Title: The Half King
Author: Melissa Landers, narrated by Piper Goodeve
Length: 381 pages, 13 hours 32 minutes
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, New Adult
Is this book part of a series? Yes, this is book one of The Half King series. While listed as a dualogy, there is not date that I can find for book two.
What drew me to this book? I want to say the premise- which did sound great- but it was the look of the deluxe edition. Inner art, Foil cover, stenciled edges…. it is glorious.
Published: November 19th, 2024
Summary courtesy of Goodreads:
The Great Betrayal changed everything for the Allied Realm. Long ago, the kingdom’s noble houses rose up against the goddess… and for their treachery, the firstborn of each noble family was cursed.
One with perilous beauty.
One with destructive knowledge.
One with insatiable bloodlust.
But the royal house Mortara received the worst affliction of all. For while the king exists during the day, he fades into nothingness at night…until his twenty-first birthday, when he will be lost to the shadows forever.
Now an acolyte has arrived at court. Like all the second-born children of the Allied Realm, she’s destined to serve the goddess and become a Seer…only Cerise Solon has no gift of foretelling. In fact, she has no magical gift at all.
Instead, she’s surrounded by courtiers and priests—smiling sycophants whose hearts are filled with secrets and lies. And at the center of it all sits His Majesty Kian Hannibal Mortara, with his haunting eyes, sharp tongue, and an unerring ability to send her pulse skittering at the worst possible moments.
Falling for him is unthinkable. Because the king is the last of his line, and as the specter of his twenty-first birthday—and the full force of his curse—approaches, the kingdom holds its breath.
But there’s only one way to save a dying king… and it lies with the one person who’s hiding the biggest secret of all. Cerise.
My Thoughts:
I finished this book some time ago, but it took me this long to decide how I feel about it. I loved the premise, and wanted to like the book. There are several wonderful aspects actually- the lore and world building was solid, the characters are interesting, and I am invested enough that I will be reading the second book… but somehow it fell flat for me.
For one thing, the pacing of the book was all wrong. It dragged in so many areas, spoon feeding me lore and culture- it’s interesting but certainly did not require the amount of time dedicated to it. The book doesn’t start moving quickly until nearly three hundred pages in- which is pretty unheard of for the genre really. Up until that point I was curious enough to continue, but was struggling to keep focused on it. Then there’s the low-brow humor used to bring a character back to himself. How many times do we have to hear jokes about sleeping with the other person’s family? The rest of the book reads more like a new adult novel- something that would interest college and adult readers… but the humor brought it down.
Let’s talk about what they did right. Cerise starts as very meek, unquestioning. Through the book she slowly begins to learn to think past what she was taught, and to care deeply about people. There is serious character growth here and I am here for that. Unfortunately, I am also extremely spoiled, being used to far stronger FMC’s. I did love Daerick and Blue. Why is the Male Main Character’s bestie always the sweetest person in the book? I want more time with him! I understand Kian’s motivation, but it took me a long time to actually like his character. If I wasn’t so interested to see how the author going to save this book I might not have continued. That said, I am glad I did. While this is certainly not winning any literary awards, it was interesting and a good read. Maybe the pacing just wasn’t for me. There are tons of reviews with lots of love for the book, and I didn’t dislike it… it was just a bit bland for me. I would give it three stars.
I see that Goodreads lists this as Young Adult, but I feel like it is more New Adult. While hardly explicit, there is sexual content and violence. While many YA novels have this, it always gave me pause because my niece started reading YA books at 11.
The book is out! Have you read it?
Happy Reading,
Gwen
