Jenn Lyons
Adult Fantasy
Kihrin is a bastard orphan who grew up on storybook tales of long-lost princes and grand quests. When he is claimed against his will as the long-lost son of a treasonous prince, Kihrin finds that being a long-lost prince isn’t what the storybooks promised.
Far from living the dream, Kihrin finds himself practically a prisoner, at the mercy of his new family’s power plays and ambitions. He also discovers that the storybooks have lied about a lot of other things too: dragons, demons, gods, prophecies, true love, and how the hero always wins.
Then again, maybe he’s not the hero, for Kihrin is not destined to save the empire.
He’s destined to destroy it.
-Excerpt taken from Goodreads.
Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.
My Opinion
“Sometimes the same things that protect us limit our freedoms.”
(4 / 5) I am floored that this book is Lyons debut. The plot is complex with different stories and layers upon layers of world building. My fav. The writing flows well into each story, slowly stringing it together bringing it to an immensely intricate world.
The world has gods and powerful wizards, assassins, dragons, demons, immortals and more vying to break this world or prevent its demise. There is slavery and it is a cruel world to many where death and torture are depicted mercilessly.
Kihrin is our protagonist who is portrayed in first person. A narrator is portrayed (in the footnotes) in third person but is done very well. It fills in holes to the story where needed and adds so much. I really thought the footnotes would be such a turn off but I loved the explanations but even more, I love the sass and sarcasm!
It is a very complicated plot. More so, it was a very complicated family tree. I’m still a bit confused on that! Swapping souls and bodies then throwing in death (some are not final deaths), ghosts, reincarnation and rebirth. What?? Don’t worry, I’m here for it all. I just may need to take notes! The book ended so well, it brought it all together with a small summary and now I feel like I missed little details and want to reread it before book 2, Ha!
Bring it on Tor, I need book 2!
General content summary: F words: 15, slavery, magical death and melting of body, demons, prostitution, large creatures attack, killings with blood details, f/f relationship, closed door intimacy, rape mention, torture (no details), bloody killings from weapons but also magic, mind rape, incest mention, child and domestic abuse, homophobia & misogyny.
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This sounds complicated!