juliterario's review against another edition
4.0
- SIN SPOILERS -
Mmmmmm.
En realidad le doy a este libro 3.5 estrellas, peeero bueno. No sé, fue un tanto decepcionante. Tal vez esto tendría que hacer sido sólo un libro en vez de una duología, ¿saben?
El primer libro es exquisito y lo adoro, así que esta secuela es fácil de disfrutar como continuación porque consigo disfrutar de más de lo que me gusta. Los personajes, la ambientación, la idea de la historia en sí. Fue fácil disfrutar esta novela.
Pero a la vez... No sé... Este libro tomó una dirección completamente distinta y de lo más inesperada. Esta secuela es más oscura y extraña y toca temas más dark. Y aunque ya todo el mundo sabe que AMO ver estas cosas en la fantasía, siento que esta vez Evelyn Skye lo forzó demasiado. No se vio natural con la trama. Los cambios que Skye forzó en dentro de esta novela en cuanto a los personajes deshicieron lo bello que se había creado en el primer libro. Los personajes dejaron de ser lo que eran y la trama se convirtió en otra cosa.
“We are not defined by what we can do, but by what we actually do.”
El tema es este: ESTA SECUELA NO COINCIDE CON LO QUE AFIRMA EL PRIMER LIBRO. Esto es diferente. Es otro libro completamente y en lo personal siento que la autora no tuvo éxito en este gran riesgo que tomó con esta secuela. Aún así, este no es el famoso Síndrome del Segundo Libro, pero es bastante parecido. Este libro fue distinto en una manera que para mí no tenía sentido. Lo disfruté, sí, y mucho, pero no cierra con el anterior.
Me gustó más el primero.
emhildeb's review against another edition
It's just not hooking me. I don't think this should have been a duology, it's just too drawn out and nothing has happened yet.
erinarkin20's review against another edition
4.0
I have been waiting for The Crown’s Fate by Evelyn Skye for at least a year and I have to admit, I basically confiscated this book from my sister once it came to our house. The first book ended on a bit of a cliffhanger so I was so excited to dive into this book. I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone so if you haven’t read The Crown’s Game yet, stop here and go read it.
The Crown’s Fate picks up shortly after book one and like Vika, I was pretty mad at Pasha. Because of the game, Vika doesn’t really have a choice around what she does for Pasha and Yuliana. We find out pretty quickly…right alongside Vika, that if she doesn’t do as ordered, the magic will punish her. Now on top of her anger at Pasha around what happened at the end of the game, Vika is basically robbed of her free will to decide what actions she will take in support of Pasha.
As Pasha prepares to become Tsar, he is clearly struggling with who he is and how he will lead the people of Russia. His sister, Yuliana, knows Russia and always seems to know what to do and Pasha doesn’t have the confidence she does which causes him to question his ability to lead. With that said, Pasha is loved by the people and when he finally does step up and decides he is the right person to lead, he shows his strength.
Now…I loved Nicolai. I still love Nicolai but he was really hard to support in this book. If you recall the end of book one, he basically gave up his life to Vika so she would survive the game. Well he didn’t die…instead he became a shadow and is living in the scene he created in the Kazakh steppe. When his mother, Aizhanna, comes to see him there, she tries to convince him to steal energy from the visitors so he can come back. When he refuses, she pushes her energy into him and that is the start of this new, darker Nicolai. As Nicolai comes back, he decides he is going to fight Pasha for the throne and he is willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants.
It is clear, Aizhanna’s energy is making Nicolai act like someone he is not. His anger and his distrust in Vika and Pasha make him do things I never thought he would do. As we get the different perspectives in the book, it is obvious that Vika wants to do whatever she can to save Nicolai and help him get back to who he was before the game. Unfortunately, Nicolai doesn’t see her actions that way and he immediately thinks she has chosen Pasha over him…which only makes him angrier.
I loved how Skye tied all their stories together and also the way she twisted up the magic in this book. When it was introduced to the people, they weren’t as accepting and eventually, because of Nicolai, the people were frightened and a danger to Vika. As the story moves forward and Pasha realizes what supporting magic has done, he does something that I never expected and I have to admit, I was surprised that Vika didn’t have a bigger negative reaction when he did it. I KNOW – Don’t hate me for how vague that statement is…I don’t want to give it away but trust me, when you get to this part, you will know exactly what I am talking about.
The secondary characters were definitely important to the story and helped move everything along. Aizhanna, Yuliana, Ludmila, Renata, and the Decemberists (to call out a few) all played key roles in the story and I enjoyed how Skye linked them into the lives of Nicolai, Pasha, and Vika
Overall I was happy with the story and the way it wrapped up. I thought Skye left it open-ended enough to let the reader decide what would happen next but she also brought the story to an appropriate conclusion. I definitely look forward to whatever is coming next from Evelyn Skye as she did such a great job creating a story that combined magic, friendship, and family all while keeping the historical feel to the story. If you are looking for something to read, consider checking out this book / series.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy.
The Crown’s Fate picks up shortly after book one and like Vika, I was pretty mad at Pasha. Because of the game, Vika doesn’t really have a choice around what she does for Pasha and Yuliana. We find out pretty quickly…right alongside Vika, that if she doesn’t do as ordered, the magic will punish her. Now on top of her anger at Pasha around what happened at the end of the game, Vika is basically robbed of her free will to decide what actions she will take in support of Pasha.
As Pasha prepares to become Tsar, he is clearly struggling with who he is and how he will lead the people of Russia. His sister, Yuliana, knows Russia and always seems to know what to do and Pasha doesn’t have the confidence she does which causes him to question his ability to lead. With that said, Pasha is loved by the people and when he finally does step up and decides he is the right person to lead, he shows his strength.
Now…I loved Nicolai. I still love Nicolai but he was really hard to support in this book. If you recall the end of book one, he basically gave up his life to Vika so she would survive the game. Well he didn’t die…instead he became a shadow and is living in the scene he created in the Kazakh steppe. When his mother, Aizhanna, comes to see him there, she tries to convince him to steal energy from the visitors so he can come back. When he refuses, she pushes her energy into him and that is the start of this new, darker Nicolai. As Nicolai comes back, he decides he is going to fight Pasha for the throne and he is willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants.
It is clear, Aizhanna’s energy is making Nicolai act like someone he is not. His anger and his distrust in Vika and Pasha make him do things I never thought he would do. As we get the different perspectives in the book, it is obvious that Vika wants to do whatever she can to save Nicolai and help him get back to who he was before the game. Unfortunately, Nicolai doesn’t see her actions that way and he immediately thinks she has chosen Pasha over him…which only makes him angrier.
I loved how Skye tied all their stories together and also the way she twisted up the magic in this book. When it was introduced to the people, they weren’t as accepting and eventually, because of Nicolai, the people were frightened and a danger to Vika. As the story moves forward and Pasha realizes what supporting magic has done, he does something that I never expected and I have to admit, I was surprised that Vika didn’t have a bigger negative reaction when he did it. I KNOW – Don’t hate me for how vague that statement is…I don’t want to give it away but trust me, when you get to this part, you will know exactly what I am talking about.
The secondary characters were definitely important to the story and helped move everything along. Aizhanna, Yuliana, Ludmila, Renata, and the Decemberists (to call out a few) all played key roles in the story and I enjoyed how Skye linked them into the lives of Nicolai, Pasha, and Vika
Overall I was happy with the story and the way it wrapped up. I thought Skye left it open-ended enough to let the reader decide what would happen next but she also brought the story to an appropriate conclusion. I definitely look forward to whatever is coming next from Evelyn Skye as she did such a great job creating a story that combined magic, friendship, and family all while keeping the historical feel to the story. If you are looking for something to read, consider checking out this book / series.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy.
maka_xo's review against another edition
4.0
Okay so in the last book I said that it had a slow start but you'll end it wanting more. This book was the opposite. I was excited to hop right in because I finished the first one and it was pretty good. But the ending was pretty typical and I felt like I wasn't as excited because you can kind guess what would happen. There were some cool twists in the end but not enough to make me just as excited. Over all I still recommend reading both. It's a pretty good series.
jess_enriquez's review against another edition
1.0
This books was so cheesy and full of predictable, tired cliche’s. The first book wasn’t anything to too get excited over, but I think it left a lot open so the sequel could have been something better than this. This was God awful. Without revealing any spoilers, this plot line was flat and the characters written in a way that made their behaviors seem completely brainless. I’m upset I even bothered with these two books at all.
author_audrey_'s review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
bak8382's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoyed the 1st book in this series, [b:The Crown's Game|26156203|The Crown's Game (The Crown's Game, #1)|Evelyn Skye|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463414442s/26156203.jpg|44491089], and I was eager to see how it would end here. I just could not get into the writing, at first because there was a lot of backstory re-explained, but then even as it continued it just wasn't grabbing me. Nikolai became a little too evil, and the ending was almost too neat. Still loved the concept and the interweaving of aspects of the real history explained in the author's note.
bookwife's review against another edition
3.0
I did not like this one as much as the first. It went in a weird direction. I was frustrated the whole book.
littlewhiterabbitreads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
strawberrybookfields's review against another edition
3.0
I'm going to get straight to the point. I loved this book so much more than The Crown's Game. Now that the characters were established, reading this book was actually extremely enjoyable in comparison to The Crown's Game. I know some people felt this book was unnecessary, but this felt like the heart of the series to me.
Because of how the story was written this time, I felt like I was seeing Russia instead of being told I was seeing Russia. So, that was amazing.
I loved the characters. Given some of the PoVs feel a little pointless, I still enjoyed them. I love reading Pasha's PoV, but as I said before I'm not sure his PoV is necessary. He either made me angry or he was just there. However, this time around I felt like I really knew the characters. They were so much more living than just existing on a page. I loved reading Nikolai's PoV and I craved any moment he and Vika were together.
Again, there was not that much of a change regarding character development. The characters kind of reverted to who they were before they changed in The Crown's Game, though slightly changed. It felt okay, but it wasn't my favorite.
The plot felt a lot more smooth than the first book, which felt like it was all over the place. But, this book told a much more progressive plot that felt understandable.
I don't think I'm going to say anything else, but I guess I had fun reading this series.
Because of how the story was written this time, I felt like I was seeing Russia instead of being told I was seeing Russia. So, that was amazing.
I loved the characters. Given some of the PoVs feel a little pointless, I still enjoyed them. I love reading Pasha's PoV, but as I said before I'm not sure his PoV is necessary. He either made me angry or he was just there. However, this time around I felt like I really knew the characters. They were so much more living than just existing on a page. I loved reading Nikolai's PoV and I craved any moment he and Vika were together.
Again, there was not that much of a change regarding character development. The characters kind of reverted to who they were before they changed in The Crown's Game, though slightly changed. It felt okay, but it wasn't my favorite.
The plot felt a lot more smooth than the first book, which felt like it was all over the place. But, this book told a much more progressive plot that felt understandable.
I don't think I'm going to say anything else, but I guess I had fun reading this series.