Title: The Throne of Honor and Blood
Author: J. Bree
Series: "Mortal Fates" #2
Genre: NA Fantasy Romance
Page Length: 683 pages
Publication Date: May 19, 2024
Rating: 4 // 5 stars
The Throne of Honor and Blood was one of my most anticipated releases of the year. The first book, A Crown of Oaths and Curses, was in my top reads of 2023. I hadn't stopped thinking about it since I finished it and I was endlessly looking for updates on when the sequel would come. Finally, after a somewhat difficult release month for J. Bree, it finally arrived!
I read this book over the course of two days and I could barely put it down. I was so excited to be back with these characters and in this world. I absolutely could not stop thinking about it anytime I had to do something like work or eat food or brush my teeth. I was addicted.
That being said, I do feel some disappointment in this book as a follow-up to Oaths and Curses. The first book was such a strong, amazing story. While I loved this book, a lot of that comes from the fact that I already loved the characters after the first book and was just happy to be with them again. From the standpoint of personal enjoyment, this book was five stars to me. But, unfortunately, some of the issues with it were too much objectively for me to be able to rate it that.
What it really boils down to, for me, is that this feels like a very disjointed story akin to a first draft. I know that J. Bree did a re-edit for sensitivity reasons in the last couple months before it finally releases and, while I don't know what the original text was like, this did not feel like a fully edited book ready for release. I do believe that she might have been under stress from readers and put it out before she was ready.
There were glaringly obvious mistakes like switching between first and third person multiple times in the same page. And then there were the plot turns that felt out of the blue and completely wrong for the story. Maybe the plot changed as she wrote, maybe not, but I do know that it often felt disjointed.
I will say, despite issues with it, I still loved it. It's still a series I love. And my hope would be that J. Bree would take the time needed to write an absolutely stellar third book even if it takes longer to do so. She's one of my auto-buy authors and I did love this book, even though I have complicated feelings around some of the larger issues with it.
Thanks for reading!
xoxo
Lauren
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