I adored Kaelyn and her struggle throughout this book. The highborn-falls-for-lowborn trope is one of my favorite plot devices, and Loveman did not disappoint. It did feel a little rushed, but since this is a debut I have faith that she will find her groove and I'll be on the lookout for more!

This just wasn’t for me. It definitely wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read, but personally my favourite part of a romance is reading the build up, how the characters come together, and we didn’t get that here. It was sort of insta love in that the characters were already in love and together when we met them.

I found the world quite difficult to understand and didn’t think we were give enough background information. Unfortunately I couldn’t connect to the main characters - Roki was just kind of annoying, and Kaelyn was quite Mary-sue ish and I didn’t like how she acted around boys.

The pacing was a little all over the place with time jumps that didn’t make much sense and a timeline that was confusing to the reader.

Overall, I just didn’t vibe with this. I think there are definitely people who would love this, it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles.
I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

It was very interesting, parts of it espesially the end felt rushed. But the red threads came together and i did like how it ended.

This book was not for me. I loved the idea of this book and how it fit perfectly into what I was looking for, but the execution and writing didn't work for me. On top of that, I felt like it was all so fast... When any issue happened, it was resolved as quick as it started. There wasn't enough substance in this for me. It just didn't flow and I DNF.

i will admit, the beginning didn't start off on the right footing. my mood was kind of dragged down by how fast everything in the first few chapters went, but what made up for that were the world building and the lore. its shining beacon was the character development. i'm glad i hung on till the end, because Kaelyn is a heroine you'll love. sure, she started off as a lovesick (reeeally hormonal) teenager, but as the story advanced on, she took up her mantel and stepped into the role she was meant to play. WARRIOR QUEEN MATERIAL, Y'ALL.

the world in this book... is truly one of the most unique i've come across in a while. it blends high tech futurism (i'm a sucker for that) with mystical folklore, teeming with spirits and otherworldly realms that make the metaphorical ribbon on top of a gift box.
i'd love to visit it again, and i'm hoping for a sequel!

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this book!

I tried really hard to get into this and just could not do it. The world building was really good at times! However, I found myself thinking "oh how convenient" many, many times, and the love triangle really annoyed me. This had a lot of potential, it just was not it for me.

This book starts out with the characters in love. That's very unusual, and didn't really work here. If a book is going to be built on a character's problematic love affair, we want to know how they fell in love - we need that story to be invested. The world building was lacking as well. I wasn't a huge fan, but it was ok.

Based on the summary, I thought this book had promise. Unfortunately, the writing was really bad though. The voice was in first person and honestly felt like a thirteen year old girl. It was juvenile and stilted throughout. The characters were very underdeveloped. Kaelyn was whiny and annoying and Roki was condescending and pompous. I kept reading and finding myself cringing through it. I seriously can't think of a single positive thing to say....I really like to give the benefit of the doubt, especially when I assume it may be an author's debut novel, but this one I seriously can't find any redeeming qualities in. Boring plot, annoying characters, subpar writing, bad grammar....it's just a no from me.

Sadly I DNF'ed this book. I wanted to enjoy it and I tried every night for a month to get into it and persevere but I just couldn’t do it! The writing was stilted and clunky, the character development was lacking and the world building sadly left a lot to be desired.

The main character is 15 at the beginning of the book and I can understand why she comes across as a bit of an infatuated selfish child, but it skips forward to her as a 19 year old and I honestly can’t see any difference in her. It’s frustrating! I also struggled with how much the author tells us things rather than shows us, I think that’s partly why it felt immature.

On a positive note, I thought the way that royalty are chosen was an interesting concept. There’s a love triangle (always a thumbs up from me) and who doesn’t love the noblewoman falling for a commoner trope?!

I thought the premise had so much potential but the execution needed more work. I hate giving a review when I haven’t even finished a book but I just couldn’t bring myself to read beyond 35%.

If I pick it up again in the future and manage to read more I will amend my review accordingly, but thank you to NetGalley and Literally PR Limited for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting read. I'm going with a 3.5 star rating. This was an interesting read, but I felt the pacing was extremely quick. The writing kept me intrigued and the concept of Min and Crown of Crowns kept me wanting to know more

Kaelyn is a noblewoman who is not interested in the wealth or being locked in a gilded cage. She wants to experience life and be among the people. I enjoyed her drive and boldness to continue despite all the craziness that happened. She was truly a queen to be desired. Her hard-work, love for the people and resolve were all amazing. She was a powerful character.

Roki is commoner or so he plays the part. He is much more than that which shocked me. I enjoyed him because he was never fake about his desires and wants for the world. Roki was amazing.

Zawne was at first a cool guy, but he eventually pissed me off. I still don't know if I should feel sorry for him. He irritated me a lot. I hope he matures in the sequel.

The romances were quick and interesting. I adored Kaelyn with Roki! They were so adorable together. They were made for one another. As for Kaelyn and Zawne I disliked it lol. Zawne was just too much of douche for me to care about their romance. It all felt forced.

Lordin was aggravating along with her mother. Two peas in pod, twisted villains. I really hope Lordin does not get her way -- I need Kaelyn to get her good!

Overall, I do plan to continue on reading the sequel, Godly Sins, when it comes out because I'm intrigued by the world of the Min, Kaelyn and Roki.

I don't think that NetGalley will format this review as a spoiler, so be forewarned. Do not read this review if you do not want to be significantly spoiled.




ARC from NetGalley

Eh. This is a mesh of sci fi and fantasy that I didn't particularly care for. There are far too many plot holes. Lordin was so fucking obviously corrupt. The author spent so much time building her up as this embodiment of moral perfection, how could she not be awful? Then the MC is confronted by her and shown images of Roki "cheating on her," and everything went downhill from there for me.

For starters, you're married. He owes you nothing in that regard. As the book continues, it becomes more and more blatantly obvious, but the MC clings to her delusion that Roki is bad and Lordin couldn't possibly be lying. She doesn't even entertain the idea. It was so fucking ridiculous that it made me angry. I anger-read the rest of the book.

Complaint: Grucken and Gurnot are too similar and I got them confused for approximately 70% of the book. Was there not another name that was not within 1 letter's length and with the first 3 letters being the same?

I'll end this review with a choice quote:
"There was a frying pan on the cooker. It was red hot. He picked it up, grabbed a hunk of my hair, and pressed the hot pan against the side of my face. 'Yeo-o-o-ow!"

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book in return for an honest review and thank you to the publisher for sending me a physical copy.

Sadly I DNF'ed this book as I just could not get into it as the plot just didn't interest me no matter how far I read into it. It didn't feel like it was for me but I will try it again at another time and hopefully I will be able to read it all and enjoy it.

I will give it a 1 star rating as I couldn't finish, the star rating will be changed accordingly if I read it again.

Crown of Crowns was an enjoyable YA fantasy SciFi. The plot was creatively done and original. Though the book felt a bit rushed during the first few chapters the story eventually found its pace and began to really build on the world, the politics, and the characters. One of the real attractions in this story is the unique way of how royalty is chosen, and the magical world behind that.
By the end of the book you will definitely be hoping for a sequel.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me an ARC and to the publisher for kindly sending me a paperback and inviting me to join the blog tour.

This is a story about a noblewoman named Kaelyn that lives in a futuristic setting, where kings and queens are chosen by a powerful force called The Crown of Crowns.

This was such a fast-paced story, perfect for people that are starting to read fantasy books!
A lot goes on in this book. There’s love, and action, and vengeance. I have to say, everything that happened in this story was so interesting, that I needed to know more about all of it. So, I’d probably would have liked a little bit of deeper descriptions of the world itself. But still, the story is so addictive and fast, that is easy to get used to the new elements.

About the characters, I loved Kaelyn and hated her sometimes. But I really liked the way she gets more and more mature as time pass. I actually like Lordin lol. I can’t say much about her character because, you know, spoiler, but I have a weakness for this kind of characters. I also really like Roki, mostly at the end, he was so lovely. Also, there’s this Min girl we don’t even know her name in the story, she just appears for one scene, but I NEED to know more about her, I just felt so intrigued.

The Min thing: chef kiss. I love that concept, the powers, the immortality, wow I need to know more about them, and the ending left me even more intrigued. It kind of reminded me of this show Travelers a little bit at the beginning.

The plot twists at the end were great, they were like, you thought you knew everything? I don’t think so, honey. But my favorite was obviously Nnati’s, I did NOT see that coming. I also really liked seeing Lordin’s past and Zawne’s story of how he became an Aska.

I’m pretty sure, judging by the ending, that there’s gonna be a second book, and I’m really excited to know more about the world building and about Roki and Kaelyn!

Thanks to Netgalley and Literally PR for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review

#CrownOfCrowns #UKYA #YoungTeen #ClaraLoveman #YABooks #WeNeedDiverseBooks

This book was an enjoyable read! I really appreciate the publishers sending me a copy for their book tour, too!

I loved the plot and characters in this book and have already recommend it to a few friends!

I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately I felt that it wasn’t for me.
There were some things I really liked about it. For example, the main character has two love interests without it being a love triangle, and without it being too predictable with regards to who she would end up with by the end. I really liked that uniqueness to it, because typically we see too many love triangles, especially ones where we know which one the main character will end up with.
Also, there were aspects of the world building that were well thought-out, and introduced to us in a way that showed us what different things were without over-explaining it. There is a lot of advanced technology in this book that was well-written & trusts the reader to figure out what it is.

However, I ended up not enjoying this book as much as I had hoped to. The first couple of chapters were probably the weakest part, because they do have some over-explaining in dialogue just so that the reader will understand something that’s going on. Then in just the first 50 pages, a horrible event happens, it’s suddenly a year later, then another horrible thing happens, and then it’s suddenly 2 years later again. I’m personally not a fan of turning the page & seeing “then, one year later...”

After that, the story does really pick up and get interesting, but one thing was still missing: character depth.
I found it very hard to connect to any of the characters, because no matter how much time we spend with them, we’re not given anything that defines their personalities. We know what things they care about or are interested in, but that’s it.
So when someone does something that wasn’t expected, it isn’t even seen as in character or out of character. And the romance subplots in the story don’t have any chemistry. In fact, most of the time the main character spends with the person she’s married to, all we hear from her point of view is how much she wants to feel his muscles. No actual depth to the attraction at all.
The most interesting character in the book is the main character’s best friend, whose personality we actually see the most. Also, he is gay & there appears to be no homophobia in the world of the story, which is great.

So it’s not that there was anything bad or offensive about this book. It just had too much that felt bland and didn’t make me care about what happened. The middle of the story got so much better, and I thought I’d at least be giving this 3 stars, but it ended up really dragging after that, mostly due to the lack of character depth throughout.

This has been such a good read! The way the main protagonist grows from a childish, naive 15 year old to a strong-minded woman is such a nice development. I love how she chooses her heart over the strict policies that may not be the most humane. The world is so unique and futuristic, the plottwists were always unexpected and everything fit so well together at the end. I love how well written all of the characters were. The only thing I wasn’t a huge fan of, was the love being too overwhelming at times. I’m in general not a huge insta-love fan, so that’s just on me. Once you get over the loveydovey fact, you’re good to go. This is such a strong debut book and I can’t wait to see more of Clara Loveman.

2.5 stars
I had such high hopes for Crown of Crowns, yes the noblewoman falling for a commoner is anything but knew but who doesn’t love a cliché? Unfortunately, the plot and character just did not ring with me. Our heroine (Kaelyn) could be so annoying at times I can understand when she is 15 but the plot jumps in time and has her as a young woman but I found she was just as irritating, where was the growth that time gives us. The worldbuilding needed more explanation it honestly felt like a hodge podge of a book, maybe if the book was longer to afford the explanations we need when creating a whole new world. Overall Crown of Crowns has the potential to be a good fantasy read I found t needed a bit more polish to be a great one.

Crown of Crowns by Clara Loveman
Publication Date: August 11, 2020
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Description from NetGalley...
“By law, Kaelyn and Roki shouldn’t have anything in common. They shouldn’t even be friends. And whatever they do, they can never, ever fall in love.

Kaelyn, a young noblewoman, feels smothered under the harsh constraints of the Decens-Lenitas, the legal and moral code that governs the people of the Geniverd Kingdom. When she meets Roki, a handsome young man from the city with knowledge and aspirations beyond his status, Kaelyn realizes she’s not the only person trapped. She starts to question everything she thought she knew, including about the Gurnots, a group of anarchist rebels set on overthrowing the laws—people who the nobles have labelled as terrorists.

With the lives of all free people at stake, Kaelyn must uncover the truth—even if she risks her heart at every turn.”
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Thank you to @NetGalley @lovemanauthor for the digital ARC in return for my honest review.
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Thank you to @litpr2012 for inviting me to be a part of the book blog tour and for the copy of the book in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts...
This is a debut novel for Clara Loveman. The book is a mixture of dystopian, sci-fi and fantasy. This was impressive as the story was complex and intricately packed in a relatively quick-read book. That was one of the things I liked about the story: it moved right along and did not dwell too much on certain themes. Because of that, the mind’s eye was exercised as the world begins to form on the pages. Like any debut novel that was intended for a series, this first book provided a quick glimpse of the world and characters. I want to learn more about the world and seeing the characters developed further. The world Loveman created was so interesting. I am looking forward to the next book.