Title: The Soul of Power
Author: Callie Bates
Series: The Waking Land #3
Genre: Fantasy/Magic
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication Date: June 4th, 2019
Edition: Kindle Edition, 480 pages
Source: NetGalley
Synopsis:
Sophy Dunbarron—the illegitimate daughter of a king who never was—has always felt like an impostor. Separated from her birth mother, raised by parents mourning the loss of their true daughter, and unacknowledged by her father, Sophy desires only a place and a family to call her own. But fate has other ideas. Caught up in Elanna Valtai’s revolution, Sophy has become the reigning monarch of a once-divided country—a role she has been groomed her whole life to fill.
But as she quickly discovers, wearing a crown is quite a different thing from keeping a crown. With an influx of magic-bearing refugees pouring across the border, resources already thinned by war are stretched to the breaking point. Half the nobility in her court want her deposed, and the other half question her every decision. And every third person seems to be spontaneously manifesting magical powers.
When Elanna is captured and taken to Paladis, Sophy’s last ally seems to have vanished. Now it is up to her alone to navigate a political maze that becomes more complex and thorny by the day. And worse, Sophy is hiding a huge secret—one that could destroy her tenuous hold on the crown forever.
One young woman learns the true nature of power—both her own and others’—in the riveting conclusion to The Waking Land Trilogy.
This book was surprisingly really good. Especially compared to how I felt about The Memory of Fire. I didn't really write much of a review for it, because I didn't really care for it.
But this book was very enjoyable. I like Sophy as a character, I wasn't entirely sure how old her character was supposed to be. This is a YA book, but she's pregnant... (you can see that by the cover, and you learn this very early on in the book, so it's not exactly a spoiler.) So I wasn't sure if this book was going to make a teen being pregnant just a casual thing, I know it's a fantasy world, but still. I later figured out that she's at least 19.
That aside, I really liked how she used her head. Well, most of the time. She used her head but there was still a level of naivete with her thinking. She was just a little too trusting and confident in the wrong people to not betray her. She didn't listen to her suspicions when she should have.
This book was mostly focused on political espionage, with some magic sprinkled in there. At times, it almost felt like there was too much going on. She's new to the throne, she's hiding a secret (that's not really a secret, you can see what it is on the cover), she's trying to earn and maintain the trust of her country as it's newly reunited with another. Her friend, and pseudo-sister, Elanna has been kidnapped by Witchhunters, there's a threat of attack from another country, half the people in the country don't like that she's allowing magic-using refugees to enter the country. There's a lot going on, and for the most part, it all flowed together pretty well.
Until the last chapter.
In the last chapter, a whole lot happens, very fast. Some of it felt like it had loose ends that were never tied together. I have a couple questions that I felt were left unanswered. And while I did like this book, I still would have preferred all three books to be told from Elanna's POV. She was the character that started this series, and while reading that book, I didn't feel that either Jahan or Sophy were that important, or as important, as she was. I could never get invested in either character the way I got invested in Elanna.
That being said, I honestly did enjoy reading this book. I think this series is worth reading, despite my hangups. It has a great world, great characters and the magic system is interesting.
That aside, I really liked how she used her head. Well, most of the time. She used her head but there was still a level of naivete with her thinking. She was just a little too trusting and confident in the wrong people to not betray her. She didn't listen to her suspicions when she should have.
This book was mostly focused on political espionage, with some magic sprinkled in there. At times, it almost felt like there was too much going on. She's new to the throne, she's hiding a secret (that's not really a secret, you can see what it is on the cover), she's trying to earn and maintain the trust of her country as it's newly reunited with another. Her friend, and pseudo-sister, Elanna has been kidnapped by Witchhunters, there's a threat of attack from another country, half the people in the country don't like that she's allowing magic-using refugees to enter the country. There's a lot going on, and for the most part, it all flowed together pretty well.
Until the last chapter.
In the last chapter, a whole lot happens, very fast. Some of it felt like it had loose ends that were never tied together. I have a couple questions that I felt were left unanswered. And while I did like this book, I still would have preferred all three books to be told from Elanna's POV. She was the character that started this series, and while reading that book, I didn't feel that either Jahan or Sophy were that important, or as important, as she was. I could never get invested in either character the way I got invested in Elanna.
That being said, I honestly did enjoy reading this book. I think this series is worth reading, despite my hangups. It has a great world, great characters and the magic system is interesting.
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