Rebel Spring (Falling Kingdoms, #2) by Morgan Rhodes, Michelle Rowen

Rebel Spring (Falling Kingdoms, #2)

by Morgan Rhodes, Michelle Rowen

3 stars

Ummmmm... what? That’s basically a summary of my thoughts throughout this book. Never has something been more weird or genuinely befuddling than this.

The portrayal of Magnus’ character has gotten even more confusing. At first the author kinda wanted us to think he was bad, and then it slowly turns into a troubled young man who was ultimately good. I don’t get why there was a sudden role-swap between him and Lucia, and I didn’t really like it at first, but this twist is kinda growing on me. (And what’s up with the ending? Are they both going to be good? I can’t make up my mind about them.) This novel is managing to change my first impression of every character constantly (which is generally great), but for some reason these books have made me feel horrible for the first 80% and then they suddenly get amazingly good, which is very frustrating. However, I am in a historical fantasy state of mind, and this is helping to scratch the itch.

But there are many more shortcomings with this novel:

1. The trying way too hard to be politically correct:

“Ivan looked at her with disgust. “What do you know? You’re just a girl. Your opinion’s meaningless. You should be cooking our dinners, not fighting beside us.”

2. The sudden shift in the romance axis: Why did suddenly go from Cleo-Jonas to Cleo-Magnus? What makes especially no sense besides this is that a Cleo-Jonas thing was hinted in the first place, seeing as there was virtually no Cleo-Jonas thing in the first place.

3. This (What?):

“Ashur took his face between his hands and kissed him.

Nic stood there, frozen in place.

This was not what he’d expected. At all.”

Well, me neither! What’s up with this?? Like, really, what is up with this??? I know this comment may come off a bit wrong, but that is absolutely not the case. This event appears completely out of the blue: Nic’s a character that has never shown, or hinted (or anything) that he might be gay, or have any romantic or sexual feelings for anyone except Cleo, let alone a man (a fact which is made to seem ‘scandalous’ in this context). And when I say never, I really do mean never (believe me, I would know; I’m like a hound on a scent when it comes to potential romance in books).

4. Almost everything else.

And yet, I kinda wanna know what happens next (I must unconsciously like it or something); so here I come, torture I do not want to go through again. Let’s hope next time you make a little bit more sense.