Shadow Crown

Shadow Crown #1

by Kristen Martin

For most people, the act of killing is intangible. Unfathomable.

But not for seventeen-year-old Arden Eliri.

Having been involved in Cruex assassination attempts as a mere child, killing is a natural disposition for her. Growing up without parents, in a castle ruled by an iron-fisted king, is the furthest thing from a fairy tale, as is being forced into the Cruex, the king's group of hand-selected assassins. But with each passing year, she comes to enjoy the act of killing more and more.

Kill or be killed--she chooses the former.

A decade ago, King Darius Tymond banished The Caldari--those who practice illusiE, or old magick--from Trendalath Kingdom, ensuring that no Caldari will ever step foot in his kingdom again. But Arden discovers otherwise after a dual-assigned mission goes horribly awry. Even more startling, she discovers that she may have more in common with the Caldari than she's been led to believe.

Arden wants to trust that King Tymond's intentions are pure, but as their pasts collide in unexpected ways, the quicker she realizes the consequences and dangers of his reign. But Arden is also hiding something--something that threatens her very existence--and she'll have to face her inner darkness and conquer it before it destroys her . . . and the kingdom she's come to call her home.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Ebooks, Romance

434 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2017

About the author

KRISTEN MARTIN is the International Amazon Bestselling Indie Author of THE ALPHA DRIVE trilogy and SHADOW CROWN series, the standalone novel BEYOND THE STARS AND SHADOWS, as well as nonfiction works, SOULFLOW and BE YOUR OWN #GOALS. She is also a writing coach, a YouTuber, a podcaster, and a full-time creative entrepreneur. Living in Southeast Texas with her husband and their six kids, she loves all things young adult, science fiction, and fantasy.

Kristen prides herself on helping aspiring authors reach their dreams of publication through her coaching program, Valiance. She loves connecting with other writers and readers, so be sure to reach out!

Stay connected on:
Instagram @authorkristenmartin
YouTube /authorkristenmartinbooks
Facebook /authorkristenmartin
Pinterest @authorkristenm

Fanmail Address:
Kristen Martin
P.O. Box 1151
Fulshear, TX 77441

Reviews

[Elke · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dreadful. Absolutely dreadful. For all the reasons mentioned by other readers on this platform. I am flabbergasted at the low quality of this book. I've watched quite a few of Kristen's "writing advice" videos (which, to be honest, at this stage are reminiscent of a home shopping channel with all the advertising and mediocre content) and it's blatantly obvious that she herself does not understand what she is preaching (at least as far as writing fiction is concerned).

Frankly, it's quite audacious to offer a first chapter critique service at 65 USD a pop and then throw a book onto the market whose only merit is that it provides you with plenty of reasons to finally have that afternoon of first doing your ironing and then visiting the dentist to have root canal.

I will not mince my words: the woman can't write. End of story (I refuse to put it into nicer terms). She's neither sufficiently talented to create a story that will hold the reader's attention nor does has she have a grasp of the English written language (couple of examples below). She also does not seem to care about providing quality. This book can't have been edited by a professional. Not in a million years."

Example number 1:
"I try not to shuffle back and forth between my feet." (page 1).
When I read this one, I felt compelled to consult my books on Human Biology, just in case there are any extremities between my feet with which I can shuffle, and which, hitherto, I've failed to notice.

Example number 2:
"I loose the breath, I've been holding."
Really? Loose, as in loose woman? Rather embarrassing, wouldn't you agree?
And you loose the breath, you've been holding, not the other one, the one that's off in the kitchen cooking dinner?

Example 3 (a metaphorical gem):
"silent shouts of victory ring in his ears". Back to consulting my Human Biology books again. Would now be a good time to talk to you about the Cochlea?

And so it continues. I'll be honest, I didn't read the book to the end. I'd borrowed it via Kindle Unlimited and sent it back on its merry way at the 23% mark. Life's too short.

One thing I did learn: it really is all about the "hustle" and the "pitch", isn't it? This lady did an excellent job "selling" herself on Youtube, problem is: readers are not dumb. It's the product that counts, in the end. This lady is not an international bestselling author and she's not a good writer.

My advice to Miss Martin: don't give up your day job. Stick to what you know i.e. "hustling" (in "the corporate world").
My advice to Youtube watchers: enjoy the vids just like you would watching the Kardashians, but don't waste your money on her books/writing advice.

[Rune · Rating 1 out of 5]

Edit: WARNING: this is unedited because KM doesn't deserve anymore of my time. Also my original review was too long for goodreads. It was at 4.5k.

You can’t really review this work as a piece of work anymore. Plenty of people have done it. What I want to know is where the hell this series is going to go. So here’s some thoughts before I inevitably read Renegade Cruex.
Which is what I would have said if I actually bothered to finish the book.
Here’s a long story about why I hate this thing and why I stopped reading.

The Discovery:
Shadow Crown is the reason I know Kristen Martin exists. I was watching that sequels are hard video by Kim Chance and I saw the cover and immediately went, “What is that book it’s beautiful”. I wandered off to KM’s channel, watched the release video and got a mix of “Okay, dark fantasy, assassins, tyrannical king, forbidden magic. This book sounds hella basic, but the cover is still hella beautiful.”
Then I went to goodreads because I’m one of those assholes who likes to read reviews and excerpts before actually purchasing anything or listening to anyone (I am a library person. I don’t have the money to spend on buying dozens and dozens of books). So I ended up on goodreads and saw very well written reviews by very level headed people about how bad this book was
Okay. Hello warning.
Here comes the preview. It was a joke.

(For some reason the online copy of the book that I have is from pages 0 – 646. I’m not sure if it’s bc of my phone or my copy but sadly that’s the page numbers I’m using)

The POVs:
Total chapters: 70
POVs
Arden Eliri: 20/70; 28.74% (appears chapter 1)
Rydan Helstrom: 16/70; 22.86% (appears chapter 2)
Darius Tymond: 12/70; 17.14% (appears chapter 4)
Cerylia Jareth: 11/70; 15.71% (appears chapter 7)
Braxton Hornsby: 11/70; 15.71% (appears chapter 18)

Quick Thoughts:
First off, Arden is in first person while the rest are third. I commend KM for trying present tense, but she clearly doesn’t have the diligence or the awareness to pull it off. Also third person present tense is hard, even with the diligence and the awareness.

Also, why are the chapters not numbered? That seems kind of stupid? It comes down to preference of course, but when you look at a table of contents and 20 chapters are called Arden Eliri you don’t know which Arden Eliri chapter you’re on.

Also, with the chapter break down I’ve done above it feels like the chapters might not be that uneven but considering how short the two monarch’s chapters are (or how long they are to be unbelievably boring) it becomes very obvious the story is unbalanced as most of the action clearly revolves around Arden and any other pov is the author trying to set up drama (By spelling it out so Arden can remain a bathroom tile and have everything come to her.)
What threw me off the most (and was the reason I decided to DNF, but we’ll get to that) was how late Braxton was introduced. Each of the previous characters get introduced a couple of chapters from each other. Braxton shows up nine chapters after the queen lady’s intro. He shows up 25.71% into the book. This is not when a new character POV should be popping up.
Actually, why even have headers to begin with? Cut Arden’s first person and just go through all the POVs in third (it will also amend the horrendous misuse of present tense because then everything can be in past.)
OH WAIT
That would require work and good characters.
I guess this leads us to –


The Characters:
I want to laugh but it hurts
Arden:
I believe that the moment you go into a book saying your character is a kickass assassin you’ve messed up. That is not a character. That is not a character trait. That isn’t even a description. What does that even mean? So she kills people, yeah? Well is she killing people bc she enjoys it? She’s forced to do it? She grew up doing it? How does she handle killing people? Why is she kickass? So she likes killing people? We do know that she’s killing PEOPLE right? (Also, by absolving your heroine of any guilt by saying the people she killed deserved it is a weak move. That is not grey, you just splashed her in the whitest paint you own.) I despise how shittily the whole “assassin” thing is handled. It’s like a short hand for actual character.
Clearly Arden doesn’t handle murder in a healthy manner considering she likes to reminisce about killing people. That is not strength. That’s actually really fucking creepy. But she’s an assassin so she’s cool with it. As a character she should be interacting with her occupation. She is KILLING PEOPLE. It’s hard for humans to kill each other. There’s cases where soldiers in wars will not shoot bc they don’t want to shoot at other people. It takes a certain type of person to kill people and be fine afterwards.
She literally says “Killing is my bread and butter, my very own road to ‘carpe diem’. And seize the day I shall” (32). What why stop. She enjoys murder, sees it as a way of living, and then has problems with killing people later even though it’s very clear she does not see any of these people as people.

Writers seem to miss the fact they need to have that “certain type of person” and jumps straight to “fuck yeah assassins”. That’s what I mean by a character is an assassin. Labeling your characters only harms them as you put limits on how they can grow through simple association.
Stop it.

Also stop calling them kickass. It’s like the Democratic Republic of North Korea. The more adjectives you add the shittier the actual noun is. They’re an assassin, stop modifying it (it’s like you’re trying to make up for something that’s lacking cough cough) (also yes I just compared Arden to North Korea. Deal with it)

Arden’s Powers:
Okay so I’m guessing it’s like…healing powers? But not only is it healing powers, it’s hella special healing powers. Cool. The problem is, her powers are so…underplayed? I’m not sure what the word is, but there’s like no oomph to the reveal or the use. She’s been like “omg I have powers” Like three times now.
Arden needs to have her big “holy shit” moment and then move on. How is she not mortified? Hasn’t she been raised to be disgusted by magic (Also, that also means Arden’s revulsion to the deaths of the Soames doesn’t make sense along with her freaking out bc she’s been killing people over magic (127). Here’s a brief summary:
Special special girl has special special powers and by the end of the book will be the most special special girl with the most special special powers. Thanks.

The Decapitated Heads:
What a horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible –
The decapitated heads of the Soames is handled so poorly it makes me want to kick someone in the face. Arden is so much of a “kickass assassin” there is no proper way to react to the decapitated heads bc there’s no character with feelings and thoughts that can react to it. You have this flat piece of cardboard you’re trying to glue to the situation and it’s not working. It doesn’t work. Here’s some of my stream of conscious while I was reading it:
-What the fuck. Why is the Soames shit so…ehhhhhhh. I’m glad this book is now glorifying the brutal murder of a family. I hate this so much. I was actually mildly okay with the fanfiction esque tone that reminds me of what I wrote at 14. Now I’m not. The characters are horrible people and I don’t think the author is even aware of what she did.
-Arden’s sudden breakdown over the Soames being magical (127) is painful to read. She’s been on 13 missions since the age of twelve and she knows the “evil” deeds the presumably 13 people she’s killed have done. What part of burning a village to the ground sounds like some magical magical people chilling? Why does she jump to the conclusion that magical magical people is not equal to people burning shit down, even though she should believe they are the same. Magic is supposed to be a crime. She should have been raised this way. I understand that this situation is different with the family but then are we just going to ignore how Rydan just decapitated someone? With his stupid ass longsword too!
-Shit, the boys still alive buts it’s totally cool that Rydan decapitated someone? Come on, give your character some backbone to their murders.
-Don’t gasp you dumbass, you just said you were capable of strange things (to Arden and her magical magical ness) (Also are we still ignoring the two decapitated heads lying around? Yes. Okay. Cool)
-Why the fuck is Arden picking up the two decapitated heads? Can’t she just leave them and dip? What’s she going to do with them? Eat them? This literally negates their death to nothing but emotional fodder for Arden. They could have not died and Rydan would still end up in jail. Fucking just chuck that bag of heads over your shoulder like a backpack Arden you goddamn weird ass creep
-Wait, what if Rydan brings the two decapitated bodies back? Like the king isn’t going to know. They’re still dead it’s not like he has photos of the Soames faces (though admittedly transporting decapitated bodies is a lot more obvious. But you’d assumed the heads wouldn’t exactly smell the best either)
-I’m very confused with how dust works in this world. It doesn’t collect overnight people in a soft cloud. Also, Arden just slept near the decapitated heads, she has some weird kinks (151).
-Blueberry bushes don’t have brambles. That’s a blackberry bush. Get it right. She’s wandering through the woods with TWO DECAPITATED HEADS. How is that not creepy and weird? How is that okay? Is this where we’ve reached on violence now? She’s a kickass assassin who apparently has feelings but is now holding the heads of the people she believes were wrongly murdered in a bag. Wonderful. Also Arden isnt’ going to start hallucinating over lack of water after an hour. Suck on your “blueberries” you dumbass. And she passed out. Stupid.
-annnnndddd she’s alert now bc of course she is.
-Pg. 163: This Estelle girl LAUGHS at the decapitated heads (Which is essentially a prop now for angst and this plot(?)) and says Arden will fit in just fine. No. That is not okay. That’s disgusting. They’re both crazy and I will not support them bc their characters clearly won’t be embracing any kind of brutality in any meaningful “she’s the hero” kind of way that will add to their characters. This is just disgusting how it’s handled so poorly. Bite me Arden. I’ll throw hands.
Yeah. So screw her. Moving on.


Rydan:
Who? What? When? Where? How?
Here’s just a couple things about why Rydan is…well, he’s just special isn’t he?
Rydan’s scar is his fault for getting distracted.
He’s an assassin why is he using a longsword when what we’ve seen of their job clearly requires stealth? Does he know how big a longsword is?
Arden shoved Rydan harder than she’s ever shoved anyone. Damn. That’s some hard shoving. (Yes, that’s how it was phrased)
Rydan kicked a rock and it hurt him with the strangest description of physical pain I’d ever seen.

Here’s my big question mark:
So Rydan believes he needs to run away like Arden bc he can’t go back to trendylaugh but doesn’t think he can assimilate into the island nation county city town place and will be hanged? I mean if you don’t tell people you used to kill then you won’t get hanged. Problem solved.
And then, because clearly Rydan doesn’t need character development and the choice that puts his loyalty into question isn’t surface level cool enough, a bunch soldiers from trendylaugh show up. Why? How does the king know that the mission went wrong already? It’s been like a day. Also I thought the island they were one is hard to get to. Also the island isn’t part of King Tymond’s country. He can’t just send guards there to terrorize people. It doesn’t work that way.
Also I wish Rydan would get his head chopped off because he clearly has no motivation to free himself. Why is he here? There’s no dynamic which adds any value. It’s all meaningless. Rydan is a waste of something that could have provided interesting contrast to Rydan. If it was a dual POV and some thought was put into what the bigger point of the story would be, this would’ve had potential.


King Darius Tymond:
No one cares. Here’s all you need to know: He exists to push the plot along and hand you information.

Queen Cerylia Jareth:
She sounds like she’s evil. And no one cares.

Braxton Hornsby:
His backstory is given away in an offhand comment destroying any sense of tension about a past.
He’s stupid like the rest of them (you don’t put your grain outside a shed where it can be ruined and eaten and rot. You have a shed. Put it in the goddamn shed).
He gets introduced 28% in. In a fashion so devoid from the rest of the “story” that it is so clear it is there because “WELL PLOT!!!”
The goddamn freshwater and saltwater fish garbage that I’ve been hissing about

That’s the characters moving on


Miscellaneous garbage:
Here’s some things that make me wanna die:
-Why does the dust in this world not follow…normal…dust…qualities? Like Arden wakes up in a forest and wallah, there’s dust coating her? From where? How long was she asleep?
-Blueberries and blackberries are two very, very separate berries. I don’t know if you’ve seen them, but I think if you’re going to write about your main character picking berries for pages and being all like “keeping me alive with my cool survival skills” you’d think you wouldn’t mix up blueberry and blackberry bushes? Please. Stop.
-Arden goes and tries to kill people in broad daylight because she is that good.
-“Thinking it’s probably a skunk that’s about to spray its goodness all over us (thanks to my loud ass)” (157)
-How is creating a time traveler not shooting yourself in the face
-Why do all the chapters end with some strange variation of “I thought it was great, but that would soon change”
-What is with the “oh boy” and “poor lad”. What a weird speech pattern for a 17-year-old
-“After years of dealing with men and their lack of showing emotion, I’ve learned to compartmentalize my own emotions in a hidden sector of my mind” (32). Wow. Thanks for that. I’m pretty sure your large generalization and stereotyping of men was appreciated.
-How is telling your assassins the exact location of your targets not giving them enough information?
-Military time. If this is medieval than the clocks are not digital. They’re analog (if there are even clocks at all)…and analog clocks go to twelve, not 24…


The Freshwater Saltwater Fish Debacle (and why the DNF):
Why is this a thing? Because I made it a thing. That’s why.
So I think some people have seen me WHINE about this before but here I am WHINING again.

So Braxton, in like his first couple chapters with the reader, goes on a tangent about how freshwater fish is better than saltwater fish. You see, it starts when he was a young boy and he goes and fishes a rainbow trout of the ocean and eats it. The rainbow trout is not very good, so he realizes that saltwater fish sucks. There’s two things wrong with this.

The less obvious one is the fact that the reason he does this is because his father (spoiler, not spoiler because it’s given away the moment you meet him), King Tymond, exclusively ate freshwater fish. So there’s nothing metaphorical about the stupid fish. Nothing is added. The saltwater freshwater divide isn’t some epic symbol of Braxton’s estrangement from his father. It’s just…there.

And then, not only was this entire fishing from the ocean lowkey flawed, rainbow trout is a freshwater fish.
Look it up on google. It’s the first result. Also, the trout that do live in the ocean (steelhead trout) spawn in freshwater (like salmon, and steelhead trout is a type of salmon) and compares “saltwater” rainbow trout to rotten salmon.
So technically Braxton could eat a steelhead trout (Which he isn’t, he’s eating a rainbow trout) from the ocean and one from the freshwater source and say…they taste different even though they’re the exact same fish…what is this garbage fish metaphor?

Then I stopped reading.

It was stupid. It was so mind numbing. I could not believe a section was devoted to this fish nonsense and it wasn’t even checked to be true. I couldn’t believe she forced in a fifth POV and this is what was added to the story. Nothing but drivel.

I want people to understand that Kristen Martin can’t teach you shit. Her Valiance thing? That’s like 2,000 or 3,000 dollars? You can buy yourself a ticket to Hawaii. Go to Hawaii.

The only writing courses I’ve ever done was a state wide art program over the summer in creative writing. I learned a lot about editing, but I also learned a lot of what I was provided there on my own. I learned about criticizing myself and what I read.

It’s just if you’re a writer and you read this book and say “Well if you read with a positive mindset then it was really good” or with any kind of “it’s just a book” mentality then you’re not reading for the right reasons.

I just think everyone should demand something from what they read.

I’ll leave with the reason I caved and read Shadow Crown.

The thing is, I’m was utterly fascinated with what would happen in Renegade Cruex. Shadow Crown is a weak start to a series. Based off the first chapter alone it is weak. How many books can KM pile on top of this until it collapses? Will the future books in the series ever manage to pull away from its predecessors? Will there be anything after this and how long do you think interest in Shadow Crown will last?

KM is clearly beginning to brand herself as a “creative entrepreneur” instead of a writer. I’ve heard this series is going to be 6-7 books. However, I don’t think this series can last past three, maybe four. If the writing doesn’t get better or the story doesn’t get better this series is screwed.

Once upon a time I might have seen this series for the laughs. For the fun. But I don’t think this is fun. I’m in a really volatile stage of my life right now. A lot of things are changing, but the one thing that remains grounded is my love for writing. This, this and everything that is going on around it, is soulless to me.

I’ve become disenfranchised by the authortube machine. Everyone says they can write. Everyone wants to write. It’s insane. Now give me some authortubers like Alexa Donne who clearly can. Give me people who have proved themselves. Because like it or not writing and how good you are may be subjective, but there are bars. And as writers we need to clear them.

There are standards and we can shout and scream about being artistic and like letting our creative juices flow and take over the world. I don’t give a crap if you self-publish or traditionally publish, if you write YA or Adult, if you like fantasy or contemporary and all the shades of grey in between.

There’s no two ways about it. There’s so much we can learn about being writers and everyone will be at different stages. But don’t be soulless.

Love what you do. Love it with everything you have and be proud of yourself. I don’t know who’s reading this, but I’m proud of you. Do what will put a smile on your face, what makes the hard times better.

Go. Write. Be free.

And don’t forget to be aware enough to not write and publish something like this.




ALSO BECAUSE I CLEARLY NEED TO STOP BEING WEIIIRRRRDDDD:
I’m also not editing this 3.5k review because
a. no one will read it
b. I don’t care anymore.

I’m tired of this horse shit and I don’t have any time for it.
Bye :)

[Maddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this absolutely impossible to put down! The way all the characters were connected in some way was amazing, and how one or two characters worked to link the four different plot threads going on was extremely well done. I can tell there's so much potential with the world and the characters now that they've discovered who they are and what's really going on in their society, and can't wait for the next book to find out what happens next.

This also works really well as a beginner's book for dark/high fantasy, like that of Sarah J Maas and Leigh Bardugo. If it's not your usual genre, like me, then 'Shadow Crown' is perfect because that's a lot going on but never so much that it gets confusing, and introduces you to the tropes of the genre too.

I'll definitely be reading Kristen's other books soon.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I follow the author on youtube and she is really good at marketing and producing video content.
Overall a sweet woman.
I ordered this book from abroad trusting her as a writer (so not only I have paid the book but also the expedition of it to my country - about 30 euros!!!).
I really trusted her and not only i wasted money but also I got so angry and offended.
How can she call herself a bestselling author when she barely can write? How can she offer OVERLY EXPENSIVE WRITING SERVICES - not to talk about the cost of Valiance which it's just ridiculous - and again she doesn't even edit her manuscript before printing it out!
If I were her I wouldn't be proud at all. She totally broke the trust I had in her (I've been a follower for a long time) and stole my money!
The only thing she has to learn from this flop novel is that she has to be more RESPONSIBLE for the stuff she publish because people not only invest expectations on it but also MONEY.

Very smart. She is so good at marketing herself that people would still pay and trust her writing advises when not only she demonstrated to have no talent (at least not yet. She can ONLY get better and I hope she will!) but also she's not entitled to give paid classes at all - since writing is STILL her hobby and not a full-time successful career.
When or where did she study first of all?
What's her curriculum apart from self-publishing?
People who can give paid classes are people who are fully entitled to do so.
She has no right to make them so expensive in my opinion.
To me, a program like VALIANCE - supported by a novel like SHADOW CROWN - is a good way to steal money from people.
No sane person would pay someone who is not able to write (facts speak for now) to be thought how to write!

[Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been following Kristen's channel for a while, and was desperate to read one of her books, and 'Shadow Crown' sounded like something I'd love!

It was a great introduction to the characters and set the tone for the rest of the series. I was a little confused by Arden's chapters being in first person and everyone else being in third, and I feel like Arden moved very quickly through her emotions, but I still really enjoyed it. It's fast paced, with so many things going for it, and overall felt like a splicing of 'Throne of Glass' and 'The Young Elites'.

I'm really looking forward to the sequel and the rest of the world building!

[Kiyahnah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was fooled y’all.

The cover to this book is freaking beautiful and I really love the author. I started watching her Authortube channel back when I first started working on my current WIP. She is an indie author, has a podcast, works in the coporate world, and a whole bunch of other things. She has self-published 4 books and they have all made the best sellers list on Amazon. Needless to say I was really excited to finally pick up one of her books.

In a sitution like this it’s really hard to seperate the author from the book. The author has this writing program she offers for 2000$ and after reading her fourth, not debut, novel I don’t feel like she is qualified to ask for peoples money to give them any type of writing advice.

Let’s get into the actual review so you guys can understand some of why I am saying that.

Shadow Crown follows our main character Arden who is an assassin for the king. She is 1 out of 5 of the kings assassins known as the Creux. The king sends her on a mission with another assassin named Rydan and the mission basically goes awry. Arden finds out why the king wants these people dead and doesn’t agree so she runs away and leaves Rydan, supposedly one of her best friends??, to take the fall for the misson not being completed because he thought they should complete it.

Honestly, the plot wasn’t really there??? I didn’t feel like there was a overall plot or something we were trying to reach. Things would just happened and it was kind of like ‘oh, that’s what we are doing now? okay.’.

My first problem I had with this book is ALL OF THE FREAKING GRAMMATICAL ERRORS!!! Y’all, I’m no one to talk because I suck at spelling and over use commas, BUT I’m not charging people 2000$ for my writing workshop where I offer editing advice/services.

When I noticed the first mistake I ignored it, a lot of self-published authors can’t always afford to pay thousands for a professional editor so I’m not too harsh. But, the errors started to just slap me in the face and I couldn’t focus on anything else. There was one point in the book when one of the characters said, ‘make ends MEAT’ MEAT MEAT MEAT!!! Not meet but meat like freaking chicken. I can see myself making a mistake like this when I am in the writing zone, but there were so many mistakes like this that I started to wonder if she just skim read through her manuscript after finishing it. If she paid someone to edit this for her, she should asks for her money back. If she edited herself then I don’t think she should be charging anyone anything for her editing advice/services.

My next problem was with all of the different POVs. Arden’s POV was first person, but then we got 5 other POVs in third person. By making Arden’s POV first person you would think she is our main character and we are supposed to connect with her which is why she is first person. Nope. We barely spend any time in Arden’s head because of all the different POVs. She wasn’t really fleshed out (none of the characters really were), she had little to no backstory, and she just overall didn’t make any sense???

Arden is suppose to be a badass asssassin, in fact the first time we meet her she is talking about her first kill. But the first time we go on a mission with her she suddenly has morals and feelings and feels bad about killing these people because she thinks the king doesn’t have a good reason for wanting them dead??? Her character is step up to be a loyal ruthless assassin, so I was confused when she switched up so quicky. I’m sure the king has had her kill other people who didn’t deserve it. I honestly felt no connection with her and the story would’ve been more or less the same without her in it, honestly.

All the characters kind of felt the same??? OH, the king is supposed to ruthless and rules his kingdom with an iron fist (literally says this in the synopsis) but people are constantly questioning him and talking back. AND HE DOES NOTHING ABOUT IT BESIDES GLARE AND SIGH.

Another one of the characters is essentially a shape-shifter. At the beginning of the book when he shifts there is no explanation as to what happens to his clothes. He shifts in front of people and no one says anything so I assume his clothes shift with him?? But then at the end of the book it’s like the author remembered that would be impossible??? The character shifts in front of another character and he is naked and it’s a whole deal, but I’m confused why that was never mentioned before. The author should’ve went back and fixed that small plot hole.

It also bothered me that the language didn’t match with the world. It’s a high fantasy world yet the main character uses words like “fur-parent” and “low-key” and “literally“. It just felt like she was trying to incorporate some of the way we talk today but didn’t fully commit to it??

I really could go on and on about this book but I won’t because I have other things I would like to do today. BASICALLY, this book could’ve been okay. But, it just felt lazy and not well thought out. I paid 7.99$ for this on kindle and its like 17.99$ for a paperback (name a bigger scam) and I feel really stupid for spending even that much on it. It feels like she just thought about what was popular (fantasy and assassins) and slapped a generic not well thought out plot and the generic badass female assassin down into a word document.

I won’t be buying/reading the next book in this series when it comes out, I don’t enjoy torturing myself.

I won’t say don’t read this book because I believe everyone should make their own opinions on things, but I’m also not going to recommend it.

Good day, y’all.

[Alwia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Spoilers-I was hesitant to post a 'negative' comment because I do follow Kristen on youtube and respect her hard work but there were just so many plot holes in the book. Like Xerin can shape shift to visit his sister but he can't use his powers to then break her out of prison. He supposedly knows everything but for years his sister has been dying to know where he is and he just decides to show up when she gets into trouble even though she too is Caldari. So why did he leave her to work in the palace all that time? Why didn't she summon the dragon to save her a long time ago?

Arden's mission is a category 8 and the king picks two assassins for the job even though the Soames are super weak and don't put up a real fight. Their kid watches his parents die then disappears when he could have disappeared right in the beginning. Instead of just killing them quickly Rydan wastes time double checking their identity AFTER breaking into the house. This didn't make sense.
Arden is supposed to be strong and dark but she doesn't do anything to highlight her skills as an assassin nor does she do anything dark. She just follows the Caldari and does some healing.

Rydan shows no disgust when Vira says the Caldari will save her but then when they save him he has an illogical negative reaction. That brings me to another thing: why did they need to save him? Arden didn't know he was in prison until the Caldari told her. Saving him didn't benefit them.

Then there's the whole magic is banished. Why was magic banished? It was difficult to understand the King's motives. Despite magic being banished for a decade, Arden finds a magick book in her room inside the palace itself. That made no sense.

As for Braxton, how was he able to hide from the Savant when he was just 10? Plus at that age, how could he have had enough awareness of the unethical nature of his dad's reign ?

The voice in this book is better than in the Alpha Drive but the characters used modern terms and expressions that just didn't fit the world. Also, emotions were expressed in a very melodramatic way that wasn't necessary. Then at other times physical movements are described in a mathematical way that sounded strange and confusing.

I would really recommend editor Ellen Brock on youtube. She talks about all these kinds of issues.

I think the real issue is that Kristen writes her books in short time frames. Four books in two years is a lot unless you're a pro who has been writing for decades. Because of this the book felt rushed and under-developed. With more time and revisions a lot of the mistakes could have been avoided. That being said, I truly wish her the best and hope she can build on her writing skills in the future.(less)

[Vaiva Vareikaitė · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, it wasn't good. And I'm even more sad about the fact that after reading the book I can't really watch Kristen's videos anymore as I no longer trust her opinion and "wisdom".

[Sabrina Rose · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like many of the other reviewers, I am completely disappointed with this book. It has potential, but it feels like a little kid wrote a book about what they think a girl assassin would do if she had to go on a mission. I tried to read it through, but by page 55, I just had to put it down. Here's why:

Premise

First, the book has a very weak premise. The book is about 17-year-old assassin named Arden being assigned to a mission. We find out within the next few chapters that this mission is a category 8 mission and now she has to go with a partner. Sounds okay right? Until you start to unpack the nuances of how improbable it is within how the story is set.

There are 7 total members of the Creux. Out of seven, two are under the age of twenty (Arden, 17 and Rydan, 18). Every other assassin has more experience, has completed more missions, and are at least ten years older than they are, etc. But when a category 8 mission (the most complex and difficult mission ever assigned) comes along, the king gives it to the newbies?! How in any universe does that make sense? Come on. I can only suspend disbelief so much here, but from what the reader is told about mission categories (and it’s very little), a category 8 mission is so rare that it’s unheard of. But the king gives it to the newest assassins who don’t have as much experience as the others? Stop it! Just stop.

Editing

The Book needs all kinds of editing, badly. Not one professional editor glanced through this with all the grammatical and spelling errors. Beta Readers just don’t replace a full on paid for editor. In some instances, an author might get away with it. But, in a high fantasy that is completely out of the author’s element, a little more oomph is needed. Shadow Crown’s overall structure is bad, the focus is bad, and things that are supposed to have impact, don't. There are scenes that are completely pointless. And many times, the reader is set up for something great then the very next page/sentence/paragraph, they’re told it’s unimportant.

For example: During one chapter, the two assassins are brought to the king to discuss the next mission. Arden, the protagonist female assassin asks the king about the missing details. After Arden asks about the missing details, the king informs them that he’s not willing to share anything seeing as it’s a category 8 mission and he doesn’t feel like they need to know. Then, the assassin (who has been trained her whole life to obey, mind you), speaks out of turn. The king reacts with a light scolding, but let’s them go. But, as they leave he calls them back (which is a bad thing based off of the character’s reactions), and tells the two assassins, "'You'll assassinate the Soames…and as proof, you'll bring me their heads.'"

The reader is led to believe that this is a big deal, since after all, the king stopped the show because of Arden's outburst (which is uncharacteristic for an assassin). So, he must be giving them some sort of odd request because he usually doesn’t care how his victims die. However, on the very next page, the assassins are running away from each other (I guess they’re mad at each other?), and Arden says to her friend, “So we have to take the Soames’s heads? We’ve done it before.” Like this is no big deal!!!!!!!! Then why even set it up like it is! Oh, because the author is trying to trigger a flashback memory where apparently Rydan had some failed mission where his face was cut and Arden (who was not supposed to be around) steps in to save the day and cuts the head off the victim to bring it back to the castle as proof of success.

So, inevitably, the reader is led on a bridge to nowhere. The reasoning was just too thin and I think the author could have been more creative on how she introduced that pointless low stakes mission which ended in a cut face. In fifty-pages, there were many of these. I dread to think how many are in 475 pages.

Inconsistencies

I didn't get very far in the book, but there were tons of inconsistencies. And all of these blatant errors can be seen in chapter one. For example, the protagonist says “Don’t get me wrong; being an outcast does come with it’s struggles… Rydan’s the only one [member of the Cruex] who eats with me… talks to me. But I don’t mind. I’m here to do one thing and one thing only… I’m here to do my job.”

So, either it’s a struggle that no one talks to you or it’s no big deal because you don’t mind. It can’t be both.

In the SAME chapter (chapter 1), Arden is hopeful that the king will give her the next mission. So, as one does, she’s sizes up the competition. She says about one character, “Percival Garrick. Hardly my competition…. [he’s] carried out twenty-four successful missions…”

Let’s count the score, shall we? Out of twenty-four missions, Percival has carried out ALL of them successfully. That’s a 100% accuracy rate.

Arden, at the start of the novel has only had a meager 12 missions. The reader isn’t certain of her success rate, but we are inclined to believe (because of the story told so far) that she’s had her fourth mission go awry. So, maybe one bad mission?

So, how is this character not competition if he’s older, more experience, and has completed more missions successfully than she has? Seeing as I’m now sizing up the competition alongside Arden, I’d bet on Percival, the ass-kissing, more experienced assassin, than a teenager who seems (as we learn) childish and dramatic with half as many successful missions. He has double the experience than she has. So, he would be the better candidate. That’s just math.

Flat POV/Character Voice

Outside of the inconsistencies, which were not ideal. I couldn’t get over how flat the characters were. The book is told from multiple POVs, although Arden’s (main character) is told from the first person, while all the rest are told from the third-person subjective. But there is no distinction in how they talk or think. So, you can be reading Rydan’s POV and the King’s POV and can only tell them apart by the names the author uses. If you stripped those away or replaced them with pronouns, they’d be virtually all the same person. They even use the same phrases. “Her eye flicks to the guard.” “The king’s eyes flick to them.”

Word Choices

Language is a quintessential tool for world building, and unfortunately there isn't any here. The author has made some strange choices when it comes to word choice and it disallows the reader from being fully immersed in the book.

For example, the use of military time, which feels completely out of place within this high fantasy world set in a world unlike our own. There are several ways the author could have given time. Even using “600 hours” “Or 1,200 hours” or “1,800 hours” with context around the time of day would have been infinitely better than saying “I’ll meet you there at 0700.” And it’s often used in a way where if feels like these characters are having coffee on a military base and not showing up for a super complex unheard-of mission.

But there are more things that irk me. The use of flick instead of flicker. “My eyes flick to him.” “His eyes flick from the squire to them.” (And YES, it’s flick, as in I flicked a person on the nose because they were annoying. As in, flick of the wrist. But, it’s their eyes that are doing the flicking.) Everyone’s eyes are flicking everyone else.

And often, a character is loosing their breath (Yes, Loose. Not lose. Loose.). And this happens in multiple POVs. After the fourth time, on the third POV, I assumed the author actually meant for this to be a term that is distinct to their world, while still maintaining a familiar tone to the reader. I get it, but it doesn’t quite work.

And my biggest irk, the word kingdom is duplicitous without any distinction of how these should be defined in their world. For example, the king can see and hear people outside of his kingdom from his kingdom’s bedroom. Yeah, you read that right. So, there’s also that.

Characters

Not only is the word choice a little off, but the characters themselves (as a construct) don’t make sense and defy everything that a character would be.

The ruthless king who can glare so hard he can practically shatter the throne behind him, is surprised that he hasn’t been overthrown because his people don’t respect him and do whatever they want anyway despite his decrees. If he’s supposed to be a ruthless dictator, who has people killed on a pretty regular basis, why can’t he keep a group of townspeople from speaking a language he’d banned ten years ago? His people defy him openly and there are no consequences. How did he even rise to power with that wishy washy weak garbage?

Arden, who’s a stone-cold assassin, wonders why she doesn’t flinch or cringe at the sound of her own name because of the atrocities she’s done. Because this is the only life you know Arden, you don’t know that you shouldn’t be killing people. That’s why. Oh, and I thought everyone you killed was bad. So, why would you flinch if you’re the killing the bad guys?

And besides that, she has this contempt for the king, although the book has said multiple times that being an assassin is the only life she knows. Okay, so if she’s an assassin and always has been, the king would pretty much be her God. Everything he says or does would bring on a devout loyalty. But, she knows he’s a terrible ruler and his kingdom is impoverished and in ruins. Why does she follow him again? At the very least, why hasn’t she second guessed any mission that he has given her as some sort of trick? If his people are suffering, he’s clearly not a good leader.

Rydan, her friend and supposedly the person who knows her best cannot tell her excitement from her agitation from her anger. The second chapter is completely out of sync with the first chapter. She’s excited, and he thinks she’s mad. Yeah, I can see how he’d get those two emotions mixed up. They're so much alike *sarcasm*. And also, he’s defined as her friend although he doesn’t trust her because of the botched mission four, where she had to come in a save the day when she wasn’t even supposed to be there in the first place! But, they’re friends?

And the flaws of the main characters bleed over into the secondary and even the minor characters.
The guard who summoned them to see the king the night before has to ask for their names the next day so he can check a scroll to see if they’re allowed to visit the king…

Yes, he’s a minor character, but we need to unpack this pointless exchange real quick. We’ve already learned that the king is wondering why his people haven’t come banging down the kingdom’s (not castle) doors and kicked him off the throne. But, any ole body can come into the castle, and meander around to look for the king. And the only person who’s keeping watch is the guard at the door of the Great Room who has a scroll to verify the names of the people who can see the king?! There’s no other security around there? How can anyone be moseying so close to the king and not be caught before then? What if someone just gave a name that's on the scroll, would he just let them in? Because clearly, his eyes don't work if he can't see that these are the same two people he took to see the king the night before!

Besides that, the guard must either be really stupid or poorly written or both. Because under no circumstance would you have some imbecile like that as a guarding force in which he doesn’t recognize the faces of the elite Cruex, the king’s personal assassins, as people who are allowed to visit him. Does the guard also do this to his queen? To the king himself? Where does the stupidity end?

The Wold Building

In addition to terrible inconsistencies in the prose, flat and meaningless characters, terrible story structure, the world building is completely nonexistent. There are too many euphemisms that come from our world, that get transpose into this “high fantasy” world. Things like using military time to report the time of day, or jargon like the use of “roger that” or “mess hall.” It completely took me out of the story. There are also phrases like “Bat an eye,” or “Carpe Diem,” etc. that also don’t help either.

And the setting? Who knows? If the author hadn’t mentioned the shift in space between bedchamber or hallway, I wouldn’t even know where the characters were at a given time. There’s no descriptions of the castle or the surroundings. The only thing that is described is Lonia, the place where their mission is to take place. And even then, the author says that a couple of the assassins have talked about seeing it, but then at the end of the same paragraph, the author says that no one has ever seen it. So, the description given can be completely wrong.

In a high fantasy novel, the reader has to have some sense of where the story is set. Just mentioning the names of the kingdoms is not enough to go on.

Creative Ex Machina

Plus, at some points, there is a lack of creativity of how information is uncovered. The Book Ex-Machina in this story is out of control! Arden finds a book about magick in the kingdom in her bedroom. All things magick including books have been banned for ten years, and there happens to be one in her bedroom at the castle. And the book is not disguised as something else. It openly says it’s a magick book on the cover. And when Arden happens to see it, instead of reporting it right away like a good assassin, she opens it up for a bit of light reading. Then, poof, we hear no more of this book (maybe it makes a comeback after page 50). But this is the author's attempt at foreshadowing and solidifying that this book has a magick system. Why can't the assassin's missions be based solely on killing people who use magick because the king sees it as dangerous? That would solidify this magick world and there would be no need for book ex-machina.

Then her friend, Rydan also discovers the king’s hit list in his bed chambers while opening a book. All the names of the people they’ve killed are crossed off except for the family they’re to kill next. Wasn’t it nice of the king to leave his hit list in the assassins’ bedchambers before he had the chance to cross off that final name and destroy the evidence? How convenient that king is hanging out in the assassin's bedchambers?

And even after all of that, I tried to power through it, but I kept getting stopped because there’s tons of telling and not showing. Authors don’t have to “show” everything, but there are actual times where an author will need to not talk at the reader.

Arden is supposed to be witty and shows off when she’s assigned to missions. Has she done either in the fifty pages I had to get to know her? Nope.

Rydan and her are supposed to have this playful banter back and forth as described by each of them. But do they? Nope.

The king is supposed to be ruthless. But, is he? Nope.

The Cruex bedchambers was three sizes too small. Three sizes too small compared to what? A foot-ball field? A broom closet? What? Is this ever clarified? Nope.

Would I recommend this book? Nope.

Not without an extensive edit and relaunch.

And to think this author has a self-guided coaching program for $2,000?! HAHAHAHA What a laugh. How can she teach anyone something that she doesn't have the mastery of? It's like me teaching someone how walk on Mars.

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am in complete shock... I paid $25 for this book and it is completely horrible. I’m heartbroken. I used to watch Kristen’s writing videos but not anymore. She obviously has no experience to be giving advice. I can’t even begin to explain how bad this book is I literally couldn’t even make it to 20 pages. Did she even bother to hire a professional editor? Books like this are why self published works have such a bad stigma around them.

She’s 1000% scamming people. Save your time, save your money, and don’t support her content.

[McCaid Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars ✨

This was a promising fantasy epic that ultimately fell flat.

Having read Kristen Martin's debut novel, I was completely on board for her new series. I couldn't wait to see how much her writing had improved and what creativity and magic she would incorporate in her world.

To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. While the writing seems to have improved slightly, it could still use several more rounds of editing. Sentences don't flow, and tend to come across as choppy, stilted, and rushed. Much of the story is told, instead of shown. In fact, the world building gave me no insight as to the magic behind it all. It was like the different lands were dull stage props that the author decided to set up every now and then.

Also, some of the characters were bland, and the villain's POV (AKA King Tymond) was so stereotypical that I almost expected him to bust out with an evil laugh at any given moment. There is no depth to him, nothing especially "evil" to his motives. His actions are always explained in full detail, giving the reader plenty of info dumps that bog the story down. Yet the answers behind his crimes are never fully fleshed out as much as they need to be, further confusing the reader. Why did he ban the Illusie? What does he have against them? Sorry, but...it's up for interpretation.

While a few characters possess creative magical abilities, others have the same ones we've seen hundreds of times. Unfortunately, nothing stood out for me.

Now, not that it wasn't terrible...there were a few things that kept me from DNF'ing this sucker.
1. The way the characters are all intertwined is fascinating, even though they seem to lack "character" at times.
2. There were multiple plot twists that continued to throw me off guard throughout. Some left me breathless, and I couldn't wait to see how they were resolved.
3. Arden's constant battle between dark and light, and trying to overcome her past demons from her job as an assassin, was what gave this book the level of authenticity it so desperately needed.

Overall, this is rich in plot, but it isn't nearly enough to save an ultimately dull, disappointing read (with a rather boring climax, if I might add). I will be checking out the next book just out of curiosity, and with the hope that the author has improved her writing, characters, and world building.
Her debut was a fun, fast-paced read (even with its problems) and I wish I could say the same for this.

Recommended for: Fans of assassins, magical powers, and fallen kingdoms.

[Raven_Blake (dreamy addictions) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Same Review Also Posted On My Blog: Dreamy Addictions

This book was so disappointing! Its appealing cover is the first thing that grabbed my attention and when I read its premise I totally fell for it cause I love reading assassin books. I really expected this to be a good read because it has an intriguing synopsis and it was written by an amazon bestselling author. Kristen Martin is a famous booktuber. I don’t follow her channel and I never read her Alpha trilogy so I didn’t know what to expect from her but this book was average and she needs a lot of improvement in her writing skills. The premise said perfect for fans of Marie Lu and George R.R. Martin – Seriously? Are you kidding me? This really felt like a book for middle graders. It has so many plot holes and underdeveloped characters.

Since young Arden Aleri is a member of Cruex, a group of skilled assassins of King Tymond. She’s a ruthless assassin who killed many people without any hesitation. All the members of Cruex are under the iron grip of King Darius Tymond. The Cruex assassin’s major job is to hunt down the caldari, people who practice illusié. On a high level mission, Aleri and another assassin named Rydan were selected to hunt down soames family. But at the time of assassination everything goes horribly wrong when Alderi realizes that the Soames are pretty much harmless and their only crime is being an illusié. She also discovers a power that is inside her. With this new discovery, Alderi suspects that King Tymond’s intentions aren’t really pure. So, she flees away from the scene without fully completing her mission which was certainly betraying her king. When she meets a group of Caldari, she decides to join them and she trains with them to control her new found power and also the darkness that is inside her. For a dangerous rescue mission, Alderi and her new friends needs to go back to the Kingdom which means she has to face the king she has betrayed and also her friend that she has left for dead.

All the characters in this book seemed underdeveloped and I couldn’t connect with any one of them. As an assassin, I expected Arden to be a kickass character with dark personality but she was nothing like that. She’s quite fragile and has lots of insecurities. She was looked after by Estelle, an illusié who totally seemed like a babysitter to her. She feeds her, trains her and she was always there for her whenever Arden gets panic attacks. Rydan, Arden’s friend and also one of the member of Cruex seemed like a fun guy at the beginning but he turns out to be a total douche. Braxton is the only character that I liked in this book but he wasn’t fleshed out well enough. Xerin is the leader of a caldari group who has some interesting powers but he can’t even save his sister by himself. The villain, King Tymond wasn’t strong as I expect him to be instead he was pretty boring. He has no magic powers, he isn’t smart and without his assassins this guy is pretty much nothing.

The plot was okay-ish but not engaging enough to hold my interest. After half way through the book I found myself counting the pages left to finish it. It’s a fast paced read but nothing exciting happens until the ending. The real action is found at the last ten percent of the book. The twists in the book are pretty predictable. The author didn’t gave any background info about how the magical system was formed and why the King hates the Caldari so much. Maybe it would be revealed in the next book but I won’t be picking it up anytime in the future. The writing was okay-okay. There are some grammatical errors, repetitive sentences, and I also found some modern terms in this book which definitely not fit in this world. I honestly felt like reading a wattpad novel and I can’t believe it was a published novel. I usually love multiple POV’s in fantasy books, but sadly I didn’t enjoy it in this book. I really wished this was written in a single or maybe a dual POV. The world building and the magic system are good. They’re the only aspects that I liked in this book.

Overall, this was an above average fantasy read for me. It really has a great potential but the execution of the story, and the poor characterization and their development was its major downfall.

[Elysa]

I enjoy Kristen. She's sweet, clearly very successful and has a great Youtube channel, but I didn't enjoy this book. That's why it has a 1 from me. I got this on a free 30-day subscription to Kindle Unlimited and I didn't finish. However, I still plan to start reading The Alpha Drive so perhaps that could inspire me to pick this book back up again! Update: it didn't.

I'm just going to explain why I couldn't finish. To me, the perspectives changed too quickly, which was jarring. It also made the book seem rushed. Arden's perspective is first-person while the others are third person which is an interesting creative choice, as it reminds us that Arden is the main character of the story and really, the focus is on her. However, I felt that this inconsistency pulled me out of the story rather than immersed me. This is because I would notice the change and, as a reader, usually I prefer to be immersed in the book rather than reminded that I am reading. As for the grammatical errors, I did see some in the Kindle version, but I really don't think they are as big a deal as some people make them out to be. Mistakes happen and I think the story quality matters above all else.

Finally, I was hoping for a little more world-building and character relatability, but maybe I would have got both of those things if I actually stuck with the story. I'm not sure how credible I am in writing a review without finishing, but I read about halfway through the book before I called it quits.

[Heather Venkat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I liked the complexity of the plot and world, the weaving together of subplots, and for the most part the characters. However, there were a lot of issues that distracted me from just reading and enjoying the story. I kept stopping throughout the book to question plot points, character inconsistencies, and wording or grammar mistakes.

Here's a summary of some of the major reasons why I knocked this down two stars, with examples *WARNING, SPOILERS GALORE*:

1.) Character development/inconsistencies
-Rydan was shocked ("the realization hits Rydan like a punch to the stomach") that the Soames were illusiae, yet previously on page 43 he literally reads a list of households who practiced illusiae and the Soames name is on it...why wouldn't he have told Arden beforehand and then they would have prepared for how they would react (either more cautious at the house, or refuse to do the mission) as a result? Why was he shocked during the mission when a few days earlier he had already read that they were illusiae? It doesn't make sense.
-The book hypes up Arden to be a killing machine, yet in the very beginning she is hesitant to kill a child. Regardless of whether or not she'd done it before, if killing and darkness is all that she knows, she would have killed the Soames family without hesitation. It also didn't make sense why she took the heads- it would make more sense if she didn't want to be followed/hunted down (even
though they would still want to try to find her in general). She is also very hesitant to follow Estelle, and seems so timid and childish...it would seem more in character for her to think "Oh I don't know if this lady is telling the truth or not but if she's lying I can just kill her" or something like that. Also, Arden's features weren't described until probably 3/4th of the way into the book- when I read it, I was like, "Oh, she has brown hair and green eyes?" I also couldn't really relate to her or sympthasize with her at all as the main character.
-King Tymond is described as ruthless, yet he doesn't banish or kill Clive for sleeping with his wife? It doesn't make sense why he would continue to allow them to interact. Also, if the King knew about Arden's abilities (I forget what page that's on), why didn't he kill or banish her already? It doesn't make sense for him to have been aware of that and not have acted on it.
-It didn't make sense why Clive would release an injured deer into the forest- how could he expect someone to heal it? It just seemed way too convenient.
-Why didn't Elvira just summon a dragon to save herself earlier? Or why was she even working as a maiden for Tymond when she can summon dragons? None of this is explained.
-Sometimes emotions or reactions are listed with no further reasoning, such as page 126: "...but SHOCKINGLY, the guards ignore the boisterous young lad. THIS IS SURPRISING, especially since Tymond is known for doling out punishments for..." I'm like, okay what's the point in having this scene then and WHY did the guards ignore him then if that is totally against how that character should act?

2.) Plot issues
- It seemed way to convenient that Arden learned about illusiae and Caldari through two books (one in the bookshelf conveniently in her room, and the other while in Orihia.) I don't mind people learning from books, but it just seemed too "set up" in these scenes. Might have been better for someone to explain those things to her in Orihia and then show her where the books are for more details.
- People kept secrets for no reason: especially in the beginning in the forest, Estelle is very cryptic and just assumes Arden will follow her and trust her. Others said "attack me" with no further explanation to Arden until afterwards. It would make more sense to explain things to Arden to get her full commitment.
-Why didn't King Tymond send the Cruex to search for Arden? When I first read that he sent soldiers out, I was confused because in the beginning the Cruex are introduced and then not one character is mentioned again or shows up in the story except for Arden and Rydan. I thought they were supposed to be his livelihood, and without them he would 'cease' to exist (pg 17) yet they are useless (at one point the King mentions that the Cruex is getting impatient, but that's it). There's no point describing the other members Percivel, Ezra, Elias, Hugh, Cyrus, etc. and not have them show up at ALL throughout the next ~440 pages.
-The magic system is not fully explained. It appears that people get tired when using magic without being properly trained, and that's fine. But other parts of the system are unknown- such as what dictates when someone can use their powers or when they realize their powers? Characters seem to discover they are illusiae as teenagers- is this typical?

3.) Wording/grammar issues
-I did a lot of editing while I read. I was hoping for a little bit more description at certain scenes. It doesn't have to be overly saturated, just something more (and ideally not just visual, but also sound and smell and other descriptors which were lacking). Or sometimes the placement was off, such as on page 154 their surroundings in the cave are described as "magnificent, breathtaking, surreal view, etc." and then a full page later the details are given.
-Several redundancies, such as page 300: "Like a ravenous beast, Rydan scours through the food like a baby bear discovering meat for the first time." Could remove 'Like a ravenous beast' or 'like a baby bear,etc.' and the sentence has the same effect.
-Lots of telling and not showing (telling has its place, but not where it was used in many instances here). Example: page 141, "I've come to learn that Estelle is not fond of superfluous conversation...but I have so many questions that need answering." It would be better to actually have Arden try to ask her questions, and then Estelle doesn't answer/mumbles yes or no without going into further explanation/is tightlipped, etc. Arden instead tries to make light conversation with Estelle, which doesn't make sense...she should just ask her the questions that she has! She's following a stranger for goodness sakes, she should have a right to ask her questions...

Anyways, sorry for the long-winded review. I felt like I needed to justify those issues. I do want to know where the story goes, but I'm really hoping that there is improvement in the second book and beyond.

[Holly Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never been so conflicted when reading a book. There were times I was really into the plot and characters and other times I wanted to flip a table at all the writing errors. I found myself editing the book as I read, which is a very bad thing.

I'll start with the good. I thought the illusie's powers were cool and liked how Kristen weaved all the characters and subplots together. There were also quite a few surprises in the plot I didn't see coming. I think I enjoyed the chapters with Cerylia and Opal the most, oh, and of course Juniper! (Although I doubt they would've said 'fur-parent' in the land of Trendalath).

Ugh, now onto the bad. ** spoiler alert ** The first time I noticed this book was off was on pg. 199, when Arden tells herself 'I am darkness. It's all I know." Wait, what? SHE was the one who didn't want to kill the Soames just for being illusie, while Rydan was the assassin gung-ho on killing them! I was so confused because other than Arden's history of being a successful assassin, she had yet to show a shred of darkness. I felt like Kristen was trying to force the 'dark' part of 'dark fantasy'. I know she loves and drew a lot of inspiration from The Young Elites by Marie Lu, but Marie Lu knew how to have a dark protagonist. Arden is being force-fed it and those parts where she was 'tempted' by the darkness just never made sense and seemed awkward and out of place.

Another thing, the story lacked setting descriptions and worldbuilding i.e. page 399: 'Still decadent and rich behind the castle wall; filthy and sullied in every other direction.' Do you know what this city looks like? Me neither. She often TELLS us things instead of SHOWS us, which honestly makes me cringe. I hate seeing such obvious mistakes in a published book, things that Kristen herself teaches us in her YouTube videos. Another thing that irked me is that she'd show us a character's emotion and then tell us about it in a sentence right afterward. Don't do that! We are smart readers. We get it.

I was also put off by the many plot holes throughout the novel, such as Clive's, Elvira's, and Xerin's powers not being used sooner for their benefit. I was also irked by King Tymond and couldn't understand how he was the villain. If he was truly evil, he wouldn't be setting up this whole execution for Vira for just talking to Rydan, while Rydan who failed his mission is left in prison. And we never see or hear anything of the other Cruex assassins. Did Tymond's kingdom know about the Savants and that they were illusie? Wouldn't they question why he isn't using his assassins to find Arden? Other than banishing the illusie years ago, what has Tymond done that is evil?? He never went out to search for his son, but then when he's gathering the Savant, all of a sudden now he's searching for him? The King actually seems very weak, as he didn't kill Clive for sleeping with his wife, and even allows him back with the Savant! Why???

I REALLY wanted to like this book more, but I said the same thing about Restitution. I admire Kristen Martin as a YouTuber and person but I think she needs to spend more time on her novels. It would do her good to enlist more beta readers and critique partners and go through more rounds of revisions/edits before sending her book out into the world. I will likely read Book 2 of this series, Renegade Cruex, for I did enjoy the story, but only if the writing has drastically improved.

[Daphne (Signé Daphné) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a HUGE fan of Kristen Martin and love her YouTube channel, as well as her podcasts. I was super excited to win an ARC of Shadow Crown after reading an excerpt from the first chapter in her monthly newsletter.

I liked the book. I thought the descriptions were great and gave me a clear image of the world Kristen created. The pace was good and the author has a great imagination. After finishing it, I wonder what's going to happen next.

However, some things kept me from completely loving it.

First, there are so many unanswered questions. I understand that this is the first in what could be a 6 or 7 book series, but still. I would have liked some explanations, especially about the magic system. Where do the Caldari come from? Do they all have different powers? Also, are Xerin, Felix and company the only ones left? I was confused at some point when Arden reached Orihia, because I thought she would find a whole community there... But it's just her and a few others.

Also, this is a personal opinion, but I would have prefered if the whole novel had been written in the 3rd person. Having only one character's chapters in the first person didn't work for me. I didn't really make me sympathize with Arden more.

And, again, it's expected since this if the first book of the series, but I would have liked more action. For such a lenghty book, a good number of pages serve as exposition and only in the last chapters does the action really pick up. At one point, I found myself wondering what the "quest" actually was... Was it to save Rydan? To save Elvira? If it's the former, why? If it's the latter, we only meet her halfway through the book and don't know much about her...

All in all, I give this three stars. I liked it enough to keep reading and I do want to read the next installment. I truly hope some of my questions will be answered in it. I'd say it's more for teens than young adults/adults and can be a good entry into the fantasy genre.

The best thing about this novel is that it pushes me to keep working on my own. Kristen really is an inspiration and if she can do it, so can I! ;)

[Erin M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Dark fantasy is one of my favorite genres, and this reminds me why. Loved every minute and couldn't put it down.

If you love YA fantasy....read now. :-) I need book two NOW!

[Ichigos · Rating 3 out of 5]

How do you know the beautiful book you are holding in your hands is a letdown? Is it the summary? Or do you judge by the cover?
You can know for sure what a disappointment a book is when you start reading it and you know the full extent of that disappointment when you actually pull through the end. The signs were there from the beginning but it's not my policy to leave a book unfinished. Now, thanks to that, I can list all the reasons why this book went from intriguing to plainly boring.

Let's start with the characters

One of the reasons why I decided to give this book three stars is because most of the characters were actually decent. From the strong willed queens like the sly Aldera and the proud Cerylia to characters like the honest Braxton and the spirited Rydan. They had so much potential and were a lot more interesting than our dear main heroine. Every other character was more interesting than our dear main heroine. And here is the problem...how is a book supposed to be captivating for the readers when they can't stand the main heroine? Arden was a character with no depth and no spunk. She had something like a dark side which instead of making me sympathise, annoyed me even more...and I didn't think that was possible. She made all the stupid decisions and did almost nothing to keep the plot going. Actually it seemed like the plot was keeping her going instead of the other way around. Her POV was not something I was looking forward to and that's the first sign of a badly written book. There was no logic behind her actions which in turn made her look ridiculous.

I still can't understand why she took the heads of the decapitated family? It was only to make things worse for Rydan who was at that time the only close person she had. If someone can explain why she did that, I would be very grateful.

Writing a multiple POV is harder and a lot more compelling and because of that when you make mistakes it is a lot easier for the readers to notice them. Authors are more prone to create plot holes or make the story too predictable in their effort not to create plot holes. And here in this book you can find most of the basic mistakes authors make while writing a multiple POV or writing as a whole. Maybe if the author had put more focus on the actions of the characters, taking her time to explain them and add more backstory, it would make the characters more realistic. As a whole they were the most thought-out part of the book.

The plot

I like the main idea of the book. It's not something completely innovative but it sounded entertaining enough. The summary managed to raise my hopes for the book enough to make me read it while still studying for exams. At the beginning of the book there were a lot of possibilities to make the storyline amusing and gripping. Unfortunately all of that was ruined by our dear main heroine and her bad decisions. In this book i can see a lot unfufilled potential. There were a lot of plot holes. Things happened, our heroine either did nothing or did something completely incomprehensible. From time to time random things happened because they had to for the sake of the plot but again there was no explanation why.

The writing

The writing was so-so. There was nothing that unique about it except for the strange indecipherable methaphors the author made from time to time. It didn't help improve the atmosphere of the book or make it more exciting.

The relationships

The main couple wasn't an instalove which was something i liked in the book but i feel like there wasn't enough interaction between the characters and it didn't create any tension. I can't say I ship them. Another strange couple was Aldreda and Darius. They were actually the first couple we get to meet. I liked their interplay and it was one of the book's strong points. Although i don't think i ship them either. The relationships between the Caldari were plain strange and their interactions with our dear main heroine were clumsy and awkward. The only two characters I actually ship are probably not even meant to be canon. Yes. I am talking about Cerylia and Opal. They were the only characters between whom i saw any chemistry and it was not intended to be there.

All in all I think there is a lot that can be done to improve the book, a lot of mistakes a skilled editor can correct and an attentive author can notice and rewrite. The author has still a long way to go but as they say practise makes perfect. I'm sure that if she spends enough time to overview everything, she will be able to achieve success.

[Raúl López · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad I finally finished this!! This was one of my most anticipated releases of last year and I'm glad I finally got a chance to enjoy the rest of it. Definitely enjoyed this more than the authors previous series and I'm excited to see how the rest of the series plays out. The writing wasn't my favorite, but the plot kept me engaged enough to keep my attention the entire time.

[A.J. Douglas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did it. I broke my "I won't DNF a book" rule. That is saying something, because I never DNF. Never. I've seen Kristen Martin on authortube. Her advice is sound, sure. This book is about a kickass lady assassin, I too have a project on the side about a kickass lady assassin, and I firmly believe in reading books relevant to what you are working on. But I learned my lesson with self published author-tubers after reading Eve, and checked this out on kindle unlimited. So let's dive in.

Too many irrelevant POV's. I am kind of entirely over this "everyone and their dog gets a POV" craze in YA. Clunky writing with redundant phrases that slow the story down. The characters lack depth and voice. A ruthless assassin heroine who doesn't want to be a ruthless assassin. And last but not least it is filled with grammatical and punctuation errors. I do not like to play the typo card, kids. One or two, hey it happens. Several within the first chapter? On the first page? No thank you.

I hate when this happens, because the story does have promise. But if an author isn't going to take the time to properly develope, edit and hone their work, I am not going to waste my time reading it.

[Madison DeJulio]

Oh boy...I'm so disappointed. I love Kristen and her videos, but this just wasn't it. The lack of character and world development lead me to dnf it. And the writing wasn't for me. Way too many grammar and spelling errors. I'll try the Alpha Drive series though and I hope I'll enjoy that more!

[Kira Petty · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is suppose to be a dark fantasy but the only thing that’s dark is the weird black cloud that randomly floats to Arden in the middle of scenes.

Characters:
Arden – The only first person POV and the worst assassin in the world. For having an intense desire to kill. She sure does hesitate to kill a lot of people. She’s supposed to be taking over by the darkness by she is childish in way she acts If she’s suppose to be such a badass.

Rydan – This is the biggest whinny bitch baby I have ever read. He is either stupid and has short term memory loss because he can’t remember a single fact that he finds or people tell him to save his life.
The first time this happens, Rydan finds a list of magic folk that have been executed and the only name that Isn’t crossed out Is the Soames that him and Arden have been sent to kill.
Then Rydan forgets this fact.

Pg. 77 “The realization hits Rydan like a punch to the stomach. The Soames are illusie.”

But then he remembers?

Pg. 122 “Rydan’s thoughts flicker to the day prior, to the Lonia mission with Arden; to the appalled look on her face when she’d tried to stop him from killing the Soames family and failed. In hindsight, he probably should have told her the the Soames were Illuse.”

The second time this happens Xerin visits Rydan when he’s locked up and explains that he’s Elvira’s brother.

Pg. 301 “Let me help you,” Xerin says. “You know my sister. Elvira.”

But then Rydan forgets about this when Elvira tells him her brother came and visited her in her cell.

Pg. 363 “So how is it Elvira was able to see her brother?” “The realization hits him like a ton of bricks. Xerin.”

He then gets throw into the dungeons after Arden betrays him in a panic and forms a weird obsession with the handmaiden that brings him food two times in the whole book. He also gets freed from the dungeons by Arden, Felix, and Estelle. They go out of their way to save him and then he spends the run away from the castle complaining that he doesn’t know where their going. Then he leaves to go back to Tymond to possibly be murdered.

Darius – He’s suppose to be an evil king but he has no back bone. His wife and queen would be better at being a ruthless leader then he is. He keeps a member of his Savant that slept with his wife instead of just killing him. Get rid of him. But all he does Is let everybody undermine him and tell him what to do. Then instead of executing Rydan for failing to complete the mission he decides that executing a handmaiden for just having a conversation is the better way to go and then one of his Savant then point It out. Why write that plot line if you’re going to undermine yourself with your own character?

pg.397 “Landon raises a brow. ‘Let me get this straight. She’s being executed for having a conversation?”

Cerylia (the Queen) – She is just chilling In her castle with Opal turning back time to see who killed her husband ten years ago. I thought maybe her POV would bring more Information to the reader but it doesn’t
Braxton - The king’s son and the POV the doesn’t get brought in until page 118. PAGE 118. His POV doesn’t bring much to the table either. You just find out that he ran away when he just ten and nobody ever really tried to find him. He also has powers.


Plot:
My god I to even say that this book has a plot is a stretch. A lot of things happened but at the same time nothing happened. I felt like I was reading the first act of a book that was drawn out over four hundred and fifty pages of bullshit.

The books starts with Arden explaining her first kill. Great. She talks about being a trained assassin and knowing that it should feel wrong to kill people but she doesn’t feel that. Then first spelling error (of many) pops up before she goes Into a long winded info dump of all of the Cruex member that never pops of in the book again. Never.
You get Rydan dumb POV after where he just describes Arden and then in moves on to King Tymond who is oooo so scary. Then you get Queen Cerylia’s POV that doesn’t tell you anything and it goes back to Arden. Then takes hundred and eighteen pages for the last POV to finally be brought in.

People randomly find out their illusie.
Somehow all of the magic text that King Tymond burned Is been saved and is In Estelle cottage.
Rydan and Arden both get piece of information handed to them by finding random pieces of paper in books.
When Xerin turns into a dragon and turns back into a human he’s naked. But any other time he turns and turns back lack of clothes isn’t a problem?
Why Is Elvira locked up in she can summon dragons?
Braxton knew he was an Illusie when he was ten and left home but Arden and Rydan don’t know until their 17?
When did the little boy from the Soames house go?
What are the magic limitations?
Why didn’t the King said his Crux to find Arden instead of random knights? If their trained so well?
What territory is King Tymond in charge of apposed to the Queen?
Why do everyone tell Arden to attack them to show what power they have?

I’m going to end this review with some of my favorite quotes from this book.

Pg. 17 “I follow suit and shortly after, Rydan is right next to me, dragging his feet like a kid whose shoes don’t fit properly.”

Pg. 99 “her tone Isn’t accusatory - how can it be when It sounds as smooth as aged wine being pours for the very time?”

Pg. 101 “I cringe, thinking it’s a probably a skunk that’s about to spray Its goodness all over us.”

[Sam Lee Hill · Rating 1 out of 5]

One star may seem a bit cruel, I actually want to give it 1.5 stars. I didn't finish the book but I did get through 82% of it so I'm putting it down as read. But more importantly, I'm just putting it down. This book was a struggle.

I read this book to give Martin a chance- if you are confident enough to give writing advice on the internet there has to be something there right? To her credit, she is really good at naming things. I thought the character names (for the most part) were interesting and original, the name Arden Eliri is befitting of a better book. There were glimmers of hope. I could see the understanding of writing but there was hardly any execution. I think this is Martin’s downfall: the inability to take criticism and critically analyze her own work.

Even though I haven't read any of her other books, from the multiple reviews I have seen of both her fiction and non-fiction works I can tell that this woman cannot learn from her mistakes. Her biggest critiques include inconsistencies, one-dimensional characters and bad writing, all of which were prevalent in this book. Here are my biggest problems with the book:

1. Little to nothing happens. Martin skips over the action and guts of the story, choosing rather to just report back on it in a later scene. For example, when Braxton goes to meet the Queen. The chapter ends just after they have been introduced and then in the next chapter Braxton tells the Caldari what happened. In my opinion, this is lazy writing on Martin's behalf. She tells everything and what she does 'show' is not enough to capture the reader.
2. The devil is in the details and boy did Martin taunt the devil. If I take a step back and look at the bigger picture, the book is almost redeemable (if I'm being generous). There is an interesting premise that Martin could have expanded on. But when you look at the small details, the book is trash. For example, Rydan is not given food or water for a week but a human cannot survive without water for that long. Arden calls Rydan the 'only family she has ever had' but a couple of pages later, after she nearly kills him for a kid that she's never met before, she says she never really had a family. It's the little details that really make or break a book. Between the inconsistencies and these details that detracted from the story, this book gave me a headache.
3. Arden as a protagonist is inconsistent, one-dimensional, a walking contradiction, and boring. And most likely the worst assassin I have ever read about. She's supposed to be this hardened killer that murdered someone when she was 12 but gets teary when the king raises his voice at her?
4. Martin recycles plotlines in her own story. Rydan finds a loose piece of paper in a book that conveniently has the exact information he's looking for. Arden finds a loose picture in a book that conveniently offers her more information. Felix tells Arden to attack him so that he can demonstrate his power. Braxton tells Arden to attack him so that he can demonstrate his power.
5. The pacing is terrible. Martin only writes the 'interesting' parts but will skip over time and events if it suits her. This book felt more like a report of events rather than a story. The chapters were really short and only focuses on one 'event' i.e. the king and queen having dinner but nothing else. They will only have dinner in that chapter. Which made the flow of the book feel stilted and jumpy.
6. What kind of freaking Barbie movie is this where you find a magical creature and it immediately takes a liking to you so the previous owner just gives the creature to you?!

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really, really wanted to like this book. Not even like it - just stomach it. I hopped on the Kristen Martin train in the past six months. Early enough that I pre-ordered a (non-signed copy) of Be Your Own #Goals out of curiosity and all the hype she built around it. Needless to say, it wasn't my favorite due to several factors including but now limited to spelling and grammar errors, most notably misspelling Gandhi as "Ghani," which after typing that here and having the the dotted red line show up underneath am certain would have been picked up by even the most amateur editor.

That aside, I'm sure it's difficult to write a self-help/advice book even if you're great at marketing and self-promotion so I thought I would give her fiction a chance. She markets it as her passion and sees herself as a SciFi/Fantasy writer so who am I to judge her fiction work based on her painfully repetitive and weak attempt at nonfiction.

I made it 25%... into the sample.

Gal. In the first chapter - the literal FIRST chapter, it's like every single paragraph is in direct conflict with the one before it. Arden is "forcing herself to continue" but is antsy af for the King of Trendalalalath to call her name. She's recently become close with the hot boy regal boy her age... but she keeps to herself and is a super loner. No one eats with her or trains with her except... oh yeah, Rydan, the hot boy her age she's recently become close with. Then we finally get some action - the king unrolls his scroll, calls her name, and everyone is excused. That's it. Also she's the only girl. Also no one has ever been on a mission to the place that she's been chosen to go. Also she's been chosen and everyone else is jealous. Not only is it difficult to bond with this character because her inner monologue is so contradictory and inconsistent, but rather than making her unique as a character or elevating her for her skill or intelligence, it's like KM is throwing every overused troupe in to the pot as soon as possible. If you're going to reveal everything in the first chapter, I'd rather find out HOW someone is chosen for the Cruex. If anything that would make me respect her more than finding being chosen is a popularity contest (as clearly exemplified by Percival's "lifetime of ass-kissing"). And if the king dislikes Percival that much, why doesn't he get rid of him? Another problem that could have been addressed if I found out how someone was picked for the Cruex rather than getting a popularity rundown from a desperate "outcast".

Then we switch to third person all of a sudden and this boy is doing everything he can to engage this outcast-loner and she's blowing him off. She just seems so emo and moody.

Maybe it's just the fact that most of the books I've been reading lately have had actual literary merit and my TBR list is a mile long, but I can't bring myself to read anymore, let alone pour MORE of my money into this woman's pocket. On that note, I don't understand why she gets so worked up about how quickly she publishes books or how she doesn't do it for the money because if either of those things were true, she wouldn't care about reviews or what people think about her writing because it's "the story she wants to read" but that's clearly not the case.

KM has mentioned that she doesn't read her own reviews nor does she read 1-star reviews, but it may be worth considering. Most of the 1- and 2-star reviews are legitimately insightful and constructive feedback.

I don't recommend this book by any stretch of the imagination, but if you are interested in reading it, prepare yourself with the 1- and 2- (3- if you're feeling generous) star reviews.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm already a fan of Kristen Martin and religiously watch her YouTube channel and listen to her podcast. I already own her other three books, but they're buried in my ever increasing TBR pile. When she announced that she was releasing another series, I decided to read this book first. 

I enjoyed reading this book. It was not as dark fantasy as it was marketed to be. Arden does struggle with the desire to kill due to her training as assassin, but I felt that she didn't struggle enough to make it believable. However, she is a relatable character and I'm eager to see where Kristen takes her next. Honestly, this book was a great introduction and setup for the rest of the books in this series. It introduced the major characters, gave some backstory, and set the tone for the rest of the series. Also, can we talk about the cover?! It's gorgeous and upped the excitement factor for me. 

However, I will admit that I had some issues with this book. For one thing, it felt rushed. I wish Kristen would have spent a little more time planning, writing, and editing before she published this book. Arden's chapters are told in first person while the other chapters are told in third. This was a little jarring as I started to read, but I was used to it by the end of the book. However, I would have preferred for it to be written in a consistent POV throughout the novel. There are also several grammatical errors; more than I expected. 

I also felt that there were a lot of plot holes in this book. Arden is supposed to be obsessed with killing, but she didn't want to kill the Soames at the very beginning of the book? Xerin can shape shift and visit his sister in prison, but can't release her from prison? His sister, Elvira, is a member of the Caldari, but can't save herself? Rydan doesn't care that it's the Caldari that saves him until after they save him? Magic has been banished for a decade, but a magic book just happens to be tucked away inside the MC's bedroom? The King's son runs away at the age of ten and the all-powerful Savant (seriously, they have awesome powers) couldn't find a ten-year-old? Is the King truly evil? I don't really understand how or why he's a villain. Did Braxton flee his father's kingdom seven or ten years ago? Why did Arden take the Soames' heads when she knew it would result in Rydan being put to death? What happens to the Soames boy who can freeze people in time? I would have preferred for Kristen to devote more time to answering some of those questions. I eagerly anticipate the sequel where hopefully some of these questions can be answered. 

[Bode Cauthon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate giving bad reviews but this book doesn’t deserve anything more than I’m giving it.
We have a hypocritical female protagonist who enjoys killing yet judges her best friend when he completes the mission they were ordered to do.
We have this king that we know nothing about except when we read from his POV he is whiny and has no backbone. Don’t see what’s so scary about this dude.
Also, this guys is a king yet he needs a merry band of assassins to do his bidding, which most other countries would have a hard time accepting, and they are not even a hidden band but actually have recognizable uniforms!!
To top it all off I’m not sure who the true “evil” power is since the dynamics between him and his wife are confusing AF.
We heard briefly from characters every know and then and are provided no background information and seemingly superfluous chapters.
Totally plot driven, no depth the characters, zero world building, and a magic system that could have been imagined by a four year old.
Ex: how does one guy know he has powers at the age of 10 and another guy know nothing till he sets a tree on fire when he is.... however old this guy is actually supposed to be.
Also, wtf is with all the blushing? Since there is not depth the characters I have no idea why they are blushing and nothing was explained.
Plot points just kept showing up, things happened with little to no explanation. It’s just a mess.
I’m sorry I actually paid for the book. If it was the authors first I would consider continuing to read but knowing that she has already published other works and her writing is still this bad?!?! Not a god sign.
Can I also talk about The continuity errors??? Xerin tells Rydan “hey Vira is my sister” then the next time Rydan and Vira talk it’s like he never had the previous conversation... I mean that’s a pretty big detail to mess up.
Lastly, what the heck is a shadow crown? It was referenced but I still have no idea what it means.

[Gabriella Kuhn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed this book!
It was a very different flavor of the book, compared to her Alpha Drive Series. It was a more mature book than I'm used to reading, but it was very intriguing to read. My favorite characters were Braxon and Rydan. They were very interesting, and I want to know more about who Rydan is. My favorite one of his lines is: “No one handed me a rulebook for dungeon etiquette.” Love it.
I'll definitely be picking up the sequel. The reason I didn't give it 5 stars, was because of the minor swearing, which I didn't think was necessary for the story.
--
After my January 2019 reread before starting Renegade Cruex, I want to add that I really didn't enjoy the third person present tense writing. It kept me from being fully engaged with the story but I'm still reading the sequel because I really like these characters. Also, I'm a little biased and will read anything, Kristen Martin writes.

[L.B. Silva]

Me gustaba mucho esta autora en youtube pero ahora leyendo en comentarios que es bastante falsa, bloquea lectores y demás... me arrepiento.

[Pg Yons · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it. I couldn't put it down once I started reading.
I found the characters interesting and the story well paced. I am impatient to read the sequel as I do have a few questions that haven't been answered.
I find the magic system a bit confusing at times as I don't really know how a child can use it and other can live without knowing they have it and not have "accidental" uses. Then I think some of those questions could be answered in the next books.

I love the relationships between the characters and think that there is a lot of possibilities for them to deepen and change.

All in all a very good read, I recommend.

[Kaylee Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read!!

This is such a drastically different story than Kristen’s other books. The complexity of the story, the depth of the emotions, and the struggle of conflict, both internal and external are all woven beautifully into the story. I seriously can’t say enough!