I am a huge history fan and I love reading books set in this time period and this novel does not disappoint.

While the focus on so many novels is your strong, brave, fearless MALE hero – this novel takes a different approach. It follows Roxana’s story who as a young girl at the tender age of sixteen marries Alexander the Great. Now you think with such a husband, she would be forced into the back burner of the story but her tale is unique. She is just as fearless as him and perhaps even stronger?

She is not of royal blood but is a strong young woman who has grown up learning to be independent, take care of herself and not to bend to societal rules. Her beauty is what first attracts Alexander’s eye but it is her fierce determination, strength and confidence which sets them down the path of true love.

This path, while full of love, is also full of lies, war and constant struggle for power. She is caught up in the web of deceit many times and has to rely on herself only in order to survive. She is clever, strong, fierce and everything you want to be. You feel her pain when she loses her first child in labour and rejoice with her when she does give birth. Your heart is sore for her as she struggles for acceptance and to understand the politics and rules that guide her life. You hurt alongside her at the loss of her husband and when she is not allowed to grieve as she has to do everything to protect her child.

It is an incredible story from start to finish that you will not want to put down. I read this book in one sitting as I was just fascinated by her and her journey. This is a book that does not disappoint!

"Realm" is the story of Macedonian king Alexander the Great who conquered Persia, Egypt and all the way to India, seen through the eyes of his Persian-born first wife Roxana.

At first the novel gives the impression of a romance novel but that somehow does not work because I certainly did not like Alexander as he is depicted here. He lets his wife travel in the baggage train of his army and only occasionally visits her to have a night of passion and then leaves her alone for months at the time.

As most of Roxana's life consists on travelling with the army waiting for her husband that part of the novel might be very historically correct but a bit boring.

The last half of the novel is more of a thriller and quite captivating. Roxana the Persian has to keep her son and the heir to Alexander safe within a turmoil of civil war violence.

In my language "a Greec tragedy" is what is called a story with a lot of death and destruction and heartache and that is certainly the case here.

Wikipedia and the writer do not agree on events later in the book but I can imagine why the writer choose a more consious event.

Due to the good last part of the novel a 4 starts out of 5.

It will be published May the 14th 2019. Mine was an ARC-copy I received for free and I was not obliged to write a review.

This book was not what I originally had expected when I started reading but I couldn't put it down until I finished. The story pulls you in from the beginning and I found myself drawn into a whole new world of historical page turning. The in depth description of that era paints vivid scenes for all the characters and an interesting story that will have you caught up wanting to know what happens to the main character Roxanna. I definitely think that this is a book anyone could enjoy.

Realm by Alexandrea Weis, well written and novel insight into a time and place that hold peoples' imaginations. Roxana the mysterious young woman who captured the heart and mind of a legendary historical figure. Insightful and well worth reading.

I give this novel a strong 4.5/5.0. A great story. Well-developed characters. And an interesting writing style. The characters truly took you on a journey. The world that Alexandrea created was attention pulling and well thought out. The world-building was well structured and executed.

Alexandrea Weis has written a book that should be on high school reading lists. It is also very timely in this day and age of female empowerment and important discussions on both women and minorities. Who doesn't want to know about the sixteen-year-old girl who stole the heart of Alexander the Great as well as affected the fate of his empire? This title is for people who enjoy history with the addition of romance, power, betrayal, and intrigue. From the TV side, comparable elements can be found in REIGN (formerly on CW) and ROME (HBO). Highly recommend. It's about time someone told the woman's story in the epic journey of one of the greatest conquerors the world has ever known.

Realm fell flat for me. I wasn't interested enough in the subject matter of this book. I don't think it's for me.

I wish I could report otherwise, but Alexandrea Weis’ Realm proved a poor fit for me. The subject matter is there, but the themes didn’t materialize the way I needed them to.

Roxana struck me as inconsistent and I had difficulty appreciating her character. She experiences moments of strength, but she backslides so quickly that those moments struck me as inauthentic. She also relies heavily on the women around her, so much so that I found characters like Yasmin and Morella more compelling than Roxana herself.

I liked Weis’ take on Alexander, but here again, I was often confused. He is a POV character, but he enjoys the privilege infrequently and I struggled with the imbalance that created within the fabric of the narrative. I was also frustrated that most of his interactions with Roxana spent between the sheets. I don’t mind the content, but I needed to see something more than sexual chemistry between Weis’ leads.

I enjoyed Weis use of the Achilles/Patroclus parallel to Alexander/Hephaestion, but I think she could have done more with it. The author tells more than she shows between these two and I felt myself longing for greater depth that the novel ultimately afforded. I also think the novel was a little thin on historical detail, but I am willing to believe that an artistic decision rooted in the author’s preference for the romantic elements of the story.

In terms of structure, I felt the story should have begun with the final chapter and proceeded in retrospect, but I also wanted a distinct antagonist. For the vast majority of the novel, Roxana’s greatest enemy is herself and I needed something more tangible than personal demons. The final third of the novel gets more political, but that section was a long time coming and felt like an entirely different book.

At the end of the day, I’d have a hard time recommending Weis’ Realm over Thornton’s The Conqueror’s Wife, but that’s just me. Weis’ effort has good bones, but I needed stronger thematic content and greater complexity from this piece.

This was a good book, it was different then all the other book centering around Alexander the great in that it made Roxana out to be more of a warrior then I've seen before. I liked it!!

This was a long book with over 60+ chapters. It took me about four and a half days to read, it was long, but worth it. I loved the history of this book, the Greeks and the Persians, and I loved the characters and world-building. The storyline was good, but a little over halfway I was just wanting to be done already. There was so much there, that I think the author would’ve done better if she’d split the book in two. Or perhaps its just my short attention span these days, lol.
My main gripe with this is that it seems while there was a strong female lead character, most of the other women weren’t fighters, and looked to her for her bravery and strength. She’s so much stronger and better than the rest of the women that I encountered in the book, it grew a bit annoying. Though I still liked Roxana’s character, sometimes she grated on my nerves.

Also, Alexander seemed a bit like an entitled a**. Then again, so do most men of that era, thinking that they should own and control everything. I probably wouldn’t have lived long in that time period, lol.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was definitely a refreshing change of pace from my typical read, and I always appreciate that when reading new books. Overall, I’m giving this 4/5 stars.

This was an interesting read, specially because I love History so much.
It's different and a side of Alexander, the Great I'd like to think was real. I enjoyed the story, even though at some point it flatlined for me.
We all know what's happening (that's the risk of writing a fictional story about famous characters), but ai still would have liked to see somwthing diferent in the outcome.
It became a bit boring after some point, but up until there I was really enjoying the story.

I really enjoyed the plot of this book. I love the strength of the main character which is Roxana. I also really loved her character development. From a girl pining for a husband’s attention to a strong mother, this character’s strength as a person and a woman is something that I wish I have for myself. I’m also really interested in her relationship with Alexander. Their relationship is beyond complex and I have this doubt if it’s really love but their interactions are very interesting and different from other books. I also really liked the diversity in the personality of the characters even if they’re hard to keep track of because of the difficult names (I think it’s just me).

This book is close to perfection for me. I loved its pacing even when it’s quite slow. I liked the characters and the plot. However, I have to say that this book isn’t for everyone. We all have our preferences and not all can enjoy these kinds of books.

Overall, I highly recommend this book for lovers of historical fiction. It’s a book that’s different from what I usually read – truly refreshing!

Not for me
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