I want to start by saying this wasn't exactly a bad book, but it just wasn't something I could enjoy. The author is clearly talented and I know she will have her audience, but that audience is, unfortunately, not me. In the moments where I wasn't extremely bored, I was confused. Confused by the magic system, the world, and the amount of characters. I kept hoping that something would shift and I would care about even one character, but I'm afraid the only emotion I would have felt had everyone suddenly dropped dead would have been relief. The book switched POVs so often that I found it hard to get attached to any of the characters, or their personal conflicts.

It was an interesting concept with an interesting world, the execution just fell flat for me.

Definitely a worthwhile read. The world was smooth and realized while the host of characters interacted well with each other.

2.5 stars.
Some of the book was interesting and some of the characters too, but i won't be reading the next book.
It was a bit too much and some characters were so annoying and just in general, meh.

Intrigued. That is the word for it. This is a substantial first book in what is shaping up to be a large epic fantasy. The world-building is excellent, very vivid - there are several scenes I still have in my head, which is just amazing, and to be honest, it hasn't happened in a while. The concept of the Godstones is very interesting, both being bonded to one yet able to use others, magic becomes another tool that can be stripped away is one of the users ends up in a bad situation (you know they will!) Many of the characters are delightful and pull you into their story. Others are not (yet?) so likable, but this could be very deliberate. Very much looking forward to the next one!

A fun read! I didn't know what to expect when I started this one, but I liked the cover, and the blurb sounded fun. I really enjoyed it, though, and am glad I got the chance to read it! I enjoyed the characters, and the story was well written!

I was kindly given an advanced copy of this book so I could provide an honest review.

All The King’s Traitors is the first book in the Highwings series by Kelyin Rivers. This is the author’s debut novel, a fantasy tale following the stories of several characters and their adventures of survival in a land where it isn’t good to be different, to have powers and abilities coveted by someone more dangerous and powerful than you.

Ever since the blackout and the fall of the first Godstones the people of Azanthea are ruled by a greedy, cruel and god-line king, Apollyon. Seemingly all powerful and unstoppable as he gathers many Godstones and keeps them close Gifting them to only a chosen few, those he can control and keep under his thumb. Always in power, as a God.

So, when little Kuba comes across a freshly fallen Godstone he must either choose to submit to the God-King or run and pray for the survival of his family and bis brother, Ion. Together the two brothers flee to safety and fight to stay alive long enough for Kuba to learn the intricacies of wielding a God-stone.

They are helped on their journey by Aurelia, a fugitive heiress of a defeated people, who is also a wielder of a God-stone. Aurelia tells the brothers about the Free Wielders, a people who are free and far from the grip of the God-King.

Together they begin the perilous journey to the secret whereabouts of the Free Wielders. There they join the Free Wielders and join the war against the God-King, Apollyon.

Though it seems like a battle they are destined to lose, until the God-King is betrayed by his heir, Vallich. Vallich, having his eyes opened to the God-King’s truth, he sets out to bring it all crumbling down around the so-called God-King. But, because of his past and reputation, Vallich must prove he can be trusted and what his true intentions really are. But what are his chances when he couldn’t convince Kari, his only friend of the God-King’s truth.

Kari was held too firmly under the sway of the God-King, Apollyon. Too convinced he was everything he portrayed himself to be, the saviour of the people. Happy and secure with her position in the House of Historians, Kari never thought to question any of it, certain that Vallich’s mind had turned. Then the trials began to determine who the new heir to the God-King would be, Kari was thrilled to be invited to compete, that is until she is in the trials actually competing. She slowly comes to the realisation that maybe there was some truth to what Vallich had said. Not everything is as it seems with the God-King.

Time will tell if all the King’s traitors will succeed, stay alive and win freedom for all the people of Azanthea.

This fantasy tale is vivid and colourful, with several intricately written characters and storylines coming together to form a beautiful tapestry that is “All The King’s Traitors”. Written at a good pace with an exciting storyline that made it quite enjoyable to read. A great escape from reality. Will definitely be keeping my eyes out for the next in the series.

This one was really good, however, I think it would have made sense to be a movie. There are a few POVs and to start I was a little confused. But once the story really go going I started understanding things a lot better. I would say that I would recommend this one to those who love multi POVs and a fast paced story!

Can we say Sara J Mass meets Keylin Rivers! Loved this book it reminded me of Sara J Mass books, It had everything from action-adventure, to romance in it! You will not be disappointed!

I very much enjoyed this book. I think it is well written and got me sucked into the story pretty much right away.

I do recommend this one .

<i>Thank you so much to Xpresso Book Tours for giving me an ARC of Keylin Rivers’ All The King’s Traitors via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

“I am the best, but I am no fool.” - Vallich, God-King Heir

All The King’s Traitors is set in the nation of Azanthea. Years have passed after overpopulation and humanity killed one another, until a meteor killed everyone except for a few humans who were given Godstones, a stone that gives the first human who touches it an ability to control an element. Now, Azanthea is ruled by a powerful God-King, and an uprising is coming led by traitors, who each have their own different reasons to go against the king.

All The King’s Traitors have a concept, and I actually liked it. But it did not show what the book is about. I was put into an adventure and this whole worldbuilding, but what was this book about? The novel is told in the different perspectives of the traitors, each have their own reason to commit treason, and we get different contrasts and perspectives. They are going to lead the uprising, but then, after that, what? Rivers do not establish a clear, strong motivation that would make you root for the characters. It’s the usual, ‘I will save the family’, or ‘I want to usurp the tyrant king’. The subplot about the Allstones or whatever was nice but we did not delve in deeper.

The characters are wonderfully molded, their tone exquisite between the words. However, Rivers seems to set Vallich, Aurelia and Ion on a love triangle, but it comes through as stale. While Vallich and Aurelia do have some spark, Aurelia and Ion don't. More like a brother-sister relationship. But I wouldn’t like to see any of the three ending up on one another. I already like Vallich and Aurelia’s <s>’You-murdered-my-father-but-I-will-not-kill-you-yet’</s> friendship.

I get that this is book one of a series, and it’s laying out the foundations. It did lay out its foundations but I guess it was just too slow for me? Slow in a sense that I am dragged into this sudden adventure without even knowing anything or establishing a goal that I can root for in the characters. It’s too weak as a Book 1 of an epic fantasy. The concept is honestly there but it lacks something, like a spark, or maybe more fresh flesh and avoid the usual cliche tropes.

If you enjoy fantasy, you need to read this book.
Let me start off by saying I am not a fan of multi POVs at all, but Keylin Rivers has made me see the error in my ways. In ATKT we are following multiple characters who are all written so well that I almost couldn’t pick favorites. Our set of characters are all under the rule of one God-King who rules mercilessly and with- yes, elemental magic. In this world, if one is lucky enough to find a “God stone” then they have the power to wield whichever elemental power the stone holds. Our cast sets out on their own adventures which all tie together in one way or another, which the author did so well. In the end, our misunderstand, powerful heir to the throne, Vallich was my favorite, naturally, but the other characters gave him a run for his money. In this book we are given adventure, elemental magic, world building, character development, AND a well thought out plot with great attention to detail? What else could you ask for? If there was romance in this book, this book would actually be the book of my dreams. Nevertheless, I cannot wait for the next book in this series because you can tell that this was only the beginning to an amazing adventure. This book is absolutely perfect for those looking for more fantasy and adventure than a YA, but less intimidating and faster paced than adult fantasy. Honestly, this book deserves much more hype.

I loved this book so much that the first thing I did once I finished the ARC provided by Netgalley was to order a paper copy of All the King's Traitors: I need it in my library!

Now I can't wait for the sequel to come out!

With the godstones in this book it reminded me a lot of the fire and thorns series.
I don't think this book was really for me. But I think a lot of people would like it.

All the Kings Traitors by Keylin Rivers was a book I enjoyed reading. Watching Kuba, and Ions journey as well as getting to know Vallich was quite interesting. The writing style was a bit slower paced which was hard for me to get into but once I did - I enjoyed the book immensely! The story is filled with magic and explores the idea of the godstones! The godstones were a cool way to bring magic into this fantasy story. It definitely has a King Arthur era feel to me. It came across to me as King Arthur meets Divergent (kinda). There were similar elements that I really enjoyed and I am glad I was able to read this through netgalley!

*THANK YOU to Xpresso Book Tours and Netgalley for graciously providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Fast paced story that follows multiple characters from third-person perspective and the different backgrounds of all of them makes it even more interesting, as every one of them have a different motivtion, but all affected by the war on some level.On lots of occasions the author have you thinking "Oh i know what's gonna happen now", only to pull the rug under your feet and " Oh i didn't see that coming" reaction.
There is a fair share of edge of you seat kind of action and make you hold your breath without noticing.
The world- bulding is made perfectly and i really can't wait to see if it will be developed even further in the following book,because it leaves you asking for more despite the well detailed universe.
As a first books in a series,the foundation that is given for further development is really good and definitely will pick up the next book with excitement.
All the more, when all ended in a cliffhanger.

This book hooked me from the start! The world building is amazing, the characters are very intriguing, a very fast paced story. Fantasy is my favorite thing to read and this book did not disappoint, I love multiple POVs because we see the story unfold through different eyes and that is one of the best feelings to experience. Overall I'm excited for the next book because the ending leaves us wanting more.

This book was received as an ARC from Astre Encre in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

This book is best described as Game of Thrones on steroids. Left and right there were people either dead or dying. This along with being so thrilling, made it hard to follow along hence the main reason I did not like Game of Thrones. It was hard to distinguish the good guys and the bad and the main protagonist and antagonist which made the story much more confusing. However, there are a lot of people in our community that enjoy books like this and are fans of Game of Thrones and I know for sure they will appreciate the story a lot more and will want to read this maybe more than once.

We will consider adding this title to our YA collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

4.5 An interesting start to a YA fantasy series! Easy to get onto, despite the multiple characters, this has good world building (especially with the ancient human history glimpses) and a solid plot. Though it lagged a bit in the middle, it picked back up for the fascinating treachery and twisty reveals, which mades me need that next book to find out what will happen next for Kuba, Aurelia, Ion, and Kari.

I had a very hard time getting through this book. The writing was okay, but I found that the author tended to info-dump at the beginning of the story while somehow not providing enough context. This led to me being alternately bored and confused with what was happening and who the characters were. I did like the idea and the plot; however, the way things were described and the way characters were introduced was confusing to me and didn't allow me to enjoy the story very much,

There were a few things that were very good about this book, and a few misses. I think I'll start with the good.

The Good

This was a crossover in genres, which was a very pleasant surprise. It reads like an epic fantasy, but is actually set in a dystopian Earth. I think that was a very interesting take on your classic epic kingdom fantasies.

The author had very good world building and setting. I thought the setting was complex and multi-layered, and I think that world building for this world was a perfect balance. There was no info-dumping but there also weren't too many grey areas.

Also, Keylin absolutely nails the villain of the story: the God-King. He took me by surprise and I found his mystery that was carried through to the end of the novel was very intriguing. I kept wondering who this God-King was? How? When? And the answers did not disappoint.


The Meh

This was given to me as an Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for a review, and I dearly hope that this is not the last edit before publishing. There were a flurry of grammar mistakes throughout the story. I think I spotted 3 different mistakes in the usage of your/re, and a many mistakes in tenses. There would be sentences like, "She access the room." And it jarringly interrupted the flow of the story.

Where the setting and villain soared high, the characterization flopped. Alright, alright, flopped is a strong word. They weren't all bad, I enjoyed Vallich and Kari as characters, and was disappointed that we hardly ever were in Vallich's POV. Kari herself wasn't that interesting of a character, but her storyline of competing during the Ascension Trials propped her up very high. The rest of the characters were.... meh. They weren't bad, but I don't think I will remember any of their names two weeks from now. They didn't have distinct, unique personalities or quirks. They were all very basic, driven by plot and not relationships.

The final say for this book is that it reads as a debut novel. Although a good read, there isn't an oomph to it that would make stand out as a five-star story. I am interesting in reading the sequel and seeing (since now we have a good understanding of the setting), the author will be able to flesh out these characters more.