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A review by audiobookmel
The Golden Gryphon and the Bear Prince by Jeffe Kennedy
Review originally posted at BooksOfMyHeart.net.
When I was given the opportunity to review this book, I jumped at the chance and didn’t even look at the blurb. So I had no idea that this was another spinoff of The Twelve Kingdoms series. This series follows the grown children of the couples of the original series and of the spinoff series, The Uncharted Realms and The Chronicles of Dasnaria.
This first story features Astar, the son of Princess Amelia and nephew of High Queen Ursula. He is also the heir to the throne of The Thirteen Kingdoms. He got this designation at birth before the former High King Uorsin died, so he has always known that this will be his fate. He takes this responsibility very seriously, which means he is far from the life of the party. He is also expected to marry for the good of the kingdom, like many royals.
Zephyr is a free spirit and loves her life as a Tala. She is the daughter of Zyr is a Tala male who’s first form is the gríobhth, which he passed down to his daughter. A gríobhth is what we would call a gryphon, with a body of a lion and head and wings of an eagle. The Tala have a different view of relationships. Many are not monogamous, while some have settled down with a mate.
This book was a bit more “new adult” than I prefer. There were some times early in the story where there were some almost more young adult type conversations, but once the action started, the group does seem to grow up and act more like the adults that they are.
One other complaint I had was that Ursula and her sisters were even trying to push Astar to marry for royalty and not love, when two of the three of them are with men who would not be worthy of their list. Since this is a romance (not to mention the title), I don’t think it is a spoiler to say that Astar does indeed follow his heart and not what he was ordered by his queen.
All in all, I did enjoy this story, even with the complaints I mentioned above. The action scenes were really great and there were some wonderful suspense scenes as well. The romance was well written, like all of Kennedy’s stories. And I do love all the characters. You can read this story without having read the original series, but will not have the full backstory of the parents of these characters (and I do love those stories too, so worth a read). I’m really looking forward to the next book, The Sorceress Queen and the Pirate Rogue, which will be out in April 2021.
**I received a free copy of this book and voluntarily chose to review it.
When I was given the opportunity to review this book, I jumped at the chance and didn’t even look at the blurb. So I had no idea that this was another spinoff of The Twelve Kingdoms series. This series follows the grown children of the couples of the original series and of the spinoff series, The Uncharted Realms and The Chronicles of Dasnaria.
This first story features Astar, the son of Princess Amelia and nephew of High Queen Ursula. He is also the heir to the throne of The Thirteen Kingdoms. He got this designation at birth before the former High King Uorsin died, so he has always known that this will be his fate. He takes this responsibility very seriously, which means he is far from the life of the party. He is also expected to marry for the good of the kingdom, like many royals.
Zephyr is a free spirit and loves her life as a Tala. She is the daughter of Zyr is a Tala male who’s first form is the gríobhth, which he passed down to his daughter. A gríobhth is what we would call a gryphon, with a body of a lion and head and wings of an eagle. The Tala have a different view of relationships. Many are not monogamous, while some have settled down with a mate.
This book was a bit more “new adult” than I prefer. There were some times early in the story where there were some almost more young adult type conversations, but once the action started, the group does seem to grow up and act more like the adults that they are.
One other complaint I had was that Ursula and her sisters were even trying to push Astar to marry for royalty and not love, when two of the three of them are with men who would not be worthy of their list. Since this is a romance (not to mention the title), I don’t think it is a spoiler to say that Astar does indeed follow his heart and not what he was ordered by his queen.
All in all, I did enjoy this story, even with the complaints I mentioned above. The action scenes were really great and there were some wonderful suspense scenes as well. The romance was well written, like all of Kennedy’s stories. And I do love all the characters. You can read this story without having read the original series, but will not have the full backstory of the parents of these characters (and I do love those stories too, so worth a read). I’m really looking forward to the next book, The Sorceress Queen and the Pirate Rogue, which will be out in April 2021.
**I received a free copy of this book and voluntarily chose to review it.