The Crown's Game

I had such high hopes for this book. I was so intrigued by the summary and the idea of this duel between two enchanters with the amazing setting of Russia. That being said, I was completely underwhelmed with this book. While I enjoyed the characters, it took me awhile to really connect with them and their stories. On top of that the plot was significantly lacking, I didn't feel the stress of the game or really sense how dangerous the game truly was. This was much more fluffy than I was expecting given the premise of The Crown's Game and what it meant to win.

I also was not at all a fan of the romance. It was rushed and I think had an unnecessary “love triangle” if you can even call it that. I did not get any true relationship building between the characters and it made them less real in my mind.

The magic was great, I loved the different things Vika and Nikolai did during game. They were great to experience through their eyes but also the eyes of the kingdom and Pasha. This book really picked up in terms of drama and plot in the latter quarter or so of the story. And of course it ended with a bang that sets up the final book in the duology.

I would like to start by saying I don't hate this book. It was an enjoyable enough read, but it was riddled with trope after cheesy trope, and everything was over explained it felt like. The rule “show don't tell” I realize doesn't always apply, and there are times when it's okay to tell what's happening, but this books was different. It told me everything, there was zero room for me to interpret anything because it was spelled out in front of me. And the language was so weird, some sentences were so bright and colorful and other were drab and boring, the style felt clunky and it didn't fit well together, some whole chapter you tell were the ones the author really really wanted to write, the others were well half hearted it felt like. And world building was lackluster, and the characters needed a hell of a lot more fleshing out, I feel like I didn't really even know them until I was 3/4 of the way through the book. However I an giving it a 3/5 because the 1/4 of the book was interesting enough story itself was interesting enough that I finished the book and will even read the second one. It just won't go on my list of “best books ever”