Heir of Arcadia

Actual rating 3.5.

Heir of Arcadia was a super fun sci-fi with drama, angst and plenty of romance.

To begin with, I wasn't sure if the characters were going to be cliché and have me rolling my eyes at their predictability, and whilst there was a few occurrences of almost-eyerolls, I enjoyed following their story overall. The two main characters were Julian and Quinn. Julian could've been your average rich-boy who inherited his Father's company, but had a little more depth than that, shown through his love for friends, family and even the way he treated his assistant. Quinn is titled “Special Agent”, but not necessarily in the field-work type way of looking at things. She's skilled with tech, but I felt like her personality wasn't as well built around herself. A lot of what she did was framed around Julian, either thinking about him or what his reaction might've been. I'd liked to have read more about her thoughts and feelings outside of that. Don't get me wrong, the relationship was entertaining and I had fun reading the interactions between the two of the, but I just felt like there wasn't enough space for Quinn to grow as a character outside of Julian's influence. Maybe that'll come with a future book?

And based on the way this book ended with not one but two cliffhangers, there's definitely a book two coming, and I'll admit to being intrigued. The plot kept me reading, though a few things were glaringly obvious and other things were a little bit difficult to believe were happening, even with the standard suspension of belief you need to be able to have fun reading sci-fi.

The connection between this novel and gaming is probably what I enjoyed most. I knew there was a link, I just didn't expect it to be what it was, and it was completely different to anything else I'd read. I don't want to go into too much detail for the sake of not spoiling anything major, but if you're a gamer, you'll recognise lots of elements of the book, especially in later action scenes that I particularly enjoyed.

Overall, this kept me entertained for a few hours, and I enjoyed following the characters' stories, I just wish there were a little but more depth to most of them.