Title: The Prince’s Poisoned Vow
Series: Infernal War Saga: Book One
Author: Hailey Turner
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 646 Pages
Category: Fantasy
Rating: 3 Stars
At a Glance: I know one of the most useless things a reader can say in a review is, “I really wanted to love this book.” Intention and outcome with something so subjective as love of a book aren’t compatible. I can say with all honesty there are many things I found compelling about this world, and there are four characters I grew to like quite a lot—out of a whopping fourteen points of view—but even that wasn’t enough to sustain my interest from start to finish.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: THE WARDEN. Soren is a nameless, stateless man, tasked with keeping watch over Maricol’s borders. He isn’t meant for politics, only dealing with the dead. His past was buried in the poison fields, but after a fateful encounter with a prince, Soren comes to realize he can’t keep what magic burns inside him hidden forever.
THE PRINCE. Vanya Sa’Liandel was the spare who survived the Houses’ murderous games to become the Imperial crown prince of Solaria. He has a duty to his country, but he’ll owe his life to the wardens. Payment of any kind is costly, especially when he’s at risk of losing his heart to the man who saved his life.
THE COG. Caris Dhemlan hears the siren song of clarion crystals better than anyone in Ashion. That skill for inventing has enriched her bloodline, but it’s who she can become that will ultimately entangle her with the Clockwork Brigade.
THE PRINCESS. Eimarille Rourke should have been raised to be queen of one country; instead, she is prisoner of another. Guided by a star god, Eimarille bides her time in a gilded cage, spinning a political web to gain a throne and start a war the world isn’t ready for.
Review: Hailey Turner’s readers are no strangers to her intricate world-building and the multi-layered intrigues woven through her series. She is one of the best at teasing out complex story arcs and animating the imagination while doing it. This world may very well be her most ambitious turn yet, and whether readers connect with The Prince’s Poisoned Vow is dependent upon how you relate to the characters, the author’s vision, and the way this story is told.
This is an absolute behemoth of a book, and the politics, the intrigue, the good vs. evil battle brewing between those who are pro-enslavement and those who are working undercover to free the enslaved and help them escape, are all tensely woven into a realm where the walking dead exist. And they not only exist, but these revenants are now multiplying much more rapidly than the environment should allow for. This all plays out against nefarious plots, characters who have been conditioned to survive the poison fields and their contaminants, characters with no magic as well as those who have been touched with starfire by the various gods who had a hand in who survived the Inferno that destroyed the reigning queen and, purportedly, her only daughter and heir to the throne.
A battle for that throne and ultimate rule is now brewing. Who will prevail and who will not survive remains to be seen.
The Prince’s Poisoned Vow is told from no fewer than fourteen different points of view. As a parasitic reader, someone who gloms onto a character and draws everything from and through them like a leech, this storytelling mode was a study in frustration. I don’t even necessarily need to like that character, but I do need to make a connection to them. No sooner had I found my character (in this case, it was more than one but far fewer than fourteen) and was consumed with what was happening to them and around them than a new chapter with a new narrator began, and rather than being involved in and absorbed by that character’s narrative, I longed for nothing more than to get back to those I wanted to spend more time with. This also served to make certain details of the world-building feel repetitive, as some of these characters’ lives and stories and their function in the world overlap.
I know one of the most useless things a reader can say in a review is, “I really wanted to love this book.” Intention and outcome with something so subjective as love of a book aren’t compatible. I can say with all honesty there are many things I found compelling about this world, and there are four characters I grew to like quite a lot, but even that wasn’t enough to sustain my overall interest. I’m hopeful that since The Prince’s Poisoned Vow hefted so much of the world-building burden, book two will allow for the fast-paced action and suspense to unfold in the exciting and dramatic ways I’m familiar with from Hailey Turner.
You can buy The Prince’s Poisoned Vow here:
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