Title: The Broken Crown
(Narrow Gate #1)
Author: Amryn Cross
Publication Date: May 23rd, 2016
Category/Genre: Young Adult Fantasy/Adventure
Princess
Emilia Aurelius was only seven when she watched her mother die at the hands of
her father—martyred for believing in the God of the Atlas Empire’s Insurgo
rebels. At seventeen, exiled to a military outpost where no one knows her true
identity, she’s vowed to leave her royalty behind and explore the truth of the
Insurgo rebels her mother loved.
When the Emperor of Atlas summons the princesses from each of the provinces to
the imperial city to choose a wife for the crown prince, Emilia must leave her
military life behind to join a royal court rife with cunning and intrigue.
Navigating the waters of court politics and budding love are treacherous on
their own, but Emilia fears for her life should anyone learn of her Insurgo
sympathies.
With an unlikely ally in the captain of the emperor's guard, Emilia must
uncover the truth of the Insurgos, start a revolution, and learn to become the
princess she’s vowed never to be, all while protecting her heart from a prince
who could sign her death warrant.
A tomboy with southern belle
roots, Amryn Cross was born and raised in Tennessee where she learned the
importance of God, family, Southern hospitality, and football. She’s loved the
written word from the time she was a child, convinced the squiggly lines on top
of the Hostess cupcake really spelled out a secret message.
Amryn is a proud momma to two
adorable puppies–Argo and Luna–who provide lots of laughs and kisses. She is
also an active member of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and My
Book Therapy (MBT) and answers writers’ forensic questions at Jordyn Redwood’s Medical Edge blog.
- I would:
- Befriend: Emilia
- Go out on a date & kiss: Felix
- Take to a desert island and leave behind: Ronan's father -- and maybe Ronan, too. Sorry, I like you, but I blame the love triangle
- Change into a vampire so we can be young together & forever: My baby Felix.
4.5 “I
will go down with this ship” STARS
For
you, dear friend, who is old enough to remember “White Flag” by Dido, I bet
that song is playing in your head right now. Well, it played in mine
repeatedly while I was reading all about my new fave YA Fantasy ship, Emelix,
or is it Femilia? Ship names, here I come.
So, in
case you’re wondering, no... “The Broken Crown” isn’t a YA Romance, but that
didn’t keep me from falling down that hole when I met Felix!
Anyway…
It
might not seem like it from the way this review started, but “The Broken Crown”
is a story about faith, a beautiful one. While I fell in love with the romance
subplot, it was just that, a subplot. The main conflict in this novel revolves
around faith.
Emilia,
the MC, is a princess in a world where Insurgos (Christians) are hunted and
killed because of their faith.
As a
young girl, Emilia had to watch her mother’s execution because, despite being a
queen, her mom was considered a threat to the Empire due to her belief. Emilia
got the message loud and clear: no matter how powerful you were, if you were
caught praying or talking about/to God, you’d die. Her father understood that,
too. Fearing the queen’s influence, he sent Emilia away to a military outpost
where she lived for years, hiding her true identity and learning how to become
a warrior.
During
those years, Emilia met an Insurgo man who taught her what he knew about the
Aletheia (the Bible). The Insurgos’ sacred book had been burned by all the
kings throughout the years, so all the Insurgos had were words they had
memorized and passed from one person to the next.
When we
meet Emilia again after the opening chapter with her mother’s execution, this
Insurgo friend is risking his life to deliver a message. Before she’s forced to
kill him by her military peers, Emilia is told God has big plans for her and
their people. Not long after, she’s summoned by the Emperor (and here is where
we meet Felix) along
with the other princesses to take part in a “The Selection” type of thing –
they’ll all compete to win the crown prince’s heart. Emilia sees this as the
perfect opportunity to put God’s plan to work. If she marries the crown prince,
she’ll have the influence she needs to stop the executions and allow her people
to have their faith.
I don’t know how good of a plan that is since it doesn’t look like women had a lot of influence in that world, but desperate times calls for desperate measures. And Emilia was desperate. Desperate enough to risk everything, including her life, so she could put an end to her people’s misery and gain them their freedom back. Well, that’s a plan I can get behind.
I don’t know how good of a plan that is since it doesn’t look like women had a lot of influence in that world, but desperate times calls for desperate measures. And Emilia was desperate. Desperate enough to risk everything, including her life, so she could put an end to her people’s misery and gain them their freedom back. Well, that’s a plan I can get behind.
I mean,
how could I not? A girl willing to fight for freedom is always a friend of mine.
Plus,
Emilia was super easy to like and root for. Maybe it was because I could relate
to her faith; or because despite being a princess, she had endured life in a
military base with no comfort or luxury and didn’t seem to mind it all; or because
she didn’t depend on other people to get things done, she did it herself; or
because she gave her crown to free a slave; or many of the other things she did
throughout the story that proved she was not a shallow, selfish MC. She cared.
She believed. She acted. She was badass and I loved it.
Emilia made it easy to like her.
You
know who else was easy to love? Felix. Yeah, here I go again, but I have to.
Felix was the dark and brooding love interest without being the typical dark
and brooding love interest. I loved him from the start. I loved everything
about him. How he respected Emilia. How he clearly cared for the crown prince.
How he fought his feelings for Emilia out of respect for his friend. How he was
tortured by what he called his cowardice not to fight as openly for his faith
as Emilia did. How he ended up fighting after all.
Felix and
Emilia were great as individuals. Amazing as friends. Perfect as my OTP.
I went on
an emotional rollercoaster watching Emilia and Felix go from strangers to allies
to friends to something more. This is pretty much how it went:
20% – Kindle
note: Shipping them so hard and ready for
the heartbreak
26% – Kindle
note: My heart can barely take this.
41% - Kindle
note: Nooooo. This isn’t my baby Felix.
Noooo.
47% – Kindle
note: My heart!!! Why can’t she see him
the way I do? *cries*
55% – Kindle
note: Finally, Emilia. Finally.
68% – Kindle
note: Stop breaking my heart.
72% – Kindle
note: I will go down with this ship.
82% – Kindle
note: Is this about Felix? OMG, OMG. Stop
playing with my heart.
89% – Kindle
note: Yesssss. OMG OMG OMG. YESSSSS.
95% – Kindle
note: My ship!! *proud mamma feelings*
98% – Kindle
note: My babbbyyyyyy *holds him*
99% – Kindle
note: My OTP! But why must you make me suffer this much?
You
know what didn’t help? The writer making Ronan, the crown prince, so hard to
hate. Why did he have to be a decent person? Ugh. So frustrating. Just kidding
(not really). I wanted to hate Ronan – trust me, I didn’t want anyone
threatening my OTP --, but Ronan didn’t make it easy on me. He wasn’t perfect,
but even his imperfection worked in his favor. So, yeah, this love triangle will
be the end of me.
Something
else I really enjoyed about this book was the writing.
“All the things they said are true, and truth
is sharper than any lie and cutes twice as deep.”
So
beautiful, huh?
Unlike
what happened recently when I was reading a bestseller, I didn’t catch myself
editing this story in my head and wishing it had gone through another round
before publication. The writing kept me engaged, the first person POV was well
done, the pacing was on and the characters were extremely likable.
Whether
you normally read religion-focused books or not, I’d give “The Broken Crown” a
chance. It has everything and a little more (*coughs* Emelix *coughs*) to keep you entertained
from the start and wishing for more in the end. I’m still not over the fact
that I’ll have to wait until 2017 to have more of my OTP. Why, Amryn Cross,
why?
*Organized by:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment