I received rule of wolves from Hachette in exchange for an honest review.
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Star Rating:
to say i was really excited for this book is an understatement. i had such high hopes, but i felt so let down.
reading other people’s reviews prior to picking realm breaker up, i saw many different views on it. i had hopes that i wouldn’t be in the group that didn’t like it, yet here we are. and because i didn’t like it doesn’t mean it’s bad. i can see how realm breaker is a wonderful novel for others.
firstly, the things i did like.
i really enjoyed the friendship between the three main characters: dom, sorasa, and corayne. i felt like they got along well. they made the reading experience better. their characters separately were somewhat boring and flat. but i enjoyed them together with their banter.
i’d love to read a whole book about dom’s backstory. i mean, who wouldn’t? immortal being, interesting world. i’m sure his backstory would be more interesting than the actual novel.
i really enjoyed reading erida’s chapters. she’s so interesting and complex. we need more morally grey characters!!! (insert more exclamation points!!) they’re realistic, and they’re fun to read about. if i read the sequel, it’s 100% because of her. i really like how she started out all innocent and such, but ended up being the most interesting character.
i felt taristan fell flat in his duty as villain. he was just like every other villain. which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but he didn’t bring anything new to the table. there was so much potential.
after all that, that’s not even all the characters. for me personally, there’s too many POVs. if the characters were more interesting, this would be fine. but they weren’t. almost all chapters felt like a drag. (except erida, she’s precious).
i liked the lack of romance. i’ve seen many negative reviews point out that the lack of romance was a deal breaker with them. for me it wasn’t. i loved that it wasn’t centered around romance. which i assume would be between the really old man and the underage teenager if it was.
the first thing i noticed when i picked up this book is the writing style. it’s the main reason i didn’t like this book. it felt like it was written for an adult audience. if this book was marketed as such, it would’ve hit the mark for a perfect fantasy book. but it’s not what i was looking for. i like how YA is written. i like that it’s fun to read. YA is fun, it’s easy to read. personally, i find adult fantasy books to have slower pacing, just like realm breaker. it’s hard to get into a book that takes forever to get to the point.
that being said, i can see how a lot of people do enjoy this book. and i wish i was one of them. i really enjoyed victoria aveyard’s red queen series, but realm breaker is nothing like it.
despite not liking this book as much as i’d hoped, i do recommend everyone pick it up and give it a try. it’s definitely a well written book with many strong points.
thanks again to hachette for providing me with a review copy of realm breaker.
