Title: The Demon King
Author: Cinda William Cima
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Seven Realms (Book 1)
I became acquainted with this book after I recently discovered Hoopla (and by recently discovered I mean that it’s been around for ages but I was too lazy to figure out what it actually was) and was scrolling through the YA fantasy section at my kitchen table instead of, you know, studying or something productive. The cover was what attracted me, but the good ratings on Goodreads didn’t hurt either (and yes, I research my books before I read them…sometimes…). Let’s just say that Hoopla/Goodreads/cover judging didn’t let me down—I loved this book. It was fast enough that I wasn’t bored, yet didn’t rush through the plot like a lot of books that I’ve read recently. The story sucked me in, and instead of duel-reading it with Dreams of Gods and Monsters like I was planning, I wound up reading it all the way through by itself. Whoops. The only major complaint I had was the romance, since it felt like it didn’t fit into the story all the way and both Han and Raisa seemed to fall in love with every single person of the opposite sex that they met. Also, a lot of these romances didn’t seem super well-developed, and I was left trying to figure out when so-and-so came into the picture and how they fit. Then again, I am not a fan of romance by any means so maybe I’m just being picky.
LIKES:
+ Wizards and magic. You can rarely go wrong with wizards and magic (I would say never but I just *tried* to read a trilogy with wizards and magic and it was awful and I wound up not finishing… two books was enough)
+ Fast-paced plot but not so fast that it felt like I was on a runaway train
+ Duel narrators! I love it when a novel is narrated from more than one character’s perspective because I feel like it helps provide a more comprehensive view of the story. Like 360 degree YouTube videos but for books? Not sure exactly how to describe it but I like it.
+ The fact that one of the narrators is a guy. Most of the books I’ve been reading recently (excluding Strange the Dreamer) don’t have male narrators and all the male characters are love interests. It’s nice to have a male character with some actual character development even if, like I said, he falls in love with almost every girl he meets…
+ I liked how Raisa was more down-to-earth than a lot of stereotypical princesses. The development of her character after being exposed to people less fortunate than she was really interesting and I liked it. However…
DISLIKES:
- I didn’t like that Raisa was more down-to-earth than a lot of stereotypical princesses because I just read another book with the same deal going on and it reminded me too much of that. Maybe it was just bad timing for this book, but it rubbed me the wrong way. Also, it wasn’t really a gradual transformation.
- Han fell in love with almost every girl he met and Raisa fell in love with almost every guy she met. It was really confusing and frustrating, especially since there seemed to be no valid reasons for them loving the people that they did. I feel like there was a whole chapter on how these romances developed that I skipped. Also, I feel like the romance was forced, it didn’t really seem to fit with the rest of the story and was just awkward.
- The end of the book felt rushed to me. The rest of the book was at a nice pace but all of a sudden 20 different things happened at the very end of the book leaving me feeling confused and a little robbed.
Overall I really liked this book! It was super interesting, full of action, and had MAGIC <3. I’m definitely going to continue reading this series and probably all of Cinda Williams Cima’s other books. Because by TBR isn’t big enough already.
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