TiffyBelle@bookwyrm.social reviewed Curse Breaker by Audrey Grey
Review of 'Curse Breaker' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Book two of the Kingdom of Runes series starts where we left off in the first installment, following Haven and her band of immortal misfits on their journey to save the prince and end the curse...
Having only rated the first book three stars of five, my main issues were some confusing or spotty backstories for certain characters, a complex and confusing magic system that seemed a little hard to fully grasp with the descriptions provided, and the way the book ended unresolved. I saw a lot of potential in the series, but book one fell a little short in these areas.
All I can say is that I am delighted that I trusted the author to build upon her intriguing foundations and stuck with the series! What a freakin' journey this book was!
Curse Breaker puts us into the meat of our heroes' epic quest right away, with plenty …
Book two of the Kingdom of Runes series starts where we left off in the first installment, following Haven and her band of immortal misfits on their journey to save the prince and end the curse...
Having only rated the first book three stars of five, my main issues were some confusing or spotty backstories for certain characters, a complex and confusing magic system that seemed a little hard to fully grasp with the descriptions provided, and the way the book ended unresolved. I saw a lot of potential in the series, but book one fell a little short in these areas.
All I can say is that I am delighted that I trusted the author to build upon her intriguing foundations and stuck with the series! What a freakin' journey this book was!
Curse Breaker puts us into the meat of our heroes' epic quest right away, with plenty of action, twists and turns, and a couple of really emotional moments that profoundly reverberate in their impact. It's total non-stop action from the beginning, and it does not let up until the epic crescendo in the final scenes.
It felt as though Audrey Grey herself had become more comfortable in her own world that she created in this sequel, truly allowing her creativity to flow and cementing her characters' backstories, motivations and personalities a lot more sturdily than the opening book in the series. Her amazing world building also continued, which really enables you to see and feel the environments Haven and crew had to contend with on their quest.
I particularly liked how we actually saw a lot more character development and growth from some of our main characters in Curse Breaker, which was certainly lacking before. The pacing of that development I also found to be on point. The romance elements for several of the characters was also kicked up a notch, which certainly added to the gravity of some of the situations that played out. You will definitely feel things during this adventure!
My sole criticism is that book one and book two could probably have just been a single installment. Having said that, the slow burn was well worth it and the additional pages doing it that way allowed the author to do the story full justice without having to abbreviate, which would have detracted from how epic the world and expedition felt, in my opinion.
Overall this was an enthralling journey and I can now safely say I'm fully hooked on this series. A true gem from Audrey Grey. Hats off. I cannot wait to see where the series goes from here in book three: King Maker.