  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 10/15/2012 From an opening dripping with blood, magic, and betrayal through complex interweaving plots detailing treachery, deceit, and forbidden love, this novel is the first in a projected series that will immediately engage readers and keep them intrigued. When a simple Paelsian wine seller is murdered by an Auranian noble, the delicately balanced peace spanning three related kingdoms is split asunder by greed and entitlement. Four young people—Auranian princess Cleo, Paelsian rebel Jonas, Limerian prince Magnus, and his sister, princess Lucia—are catalysts, while witches and kings have equal part in courtly machinations leading to all-out war. Skillful world building and descriptive but not flowery prose allow the complex and layered plot, as well as the strong characters, to take center stage of this expansive epic. A quest to find and control the Kindred, four legendary crystals that hold the purest magic, along with a sorceress who can control all the elements, leaves tantalizing threads hanging for the next book. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Rhodes, the popular author of urban fiction, makes her high-fantasy debut here; the novel is being heavily promoted at Comic-Con International and Comic-Con New York. - Copyright 2012 Booklist. Bulletin for the Center... - 01/01/2013 Three adjoining kingdoms have maintained an uneasy truce for a thousand years, but it’s destroyed when a wealthy nobleman of Auranos carelessly murders a peasant boy from Paelsia, inciting a rebellion that is soon backed by the royal family of Limeros. Four teenagers find themselves in the middle of the political machinations. Princess Cleo of Auranos, who was there when her betrothed murdered the boy, is unwilling to stand up to her domineering fiancé and to her father, the king. Jonas, brother of the slain boy, joins the resistance but begins to question the group’s morality when he finds them making unseemly deals with untrustworthy people. As the offspring of the ruthless Limeran king, Princess Lucia and Prince Magnus are expected to be as heartless as their father, and they have both the physical and supernatural abilities to do so. Rhodes balances the macro-political plot developments with careful characterization, creating four complex protagonists whose actions and perspectives will challenge the reader. There’s a little overexplanation at times, but the different viewpoints combine in a complete picture of the world and its residents. The two female leads undergo impressive transformations from passive, unlikable girls to heroic women willing to fight for what they believe in, whether readers agree with their ideologies or not. Rhodes racks up quite the body count by the book’s end and even beloved characters are not safe, but the promise of more adventure, romance, and war is sure to bring readers back for the sequel. KQG - Copyright 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. School Library Journal - 03/01/2013 Gr 9 Up—Three kingdoms, Limeros, Auranos, and Paelsia, struggle for riches and sovereignty in this complexly wrought tale of war, rebellion, and magic. A prophecy foretells the birth of a sorceress powerful enough to rival dead goddesses, ancient legend speaks of a ring that provides mastery over the Kindred (embodiments of elemental magic), and duplicitous betrayal leads to an alliance between royalty and commoner. The sorceress emerges in the form of Lucia, the princess of Limeros, while Cleo, the princess of Auranos, obtains the ring. Young Jonas, the son of a Paelsian wineseller, puts aside vengeance and aligns with his enemy to save his homeland. Intimations of romance and sex are interspersed with scenes of brutality and magic in an often-barbaric environment that vaguely echoes George R. R. Martin. The plot is packed with incident, although constantly changing points of view weaken the dramatic arc and interrupt the forward momentum. Characterizations are fairly stock, with little to differentiate them, and the stylized fantasy language occasionally stutters over modern colloquialisms. This first volume of an intended series sets up the backstory that informs and motivates the action to come. While the shifting points of view can be distracting, the result is short, action-driven chapters that may carry readers to the finish and on to the next volume.—Janice M. Del Negro, GSLIS Dominican University, River Forest, IL - Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Loading...
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