. The story line and the plot of the book was well thought out. I wouldn’t read it again maybe but it was a good book overall.
September 19, 2022
Like others have said, the story and concept is good. The dialogue was juvenile, and this was another book where I thought the MC had more chemistry with the love interests best friend over him, so I was hoping for that to happen. Anyway I might read the second we’ll see!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 29, 2023
DNF. couldn’t get past the atrocious writing. plot had potential though.
January 29, 2022
I only saw this book once on BookTok a while back and added it to Goodreads and I’m glad I did. Great NA fantasy, fast paced, with a little spice.
Was very pleasantly surprised by this book (I’ve been super impressed with Kindle Unlimited). I didn’t realize the second book was already out so diving into that one next!
Tropes:
- Fated Mates
- One Horse (one brief scene)
Spice: 🌶
POV: third person omniscient
Was very pleasantly surprised by this book (I’ve been super impressed with Kindle Unlimited). I didn’t realize the second book was already out so diving into that one next!
Tropes:
- Fated Mates
- One Horse (one brief scene)
Spice: 🌶
POV: third person omniscient
June 27, 2021
The premise was so so strong and promising - and the world has such interesting building to it but I hate to say it did land flat for me.
There was a whole ending of a chapter missing and the grammer was not all that great. I think this book would have greatly improved with some beta readers and an editor.
There were a lot of tropes I was not a fan of in this book - miscommunication/ not like other girls/ pretty but no one knows it are just some of the few. There was also what seemed to be an attempt of a love triangle but I did not feel any form of chemistry between any of them.
The main couple I could not fathom really - there seemed to just be nothing there - I didn't feel that spark and come across entirely insta-lovey. They moved so quickly I almost got whiplash. The scenes between the two left me nothing but disappointed. The 'spice ' scenes were mild at best. I think if the author spent more time , took on some beta readers and editors this could have been something really amazing.
There were so many plot holes and the twists made zero sense - these guardians were the final straw for me as it just did not fit in the world to me. They made no sense what so ever and seemed to just be there so other characters had reasons to exist.
The main antagonist I also didn't like but not for the reasons I was suppose to - it was so obvious I thought wool was being pulled over my eyes , but it turned out it was Silas. None of his motives made sense and everything surrounding him just... Was a jumble. Do not even get me started on the mess that is Edwin.
I have 2 stars for the premise and the world building that was done. I think if this was rewritten the author has something special on their hands.
There was a whole ending of a chapter missing and the grammer was not all that great. I think this book would have greatly improved with some beta readers and an editor.
There were a lot of tropes I was not a fan of in this book - miscommunication/ not like other girls/ pretty but no one knows it are just some of the few. There was also what seemed to be an attempt of a love triangle but I did not feel any form of chemistry between any of them.
The main couple I could not fathom really - there seemed to just be nothing there - I didn't feel that spark and come across entirely insta-lovey. They moved so quickly I almost got whiplash. The scenes between the two left me nothing but disappointed. The 'spice ' scenes were mild at best. I think if the author spent more time , took on some beta readers and editors this could have been something really amazing.
There were so many plot holes and the twists made zero sense - these guardians were the final straw for me as it just did not fit in the world to me. They made no sense what so ever and seemed to just be there so other characters had reasons to exist.
The main antagonist I also didn't like but not for the reasons I was suppose to - it was so obvious I thought wool was being pulled over my eyes , but it turned out it was Silas. None of his motives made sense and everything surrounding him just... Was a jumble. Do not even get me started on the mess that is Edwin.
I have 2 stars for the premise and the world building that was done. I think if this was rewritten the author has something special on their hands.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 1, 2022
I don't tend to enjoy multiple POVs and this is no different unfortunately. Interesting take on a fantasy + dystopia + romance, but wasn't my cup of tea and I don't know if I'll finish the series, I quite enjoyed the beginning but fell off at the end 2/5
December 14, 2021
3.75 stars
this is a 5 star story, with a 2.5-3 star execution. I loved the characters and the story line, but it felt like I was reading the summary of what was happening. At one point, a character was imprisoned for a long enough time to traumatize them, but it only was the span of one or two chapters. Everything happened so fast that I couldn't enjoy the story as much as I wanted to and it took away from everything. Why include those events if you're just gonna solve them 4 pages later? The book was only 332 pages, but if the author added details and gave the readers more, this book could easily be 600 pages, if not broken up into 2 books. I loved the unique world premise, but I was only given the sparknotes summary. I just wanted more.
this is a 5 star story, with a 2.5-3 star execution. I loved the characters and the story line, but it felt like I was reading the summary of what was happening. At one point, a character was imprisoned for a long enough time to traumatize them, but it only was the span of one or two chapters. Everything happened so fast that I couldn't enjoy the story as much as I wanted to and it took away from everything. Why include those events if you're just gonna solve them 4 pages later? The book was only 332 pages, but if the author added details and gave the readers more, this book could easily be 600 pages, if not broken up into 2 books. I loved the unique world premise, but I was only given the sparknotes summary. I just wanted more.
June 25, 2022
Rating: 2⭐️ & 2🌶
Overview:
▪️Genre: NA Fantasy Romace
▪️POV: 3rd person, multiple POV’s, 1 narrator
▪️Series: #1 in the Royals of Rodina series
▪️Tropes: Forced marriage, OW & OM drama
▪️Read: Kindle whispersync
▪️Continue the series? Only because I have already bought the Spring Queen
🎧Audio review: 4⭐️
Review:
I wasn’t really a fan of this book, I didn’t like the writing style or feel any attachment to the characters. The world and concept of the compeers was pretty cool, but I just couldn’t get into it and it didn’t hold my attention. I also think the addition of the POV’s of characters other than Thad & Winnie just made this confusing…
Overview:
▪️Genre: NA Fantasy Romace
▪️POV: 3rd person, multiple POV’s, 1 narrator
▪️Series: #1 in the Royals of Rodina series
▪️Tropes: Forced marriage, OW & OM drama
▪️Read: Kindle whispersync
▪️Continue the series? Only because I have already bought the Spring Queen
🎧Audio review: 4⭐️
Review:
I wasn’t really a fan of this book, I didn’t like the writing style or feel any attachment to the characters. The world and concept of the compeers was pretty cool, but I just couldn’t get into it and it didn’t hold my attention. I also think the addition of the POV’s of characters other than Thad & Winnie just made this confusing…
June 29, 2021
This book had so much potential but it just fell flat for me. Everything moved so fast and it didn’t feel fully explained. The main character was almost too likeable and the winter king was in no way broody and his “disdain for royal life” didn’t really come through either.
Like I said there is so much potential and there were some good moments but it just didn’t get where I wanted it to go. Definitely a disappointment.
Like I said there is so much potential and there were some good moments but it just didn’t get where I wanted it to go. Definitely a disappointment.
September 29, 2021
50/50
World building was cool, twists and turns were also good. The love interests however, lacked any conviction. I rolled my eyes at every scene that delved from the actual plot. Story was good aS a whole..but any relationship (love, friends, siblings, parents) sucked so freaking bad. Like awkward cringey strangers trying to fake a meaningful relationship.
World building was cool, twists and turns were also good. The love interests however, lacked any conviction. I rolled my eyes at every scene that delved from the actual plot. Story was good aS a whole..but any relationship (love, friends, siblings, parents) sucked so freaking bad. Like awkward cringey strangers trying to fake a meaningful relationship.
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