Allies & Assassins

Loved the book, loved the setting. The suspense, will the mystery be solved? A must read book :)

I really wanted to love this book. But it didn't pull me in and I didn't connect like I thought. All in all, not a horrible book, but my expectations were just too high, I think.

Really 2.5 starsI really wanted to enjoy this book, I am just not sure what happened... the premise is so good - an assassination, a new prince, betrayals, and a historical fiction-ish genre. It just seemed so up-my-alley. Sadly it was just so slow-paced. You begin the book as the court is hearing about and sending word of the death of Prince Anders, who has just been assassinated and then jump into the world of the Princes. I really liked the book at first, within the first few chapters I felt for the family and the world building was wonderful and there was even a few gasp-y moments. Then after that... it was just kind of blah. Yes, there were still some great moments and the characters are great and the world building was great and very detailed - but I think all that got in the way of the plot, or lack-thereof. The book is told from multiple points of view. We alternate a lot: the Falconer, the Prince, the Captain of the Guard, The Physician's Assistant etc. It got to be a bit overwhelming. I enjoyed reading from the POV of the Physician's Assistant, she was inquisitive and wanted the truth of the murders, but there were random people's POVs thrown in and so we got tid-bits of info that in some cases weren't part of the plot (as of yet at least).The saddest part for me was that I figured it all out about half way through the book. Not the whole thing but the who-done-it part and from then on out I read the book knowing who to be on the lookout for... I think that it was supposed to be a twist-ending but for me it wasn't (sad face).When it came down to it, the ending was interesting but after the rest of the book was so slow it was hard for me to be excited about.

3.75 StarsThis novel is a YA murder mystery set during what felt like medieval times (although the actual time period is never mentioned). Think Clue mixed with Canterbury Tales. It's basically a whodunnit book for tweens, teens, and even adults who want an easy read. The plot is interesting and the writing flowed nicely. The characters are likeable, although I would have loved to have more background information about each of the main characters. The ending left room for a sequel and I look forward to the next one. LT Early Reviewers

The Prince of Archenfield has been murdered and his younger (age 16) brother Jared ascends to the throne. He has to deal with court politics, leading the princedom through the grief, and investigating his brother's assassination. He has an ally in Asta, the court physician's niece/apprentice/love interest. Jared is advised by a Council of Twelve, people like the Physician, the Bodyguard, the Falconer, the Hunter, and so on. Not all of them can be trusted...The author delves into multiple points of view of these people, as well as Jared and Asta, but I didn't get enough time with any one character for them to develop a strong voice and sense of purpose. Despite the length the plot seemed rushed and disjointed. The world-building was good, but I didn't care enough about the characters to care what happened to them. The book resolves some threads but ends on a direct cliffhanger. I don't think I'll pick up the second one.

I received this from the early reviewer program.This book really surprised me. I thought it'd be more focused on the main characters for some reason, but it starts out very focused on the story and world building. I really enjoyed reading it and exploring the mystery.The book takes place at a court and features multiple POVs. All of the POVs held my interest and seemed warranted. There are many characters and it can be a little difficult to keep track of at first. I was quickly pulled into the story anyways. I recommend it to those who like historical fiction, fantasy or even mystery novels.

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie TalesQuick & Dirty: This densely packed book didn’t give me the suspense nor tension that I expected; nevertheless, the writing was pretty and the characters complex.Opening Sentence: The last of her seven falcons balanced on her wrist, Nova Chastain walked back out onto the balcony once more.The Review:Archenfield’s leader has just been assassinated, plunging the kingdom into chaos. Suddenly, his Edling Jared is pushed into the spotlight, forced into a crown he’s not sure he’s ready for. Everyone expects something from him, and he doesn’t think he can satisfy everyone. Not only this, but they still must find his brother’s killer – the blood price must be paid. Asta Peck, the physician’s apprentice, is bright and curious, the perfect ally for Jared – or maybe more than an ally. As more and more people fall victim to murders, secret romances are revealed and new clues come to light, but will it be enough to bring the killer to justice once and for all? And even if they can, will Jared ever become the ruler his brother was and lead a whole kingdom to prosperity?I read this in pieces. This book was five hundred pages. Given, I’ve read much bigger books, but this one had such thick description that it was incredibly dense. Reading one page felt like reading three, so it got hard to read this novel. First I got about halfway through, and then I couldn’t take it, and stopped for a few months. Then I read the rest later on in a few days. The problem wasn’t the length, it was really the lack of action and the absence of good tension that made it feel so dull. Luckily, this book did have something good going for it. The writing was beautiful, and enjoyable in its melodic flow; it was perfect for the high fantasy genre it was placed in.The characters were also good in this novel as well. There is a lot of them, so you have to reference the little chart at the beginning quite a bit until you can get the hang of them all. One thing that Somper did that was cool to me was feature many different side character’s points of view. He probably gave around ten different characters their own chapters. You got to see a small but incredibly revealing glimpse into their thoughts, emotions, and turmoil in just a couple pages, and it definitely helped to understand the world and created empathy in readers.Jared and Asta were a team in this novel. They worked together and Jared at some points thought that Asta was the only one he could trust. She was curious and thirsted for truth, and although Jared tried to keep her safely on the sidelines, eventually she was too immersed in the mystery to back out. There was this whole thing with “he’s a king, he can’t be a real friend” going on, but Jared didn’t give that an ounce of credit. Something super funny is that despite the obvious chemistry between the two, in five hundred pages they didn’t kiss once. Okay, I lied – but a peck on the cheek hardly counts as a kiss. I’m assuming something will happen in the next book. It must.Altogether, I thought this book achieved certain facets such as the characters, writing style, and rich imagery. Other aspects, not so much. It failed in tension and suspense. I have heard, actually, that other people thought it had rich tension, but I couldn’t see it at all. It made the book feel incredibly long, longer than it needed to be. Nevertheless, I feel that certain people will enjoy the lush medieval setting and intrigue of the murder mystery, so go ahead and give it a try – but maybe pick it up from the library first, instead of buying it?Notable Scene:“What’s that you say, child?” Elin inquired of her.Silva’s eyes had a new determination about them. “Anders lives on in me.”“What exactly do you mean?”Silva smiled sweetly but she did not answer with words. Instead, she simply raised a delicate hand and placed it apon her belly.FTC Advisory: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group provided me with a copy of Allies and Assassins. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program in exchange for an honest review. (And oh, is this an honest review). In light of how very much I considered wrong with this book, I thought I’d start with the positives first. It contained a plot that was loosely engaging, in that I wanted to discover who had committed the murders and what it portended. It contained a character I considered somewhat sympathetic and I was genuinely intrigued by the villain at the end. I would have rather have heard the story from his POV, but alas, we are only given a glimpse of that. Still, the glimpse was fascinating.The series seems to have some potential, particularly thinking about Archenfield’s bordering nations. I also enjoyed some of the sleuthing that Asta engaged in, although she vastly overstepped her bounds. And...that’s about all the positive things I can add. Onto the actual review. “To take this throne, they’ll have to take his life.” Such is the tagline on Allies and Assassins and it intends to serve as a warning to the reader. However, the more I reflect upon it, the less impressive the tagline appears. Successors in hostile takeovers seldom receive their throne through peaceful negotiations. History is rife with poisoning, stabbing, and scheming one’s way to the top. (Murder, arson, and jaywalking, if you will).Unfortunately, the tagline also serves as another sort of warning. There is little original here, and as a result, little to hold the reader’s interest. A royal falls in love with a charming commoner. Someone is plotting to take his throne and he cannot hold onto his power. As a middle grade, one takes the protagonist’s youth as par for the course, but his denseness remains a problem. For example, as heir apparent, one would think that Jared would have some concept of court intrigue. Yet, repeatedly, he shows ignorance to anything resembling close knowledge. The book’s sole redeeming character, Asta, assesses the situation much faster than her compatriots and is able to put two and two together. Unfortunately, she fails to do this in a situation that forces her to become a damsel in distress. This leads me to my next point.Females are only empowered so far as males will permit them to be. In Archenfield, the Prince (who should really be called the ‘King’, but whatever) rules over the land. The female at his side is not a queen or princess, she is a consort. Even Queen Elin, who has affected the moniker, has no real power. Jared finds her scheming to be abhorrent, although scheming is all Elin can really do. Once her husband has perished, she is kept around like an interesting painting on the wall. She is all show and no substance.When Woodlark’s queen calls her out on this, she claims that either men or women can hold power in Archenfield, but that’s not true. Yes, women are among The Twelve, but they cannot hold office beyond that. Moreover, the women serve in traditionally feminine roles, such as cook, beekeeper, and even the falconer. Silva, the former consort, fares little better. Reduced to a female archetype, that of the love struck and then jealous woman, Silva is described as something of a doll. Her power lies in her symbolism, not in herself. Her rival, Nova, is described in terms of a motherly role and as a seductress. Although her skills with the falcons are legendary, Asta describes her in terms of her attractiveness and then her compulsions toward Anders. Evidently, no female can stand apart from her surroundings without succumbing to male temptation.Not only this, but the ‘revelation’ that Nova was in love with Anders was apparent from the first page. Even if we argue that the characters aren’t privy to that, to return to the point about intelligence, it would not have been too difficult to prove she had penned the notes. For god’s sake, instead of interviewing everyone, why don’t you just require them to write something and then compare the handwriting? Why did you spend twenty pages interviewing people? Is this how an investigation proceeds in your world? For that matter, no wonder the coroner seems so terrible at his job. He is quick to agree with whatever the Captain of the Guard says. An adult should not constantly be outwitted by his teenage niece. World building is similarly flawed. Archenfield relies heavily on these ‘bells’, a system of which I could only loosely discern. Silva remarks that Woodlark uses hours and makes me wonder why the hell Archenfield couldn’t do the same. There are thirteen bells. There are twenty four hours in a day. So how, exactly, do the bells correlate? Characters refer to things as one would in reality, which is another severance to suspension of disbelief. Virginia creepers. Really? You couldn’t have figured out another way to describe that in a world that has no connection to ours? At one point, Jared quotes from the Bible and gives no explanation for how he knows the Bible in that world. Lazy writing. Lazy, lazy writing. As a general rule, the writer should never shift POV in mid scene unless the writer indicates it in some way. Several times throughout the book, the POV shifts without reason or recourse in the same scene. This is not only confusing, but inconsistent. You pick a narrator and you stick with him until you indicate to the reader that you have changed your mind. Overall, I was disappointed with this book. I had entertained high hopes, perhaps because I had finished an excellent book immediately before this. Unfortunately, this book did not meet expectations.

Allies and Assassins by Justin SomperI received a copy of this book through a Library Thing giveaway. All opinions are my own. Thank you to Hachette Book Group.This is a difficult review for me due to my conflicting feelings regarding this book as a whole. I think, for sake of my sanity, that I will split it into two parts, starting with my comments on the story.Allies and Assassins is carefully plotted. The characters, though many, each have a specific duty to the kingdom as well as the storyline. Let’s start with the prince and the twelve, who serve at advisors to the prince, and correlate to the bell tolls in Archenfield. I’m not going to comment on all of them because that’s too much, but a few were memorable characters.The Prince: Jared Prince Jared becomes Prince of All Archenfield after his older brother, Prince Anders, is murdered. At sixteen, Jared knows that he is young and far too inexperienced to fill his late brother’s shoes. I think out of everyone, Jared is my favorite character. I found his struggles relatable and realistic. He’s a teenage boy thrown into a situation he doesn’t fully comprehend, who often makes adult decisions and has childish reactions. I empathized with him as he struggled to become a leader over the twelve, who seem to run the kingdom without much input (or interest) from the prince. As the story unfolded, Jared grew into a prince, learning how to be authoritative when the situation warranted, though he never lost his open-mindedness. Politically, he always had someone whispering in his ear. While I found some of his decisions frustrating, I understood the internal battle to make the right choices while giving the impression that he knew what he was doing. The Beekeeper: EmelieEmelie is a bit of an enigma to me. She has a scathing attitude though I don’t fully understand why. I’m hoping that, as the story was left open-ended, we will learn more of her story in upcoming novels.The Bodyguard: HalThe story sets the reader up to distrust Hal, who serves as bodyguard of the prince. In the opening scenes, we see Hal conspiring with Axel to murder the princes. I get the impression that Hal is a bit simple-minded, a “do what you’re told” kind of man. Though I knew I should distrust him, by the end of the story, I found myself warring between liking and disliking him as a character. He is very obedient to Jared and we never see him conspire with Axel again.The Captain of the Guard: AxelAxel is a well thought out character. As captain, Axel has access to the inner workings of the kingdom. He conducts all the investigations into the murders, and as I stated with Hal, we see him plotting early on to kill Jared. No matter what happened, I distrusted Axel, even when he had his redeeming moments. We know all along that he wants to be prince and is power hungry, no matter the consequences. I kept expecting him to make his move.The Cook: VeraVera was not an exceptionally important character to the story. I didn’t get a good feeling for her guilt/innocence as it relates to twelve. She could go either way, I think. The Executioner: MorganMorgan is an interesting character. As executioner, he’s a bit macabre. However, he has a close relationship with Jared’s mother, the queen. I get the impression that he is an honorable man, however his relationship with Elin (the queen) makes me question his loyalties.The Falconer: NovaThe story starts with Nova. I found her mysterious and suspicious. She has strong opinions and for a while, I didn’t understand why. I enjoyed the imagery of her in the mews with her falcons. I hope to see more of her in future novels. There is one point I didn’t like regarding Nova, and that was her fast recovery. It felt too convenient.The Groom: LucasThe Huntsman: KaiThe Physician: EliasThe Priest: Father SimeonThe Poet: LoganEarly on, I found Logan untrustworthy. He seemed too smooth, too calculating, and he knew far too much. He had his hands in everyone’s business and constantly “advised” Jared as to what decisions to make. It frustrated me that he was a know it all, even when he seemed informed and conscientious. The Woodsman: Jonas I don’t remember Jonas. Not even a little. The last character I want to talk about is Asta, who is the physician’s apprentice. She’s a fiery girl from the country who doesn’t know how to act appropriate at court. I found her endearing and feisty. Whenever there was a disaster (or a murder) Asta was all about it. She seemed to be a catalyst for a lot of the murders, even if she wasn’t directly involved. She left a trail of unintentional destruction with her inquiries into everyone’s lives. I particularly enjoyed Asta’s relationship with Jared, as they were on the same level emotionally, even though their statuses are markedly different. They worked well as a team, and I think Asta kept Jared on the level when the princedom threatened to ruin his unjaded personality. The Storyline:The storytelling was intricate and detailed, woven together in ways I didn’t always expect. With so many characters that were fairly easy to keep straight, I think Somper did an excellent job of making everyone memorable with some degree of importance to the plot. Obviously, not all of the twelve were fully developed, and I hope there will be a sequel. The mystery of who killed Prince Anders kept the story moving along. There wasn’t much fluff or detours from important information. There’s enough room to suspect everyone as guilty, and still enough of an open ending for me to STILL suspect some of the characters, despite the Clue-like ending. (It’s Miss Scarlet in the conservatory with the candlestick!) The ending was satisfying without being obvious, even if the execution was a bit forced. I liked the shifting points of view, but at times felt there were too many and the story should’ve only been told from Jared and Asta’s points of view. I’m left curious about Jared’s mother, the queen. She seems a bit shady, especially where Axel, Morgan, Silva, and Jared’s family history are involved. I want to know more about Morgan, Kai, Koel (cool name, by the way!), and the Priest. Also, we never find out HOW the murderer actually gets the poison to kill the prince. The story is what’s getting this book 3.5 stars. It could’ve been 4 or even 4.5 if not for what’s below.I almost quit reading Allies and Assassins within the first ten pages. I am by no means and expert, but I think the editor might’ve let down the author on several points. The first 50 or so pages contain so much passive voice that I spent most of my time editing them as I read. There were enough “could feel” “could see” and “could hears” to fill an entire notebook. Far too much telling and not enough showing. The extra words were annoying to get through, especially when clear, concise writing is so lauded these days. The passive voice made Jared seem disconnected from his body and distracted me. The story, at the beginning, wasn’t strong enough for me to overlook the writing, and had I not agreed to review this book, I would’ve put it down and never picked it back up. Had I done that, I would’ve missed out on Somper’s enjoyable storytelling. In addition to the distracting passive voice, Somper used several “cliché” and modern phrases that didn’t fit his time period. “Plan A” “Precious cargo” “Automaton” “Brain cells” “Running on empty” “Jury’s out on that” just to name a few. These pulled me right out of the story and should’ve been flagged by an editor. So really, I’m of two minds with Allies and Assassins. After the story caught my interest, it became easier for me to ignore the passive voice, and I think it tapered off farther into the story. However, it’s hard for me to recommend something, even when the storytelling is great, when the writing (mostly the editing) was subpar. Bottom line? I will read the sequel if there is one, but I hope more care is taken to give Somper’s story the editing it deserves. 3.5 Stars

This book was fairly interesting. A bit young for me, more middle grade but still decent. The Prince has been murdered, died in the night screaming and hallucinating, with only his wife by his side. Word travels fast, and soon Jared is told of his brother’s death and that he will be ascending to the throne. He also must oversee the investigation into his brother’s sudden passing.He not only has to deal with his own grief but also taking over the throne and leading his country through the loss of their beloved Prince. (Archenfield is a Princedom not a Kingdom, the ruler is a called a Prince instead of a King. I don’t quite understand the purpose of that but whatever.)The investigation happens fast, a little too fast actually. The suspected assassin is found the next day. But Asta, the physician’s niece and apprentice has some doubts. Some things don’t quite add up. It also doesn’t help that other members of the royal court start dropping like flies. It becomes pretty clear that there is a bigger plot going on. Asta and Jared join forces to figure out who is behind the assassinations before they can reach Jared. I liked Jared well enough. He was picked to be the heir at only 14 and he’s had only two years of training before having to take over the country. He thought he would have much longer to prepare. He doubts his ability to lead. We don’t really get to know him though. Same with Asta. She’s a good character. Head strong, smart. She isn’t used to court life, her uncle only recently bringing her to court to be his apprentice. She breaks court protocol on several occasions. But we don’t get to discover her likes and dislikes or anything in depth about her history. That actually happens with all the characters. I feel like I didn’t really get to know them. Also, early in the book (in the first few chapters) a plot to kill the Prince is revealed, but it’s not the plot that actually killed him. So these would-be assassins are left scratching their heads at who did it and why the Prince was murdered. But then they move their sites onto Jared. I don’t know if I liked this or not, because for the rest of the book I kept going DON’T TRUST THEM. OMG JARED. However, the actual assassin was a real surprise, I had no idea. The dialogue could’ve been better. It was a little cheesy as time but it wasn’t terrible.A decent start to a new series.