Review: Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman (Spoiler Free)

Title: Legacy of Kings

Author: Eleanor Herman

Genre: YA Fantasy/Historical Fiction

Publication Date: August 18, 2015

Number of Pages: 384

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I traded for an ARC of this book.

Imagine a time when the gods turn a blind eye to the agony of men, when the last of the hellions roam the plains and evil stirs beyond the edges of the map. A time when cities burn, and in their ashes, empires rise.

Alexander, Macedonia’s sixteen-year-old heir, is on the brink of discovering his fated role in conquering the known world but finds himself drawn to newcomer Katerina, who must navigate the dark secrets of court life while hiding her own mission: kill the Queen. But Kat’s first love, Jacob, will go to unthinkable lengths to win her, even if it means competing for her heart with Hephaestion, a murderer sheltered by the prince. And far across the sea, Zofia, a Persian princess and Alexander’s unmet fiancée, wants to alter her destiny by seeking the famed and deadly Spirit Eaters.

This one was way out of my comfort zone, but I’m glad I ended up picking it up.

I’ll be honest: fantasy usually really intimidates me. There’s something about it that just stresses me out, and I’ve never been able to figure out why. Legacy of Kings ended up being the exception to that general rule. I actually found it pretty easy to read, even though there were a lot of POV switches (another story element that usually stresses me out). When I say there are a lot of POV switches, I mean A LOT. Like, I think there are six or seven POVs. I will say that because of that, this book might not be for everyone. I didn’t have any issues with the switches (I actually found the fact that ADVANCE UNCORRECTED PROOF was emblazoned across EVERY SINGLE page more annoying), but I know that a few people I’ve spoken to about Legacy of Kings just couldn’t get into because all of the POVs. Just know that you don’t spend the entire book in one character’s head.

With all these POVs, you’d think that the character’s thoughts would start to run together, and everyone would end up sounding the same. This wasn’t the case. I found each of the characters to sound pretty distinct from each other, and I was usually able to identify whose head I was in before Eleanor made it expressly known. I was also impressed by how Eleanor was able to give that many lead characters really complex personalities. Sometimes authors who write books with multiple POVs end up giving one POV more depth than the other, but I didn’t really find that here.

The story itself (and all the different storylines taking place) was engaging, and I didn’t find myself too bored when reading any certain POVs. Legacy of Kings is a pretty sizable book, but I ended up reading it in 3 days (3 very busy days). The whole book flowed really nicely for me, and I really wanted to know what was going to happen next at all times.

Overall, I thought Legacy of Kings was an easy to read fantasy novel with complex and unique characters. Don’t let the amount of POVs scare you! I give it four out of five stars!