An exceptional fantasy, The Harp of Kings has both incredible pacing and marvelous complex characters. It begins one way, establishing the characters, their dynamics, and the world they are in and steadily evolves into a tale of politics, mysterious intrigue, and magic. At first, it seems as though the novel is going to be more historical rather than fantasy, but once the fae folk sneaks into the story, the plot thickens, bringing to life the tension and complex characters. It gives the story and character something fantastical to contend with as they embark on this undercover mission that challenges how they see themselves and brings up memories for all the characters to evolve them.

The story itself builds up the world and the plot simultaneously, creating an engaging story for the reader. It starts by introducing the reader to the characters and their dynamics with one another, establishing the tension between them to give the reader an idea of what they think of one another while also reflecting the perspective and personality of the characters. There is depth to the characters that allow them to be relatable while balancing off one another perfectly. The story also challenges the perceptions of the characters and trains them to be better people.

To watch the characters grow within the restrictions set upon them by their masters shows masterful writing. It works so well with the pacing of the novel. There are so many intricacies of the novel, so many elements that give the story depth. The fantasy element, while not present all the time, lingers on the pages and gives the story, it has the perfect balance of fiction and fantasy to breathe life into the novel and the characters. The development of the characters and plot is exceptional.

I really loved this one! I haven't read Marillier in years, and I'm so happy that she's just as amazing as I remembered her. I thought the story was interesting, and it kept my attention throughout. I love the Celtic and fantasy elements, and I'm really excited that this is a series with more to come.

I'm usually not a huge fan of young adult, but I completely forget this was even categorized as young adult as I was reading. Love it!



A super big thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

A brother and sister (Brocc and Liobhan) are being trained as bards and spies. Midway through their training they are recruited along with another trainee (Dau) to infiltrate a coronation ceremony to find and retrieve a very special harp. Of course things do not go as planned as the Little Folks have become involved. And then there is the mater of finding who should be king. The three trainees and their handlers/mentors all have their hands full, but the end result is very well done. A very nice supernatural infused historical.

The Harp of Kings is a wonderful comeback to a series too early abandoned. In Blackthorn and Grim, you meet two unlikely people and watch them become friends, then heroes, then lovers. And in this, you don't watch them become parents, you see the marvelous job they've done in their children. The Harp of Kings is, I hope, the beginning of another amazing series. Your main character is also great in a feminist angle because she can be both feminine and deadly and likes to be both. Usually your main character is so fixated on being seen as a threat, she's not comfortable enough to be feminine, but Juliet Marillier is on another level, as always.

I am a huge fan of Juliet Marillier's work. I was so excited to read this latest book of hers and I was NOT disappointed. The story follows Liobhan and her brother Brocc, both elite warriors. They are joined by Dau to search for the Harp of Kings, and there is a lot of magic, music, fighting and mystery. I loved it and can't wait for the next book.

Great novel, highly recommend for those who enjoy the genre. Will be recommending for immediate purchase.

The Harp of Kings is the first book in a new series by Juliet Marillier. Released 3rd Sept 2019 by Penguin Random House on their Berkley Ace imprint, it's 464 pages and available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats.

This is a high fantasy epic quest spy-fi told in alternating 1st person PoV from the 3 main characters' viewpoints. The chapters are labeled with the characters' names to keep the narrative straight. I didn't find them altogether distinct from one another and confess that I had to look back at the beginning of the chapter to check, (but only occasionally).

This is a fairly long book (doorstop fantasy) and as such the plot arc developed very slowly. I enjoyed the author's voice, and she is undoubtedly a lyrical, technically adept writer. I liked the strong female lead character and how all three MCs have their own strengths and weaknesses. I was previously unfamiliar with her earlier books, but will go and search them out after this.

This would definitely appeal to fans of the genre. It is admittedly slow to develop (if I'm 100% honest, it was a bit of a slog for me a few places, and I'm not really sure why). The book includes a handy interactive table of contents. I've grown very fond of e-books with interactive content lately.

Four stars, probably higher for fans of her earlier series.

Took me a little bit to get into the story, but I know Juliet Marillier and I knew I just needed to find that thread of magic that hooks me every time. Hook me it did - her stories are magical from the content to the telling, and I loved that this new tale holds all the same elements I can expect: adventure, characters that touch the soul, magic, the uncanny, and the dogs. We do not deserve how wonderful dogs can be.

This is the first in a new series by one of my favourite authors so there's my bias. I've read in other reviews that some readers feel like it started a bit slow, but I've been in love with the way the author builds for a while now (so maybe I'm just accustomed to it). The way the politics quickly moves to an encompassing plot and land dynamic quite frankly snatched my wig. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series.

Having devoured Daughter of the Forest when it first was published, I jumped at the chance to read an electronic ARC of The Harp of Kings. One chapter in, I wondered what rock I'd been hiding under to miss All. The. Books. Juliet Marillier has written in the past 20 years. Every bit as enchanting and enchanted as the world of Sevenwaters, this new series focused on the warriors of Swan Island wraps the reader in a Celtic mist of bards and poetry, warriors and kings. Beautifully and surprisingly sketched characters populate the quest to recover the Harp of Kings, while twists and turns of both plot and pathways leave the reader wondering how anything good could possibly arise from the muddled knot which Liobhan, her brother Brocc, and their warrior-classmate Dau are tasked with unraveling. But unravel it they do, with minutes to spare, leading to a resolution that is full of wisdom and justice, though not without tears.

Eighteen-year-old Liobhan is a powerful singer and an expert whistle player. Her brother has a voice to melt the hardest heart, and a rare talent on the harp. But Liobhan's burning ambition is to join the elite warrior band on Swan Island. She and her brother train there to compete for places, and find themselves joining a mission while still candidates. Their unusual blend of skills makes them ideal for this particular job, which requires going undercover as traveling minstrels. For Swan Island trains both warriors and spies.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley. I was interested in this book because of the unique title and the cover, which reminded me of a Tamora Pierce novel. I was not familiar with Juliet Marillier when I chose this book, but, after finishing the first book in this series, I’m definitely interested to learn more about her other series.

The plot of this book is initially confusing. Things start off quickly and based on the first couple of chapters and the summary of the book, I expected the rest of the story to be a political espionage story and was ready to dutifully read through. However, a bit past 10% of the way in, dark,magical forces come into the play and I could not put the book down. Suddenly there were layers of plot weaving together in ways that made me wonder how the author would manage to pull it all together. If you can plow through the initial first pages, you’re in for a real treat.

This book is told from the point of view of three warrior spies from Swan Island: Liobhan, her adoptive brother Brocc and her rival Dau. Since the point of view is shared from three different people, it was initially difficult to connect with any of the protagonists, as we don’t get enough time to spend with each of them. Luckily, the plot pulled me forward and I grew to like each character for their unique voice. I was especially impressed with the way the author made me fall in love with secondary characters, like the story teller and a young girl from court.

Much like the other aspects of the book, it took me some time to feel grounded in the setting. The book starts on their training ground, Swan Island, but we only get to spend a chapter or two there. We don’t spend anytime at the character’s hometowns. The characters are then sent to a neighboring country for their mission. This country had an intriguing culture, history and magic system, that I enjoyed exploring through the characters. However, I still would have liked to see more of the world early on.

The Harp of Kings is the first book in Juliet Marillier’s Warrior Bards series. The book had an awkward and slow start, but quickly picks up into an intriguing, complex and impossible to put down story. You’ll find yourself falling in love with the main characters and their friends. My only hope is that in the upcoming sequels, we’ll have a chance to see more of the world she’s created than we could in this first book.

4.5 stars

I had never read a book by Juliet Marillier until now, though I had always meant to. I was definitely missing out. I loved this. There were so many things about it that just absolutely worked for me.

The premise was an intriguing one. I loved the way what started as already a rather complicated mission snowballed into an ethical question as well, but all without feeling needlessly complicated to read. It was so artfully written, and the solution was there all along yet not made obvious until just the right time. The plot was spot on lovely with so very much humanity and a lovely sprinkling of the magical as well.

The characters were wonderful. Three very different young warriors in training recruited onto this mission that should be a bit above their grade, but each bringing some special skill to the task. Seeing them through their own eyes was an intriguing touch, the three different first person views that made up the story gave them all a startling immediacy.

I'm not usually a fan of the first person view, but this is one of the cases where it worked so well that even just having tugged myself out of the book I had to go double check that that was indeed how it was written. I was too bogged down in the characters.

Liobhan was a lovely heroine, strong and brave and capable, but still also believably lovably flawed and vulnerable in her own ways. She was exactly the sort of heroine I think younger me should have had more of to read, and that older me is still so grateful for.

And Dau, even seen through his own eyes he was not likeable at first, but oh how I loved him by the end, as I hoped he was learning to value himself. He was wonderful.

Brocc was the most distant of the three characters for me, the most other, and yet that also fit him. I still loved him too, and understood him and the choices he made.
Even characters without narrative points of view felt real and alive and there were so many of them I was left wanting to know a bit more about.

I'm hard pressed to find something negative to say about the book. I was slow as molasses at reading it but every spare moment I found to pick it up I was immediately drawn right back in. To me so many things from the characters to the plot and pacing were spot on, and I enjoyed it enough that I will certainly pick up other books by Juiliet Marillier in the future.

Juliet Marillier is one of the most talented storytellers of our time. It's lovely to see the story told in Blackthorn and Grim advanced to the next generation. Absolutely fantastic novel!

The Swan Island super-elite mercenaries/spies have figured in previous stories by Juliet Marillier. This tale begins in the training school with three talented students, Liobhan and her adopted brother, Brocc, and the gorgeous but conceited young nobleman, Dau. The three are recruited as part of a party hired to recover the missing Harp of Kings, essential for the coronation of the next king of Breifne. Brocc and Liobhan, talented musicians both, go underground as members of a performing troupe, while Dau masquerades as a mute farrier’s assistant. Despite all their training and motivation, they each find it nigh impossible to maintain their disguises. All is not well in Breifne; the crown prince is arrogant, self-centered, and violently antagonistic to anything eldritch, including the fae Overworld that has traditionally co-existed with the human world to the peace and prosperity of both.

Marillier has grown from a talented new voice to a consummately skillful pro with exquisite control of narrative, character development, and plot. From the first page, I found myself relaxing and immersing myself in the story. Along the way, I noticed that instead of bashing me over the head with exposition, Marillier inserts subtle clues about each character’s inner turmoil, hopes, and relationships, in addition to important details in other characters and settings. This deepening of the story is brilliantly handled, and adds to the emotional satisfaction of every step of the journey. I’ve long been a fan of Marillier’s work, but The Harp of Kings clinches it!

Unfortunately I wasn't a big fan of this book! The synopsis has all the ingredients for a book I love, but, in this case, I think the characters just killed it for me, in the sense that I always felt like I was in an outer body experience because I never felt like I could truly get in the heads of the characters. Maybe this is just me because a lot of others seem to be giving it positive reviews, but for me, I am a very character-driven book person, and while the plot was interesting and well done, I was never truly invested because I didn't care about the characters. I've never read this author before, but she's been on my list forever! So I do plan to go back, and read a few more of this author's works because I did like her writing style overall.

I really enjoyed this book. I haven't read Marillier before but I will be now! All three of the POV characters have good depth, progression, and a unique voice. Dau was my personal favorite but that's not to say I didn't love the other two and all three grow and change by story's end. It was hard to put down, particularly after the first few chapters of set-up. I like a good detective/spy story so toss in some fantasy elements and I'm a happy reader. I found the plot to be very intriguing and absorbing throughout and I think the balance between real world and supernatural was well-done. The ending was great too, I can feel that there's more coming for these characters in a wider plot but this story had an ending that was satisfying. That's one of my pet peeves with fantasy series (cliffhangers that is) so I'm happy this one didn't do that.

My only criticism is I would've loved to see more diversity in the cast. All the characters are white but their race doesn't play into the plot at all so it would've been great to have more representation there. In fantasy in particular, where the writer makes all the rules, I don't see why this couldn't be done. So a bit too old-fashioned for me in that respect, more in line with the fantasy series of previous decades, but I can tell there's more to come. I'll be reading book 2 for sure and would definitely recommend this to any fantasy reader.

Note: I received a free Kindle edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher Ace, and the author Juliet Marillier for the opportunity to do so.

I really liked this! Celtic high fantasy is always fun, and Marillier especially wove in many concepts from ancient Celtic religion (like the nemetons and druids) but placed them in contrast to royal machinations and spycraft. I thoroughly enjoyed all three main characters, especially of course Liobhan - I am always weak for strong and brash female characters beating up would-be assailants, haha. I left off a star because I'm not sure the book presented anything "new" to the genre, and I was a little disappointed with how... neatly the whole thing wrapped up (especially the crows? Is that not a problem any more?). Perhaps Marillier will be turning this one into a series as well? At any rate, solid book, 4/5.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm always a fan of Marillier's books, and while I enjoyed this one as well, it did drag a bit in spots for me. I liked this one, but it's definitely not one of my favorite Marillier.

What an amazing story! Reading books with several different character viewpoints can be tricky but Juliet handles it masterfully! I loved how it was all weaved together. It’s not a quick read as there is a wealth of knowledge and piecing things together. I look forward to more about these characters and this world.

I was provided with an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @37%

I hate to DNF a book I received for review, but I could just not get into this one. I could not for the life of me connect to any of the characters. The story is told in 3 POVs--brother and sister Brocc and Liobhan, and Dau. The voice of all 3 characters seemed so similar to me that at times I forgot which POV I was reading from.

The premise of the story did have me interested, as they are warrior bards in training given a mission to retrieve an important harp needed for the coronation of the next King. Harps integral to the story line remind me of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which is my favorite story line for a Zelda game, so I was pretty excited to dive right in. However, I found this plot pretty slow and meandering. It's slightly related to the fact that all three POV characters are all doing different things that seem to be all over the place.

I think perhaps I would have enjoyed this a little bit more if I read more of Ms. Marillier's other books. I've only read the first Blackthorn and Grim novel. This book follows the children from that series, I believe, and is likely also filled with many Easter eggs. With only having read the first one, I'm not really catching any of that, and I definitely did not encounter any children after only one book.

Maybe I'll pick it up after I read more Blackthorn and Grim, which I did enjoy and would like to read more of those novels. But for now, I do not feel like dragging my feet any further in reading this book.