Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes

Summary:
Love, power, and magic collide with war in the second book of the Falling Kingdoms series

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

When the evil King 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 events that will forever change the face of this land, forcing Cleo the dethroned princess, Magnus the reluctant heir, Lucia the haunted sorceress, and Jonas the desperate rebel to take steps they never could have imagined. (from GoodReads)

Review:
I not a huge fan of high fantasy but Morgan Rhodes does such a great job world-building. Her story and writing is similar to that of G.R.R. Martin, though not quite as grand. I thought I would have trouble getting back into the plot because it's been a year since I was last in Mytica but it's very easy to get sucked back into these books.

I don't remember everything that happened in Falling Kingdoms but I know enough to enjoy the story. Morgan Rhodes employs the method of using different point-of-views which gives the reader a ton of information. There's a lot going on but it all connects back together which is nice.

I can tell that Morgan Rhodes is a fan of romance. Instead of focusing on the relationship between two characters as the primary romance, almost every character begins to have feelings for another person with whom they share page time. This is the worst with Cleo; almost every male character she encounters has some sort of romantic feelings for her (Theon in the last book and now Jonas, Magnus, Aron, and Nic). It's ridiculous! This prevents any of the relationships from developing meaningfully because there's several people waiting in the wings for their chance. That was the one flaw with this book.

Other than that, I really enjoyed the story and can't wait to see what happens in the rest of the series.

Rating: 8 out of 10.
FTC: borrowed from the library.

2013/Razorbill/416 pages.