Review: Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes

Title: Rebel Spring
Author: Morgan Rhodes
Published: December 3rd 2013
Source: Paperback
Pages: 416
Series: Falling Kingdoms #2

The sensational high fantasy series that is like Game of Thrones for teens

Auranos has been conquered and the three kingdoms—Auranos, Limeros, and Paelsia—are now unwillingly united as one country called Mytica. But alluring, dangerous magic still beckons, and with it the chance to rule not just Mytica, but the world. . . .

CLEO is now a prisoner in her own palace, forced to be an ambassador for Mytica as the evil King Gaius lies to her people MAGNUS stands to eventually inherit the new kingdom but is still obsessed with his feelings for his adopted sister, Lucia LUCIA is haunted by the deadly outcome of her breathtaking display of magic that allowed her father to capture the kingdoms JONAS watches at the palace gates, a troop of rebels behind him, waiting for him to tell them how he plans to overtake King Gaius When Gaius announces that a road is to be built into the Forbidden Mountains, formally linking all of Mytica together, he sets off a chain of cataclysmic events that will forever change the face of this land.

REVIEW

I started this book off thinking that I would love it for sure and I was so excited to read it but sadly, this disappointed me :( If you read my book review of the first book: Falling Kingdoms, you would know that I absolutely loved the first book and I was so excited for the rest of the series. I was hoping that some of its world building issues would be addressed and I really liked that there was minimal romance in the first instalment.

Similar to the first book, we get the multiple POVs but the similarity seems to stop there.

20 pages into the book, there was the stinky smell of a love triangle and I became really weary. And lo and behold! There is a love chain and a love triangle in Rebel Spring. What is a love chain you might ask. A love chain is when A likes B but B likes C and C likes D etc. I swear that I am not exaggerating one bit. At least 5 characters were  involved in this chain and there was even a love triangle somewhere in there. The romance was very strange and distracting from the plot. Usually I am pretty okay with love triangles and I can tolerate them but a 5-6 people love chain!? Come on now. I was spending half of the time trying to figure out who is falling in love with who after meeting each other for the first time. (YES THERE IS INSTA LOVE TOO)

The pacing was bad in this one. Nothing actually happened and I had to force myself to finish the book after putting it down for one week. The pacing of this was very very slow compared to the first book and there were hardly any twists, unlike in the first book where there was a twist every few chapters. This was very disappointing. There was a lot of faffing around and back and forth about whether someone should do something or not when the answer is already so painfully obvious. This was very predictable and was just not as enjoyable as I was expecting it to be. There were some parts that I was not expecting but it was over so quickly that I forgot all about it in the next chapter. The pacing in this instalment was either too slow or too fast. There were too many fillers and the ending felt rushed.

I felt very distant from most of the 'good' characters, they were so flat! The only character POV I really enjoyed was Magnus and Lucia, as per the first book. I was just not interested in the other characters, especially Cleo. She was so boring and we were in her head most of the time, bleagh. I really enjoyed Lucia and Magnus, I am really interested in their character arcs! I might just read the next book for them. 

World building was alright, it did not really add much to what we already knew from the first book but it was sufficient.

VERDICT

If you cringe and die the moment you hear of a love triange and insta-love in your books then you'll want to steer clear of this. The romance was just so convoluted and unbelievable and it ruined the book for me since it bogged down the pacing as well.

I highly recommended the first book but now that I've read this second book I am not so sure about it anymore. I am still deciding if I should read the third book, I just can't even bear the thought of reading about the weird love chain. 

Recommended for die-hard fans of Morgan Rhodes or the series (?)

Plot: 3/5 

Pacing: 2.5/5

Originality: 3.5/5 

Writing style: 4/5

Characters: 3/5 

Feels: 2/5
Enjoyment: 3/5

Cover: 4/5

Overall rating: