Cover Image: The Fifth Kingdom

The Fifth Kingdom

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

This book was not for me. I DNFed it after 10%.
I did not like the characters and I could not get involved with the story.

Was this review helpful?

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book...my final book this year and what a book

4 novellas all in one place under the title of the fifth kingdom, we meet some great characters and a few baddies along the way, but it was the way the author wrote that kept the storyline flowing and each novella had their own storyline but behind that the main story flowed....

a lot of emotion is felt whilst reading these 4 novellas and at the final novella tears will flow

but i for one cant wait to see what else this author produces, its very exciting when you find an author that can make you lose sleep and sit on the edge of your seat whilst reading her books...cant wait

Was this review helpful?

I truly enjoyed this book. It was unique idea and a refreshing read. The author made me quickly care about the characters. I am so glad I came across this great read.

Was this review helpful?

Extremely long epic fantasy, because it is a compilation of a series of books. A battle against the ancient spirits to prevent the Fifth Kingdom of the Green Sea from resurrecting and Queen Nycilla ruling over all the other kingdoms and avenging what was taken from her. Tragic love story interwoven in the story. Will history repeat itself? Is ruling by fear successful? Some of life's questions are posed by this novel.

Was this review helpful?

I did not really enjoy this book. I found it boring and a waste of time to be honest... I wanted to like it and hoped I would by the end, unfortunately it just did not click for me.

Was this review helpful?

I'm not sure this set of novellas was my cup of tea. I've never been a fan of star-crossed lovers. While the storyline was somewhat interesting and I really liked Matthew I didn't feel any connection to the story. I'm not sure I understood why the past queen chose Lucinda, but then seemed to be setting her up for the same fate she wants revenge for.
I DNF this book at 48%

Was this review helpful?

DNFed at 7%.

This was simply low quality writing I had no interest in losing my time on. I haven't seen the "show don't tell" rule broken this many times since my last visit to Wattpad.

Was this review helpful?

i really enjoyed reading this book, I liked that this was a collection of short stories. The short stories were great and I enjoyed the way Ms. James writes.

Was this review helpful?

This is a compilation of the four novellas in The Fifth Kingdom Series: A Whisper of Shadows, A Castle of Ashes, A Realm Forgotten, and The One True Queen. In this series, the Four Kingdoms exist in harmony. A prophecy means that Princess Lucinda of the East Kingdom might pose a threat to that harmony, and that her life is entwined with that of Prince Matthew of the West Kingdom. The legend of the fifth kingdom states that its queen, who died tragically, will wreak terrible vengeance on the other kingdoms, destroying them.

Princess Lucinda has the ability to control elements, and her father sees it as a curse. The West Kingdom instead sees it as a gift, and plans to nurture and train her abilities. Eventually, the legend of the Fifth Kingdom and Queen Nycilla is told, and how the other four kingdoms betrayed her out of fear. Lucinda is believed to be her reincarnation, and her frightening dreams are memories that have to coalesce. Prince Matthew, to whom she's drawn to, is the reincarnation of Queen Nycilla's love, Prince Thomas, who was tortured and eventually killed.

Chapters are short, so even though this is four novels in one, it's a fairly quick read and they blend together easily. Overall it follows a lot of fantasy novel tropes, with the young girl possessing magic powers and a destiny she has to fulfill. Her chosen husband has a destiny of his own and can trigger memories of the past to return. People that were dismissed as love interests will still hang around, and the patriarchal societies are still frightened of a woman in charge. I didn't always get a good sense of Lucinda or Matthew in the beginning, or why they were so drawn to each other other than the reincarnations. When there are dangers within the kingdom and with spirits of the past trying to tear them apart, I don't quite feel the same emotional intensity that they do.

I would put this as a YA fantasy series based on the ages of the protagonists in book one, as well as the fact that they have many coming of age milestones to move through: adolescence, individuation, family discord, first jobs, romantic love, marriage, and forging a future. Given how some YA stories have more sophisticated plotting than this series, advanced middle-grade readers might enjoy this series as well.

Was this review helpful?

Because this one is four different novellas, I'm going to evaluate this as such.

A Whisper of Shadows

This one's a great start! I won't complain, it definitely hit very hard and had as much setup as you could as for in a series that's going to be relatively short. The characters are succinct, and expressive; I loved Matthew and Lucinda, they're just kids who wanted to have a life and now they're being dragged into all this. Worldbuilding is here, but there's no real definitive magic system at the moment but I can see it being developed in the later books. The only minor complaint I have is that there were a few teeny tiny spelling and grammar mistakes, but as this is an ARC I expect they were fixed in the final edition.

A Castle of Ashes

The setup continues here, but I'm not mad about it at all. The opposite, in fact; I was afraid we were going to lose out on seeing how exactly an entire kingdom sprouted up overnight, but a careful mix of exposition and continuation of story is shown well here. Lucinda and Matthew keep growing into characters that I'm enjoying the dynamic of, and their story is so good. I'm intrigued to see where things go from here, and that ending.

A Realm Forgotten

There's something about this volume that hooked me more then the other two so far. We're done with setup, finally getting into the meat of things, and it's so riveting. I had a feeling things would fall into monotony, as third books have a problem with, but this didn't change at all in pace. There's so much action here, from beginning to end, and the consequences of what Nycilla's concocting is finally coming to a head.

The One True Queen

The volume that just keeps giving. Everything's starting to fall together, and there's almost too much going on for part of this. There's an overwhelming amount of characters, with similar names, but it's fairly easy to tell things apart closer to the end of it. Speaking of, I wasn't honestly expecting things to end how they did. I found it almost bittersweet, until the epilogue; definitely one that I'd recommend due to the way it all wraps up.

Was this review helpful?

I think that I like the overall idea for this book, but the finished product represents an effort to accomplish too much in too little time. I was so confused for the first third of the book as to who was a good person and who wasn't. I did skim to the end to find out what happened, so I am giving it three stars for that reason. I just wish that the author had slowed down to better develop the story and characters.

Thanks Netgalley and publishers for the free e-ARC

Was this review helpful?

The Fifth Kingdom
by Lisa M. James
This is a series of books bundled into one volume. The series is amazing in its depth and detail. Great for young readers as the main character deals with acceptance of self, acceptance of responsibly, and growing beyond the past mistakes. The main characters are vivid, and have so much they personally struggle with, not only their youth, but their decisions compel the reader to look beyond their actions and see how the past influences the actions of others. The book teaches about seeking forgiveness, finding trust, and learning to life with your own mistakes. Its a broad scope that needs be brought to the for ground.

Was this review helpful?

ARC from NetGalley

2.5 stars

Unfortunately, I don't have much good to say about this novel. I don't have anything overtly bad to say, but yeah. Nothing gripped me. Nothing was tugging the heart strings. There was mediocre romance. It was slow, kind of boring. We never really know why the people love Lucinda. They just do. <spoiler>They flock to her kingdom because they are either possessed followers of the old queen or they just love Lucinda... for no viable reason. </spoiler> The ending was underwhelming. A solid meh from me.

Was this review helpful?

I finally finished this series. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of the series. I’d rate this 3.5 stars.

This is a compilation of four short novels that tell the story of the Fifth Kingdom. The world building is wonderful. The kingdoms really come to life.

The characters are also full of life and have an interesting story to tell. The first two books went quickly for me. The last two went slower.

The story jumped around a bit; like it didn’t know quite what it wanted to be. The beginning and the background really pulled me in, but a particular turn made me less interested. Consequently, the reading took longer. I was definitely going to finish this. I liked the background and the premise.

I didn’t like where book three went. It felt forced. Then the ending was good... until it wasn’t. It was a bit too perfect. No loose ends. That’s something I usually like.

I’d recommend this to readers who like fantasy and YA-type storylines. Happy endings and selfless female protagonists.

Some of the language is odd and the sentence structures off. The editing felt poorly done to me and made it more difficult to read the book.

Was this review helpful?

What an amazing fantasy book! I loved how it was write & how intriguing the storyline was! But can we talk about the amazing Main girl character omg! I highly recommend this book to everyone! It definitely got me out of my reading slump!

Was this review helpful?

I truly enjoyed this book is has great world building and well developed characters! The MC is a strong and believable female lead wit other well rounded and solid main characters that made this a fun and enjoyable read. Even though this book is comprised of 4 novellas i was quickly pulled in by the story arc book The plot is well written with interesting twists that kept me both guessing and engaged in the story.

I really loved the good versus evil vibe and how the natural development of the characters powers and strengths did not feel forced or rushed. I definitely recommend this book and I would read more from this author!

I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

I totally got lost in this excellent fantasy book, which I loved. It gripped me from the very start of the book This was a big story comprising a fantasy world made up of the 4 books previously published. An interesting world has been created, and made to seem believable. I really enjoyed the overall story and bought totally into the main characters and all the trials and tribulations they went through.

It was great to see such a strong female lead and I loved the way she interacted with Matthew. The good versus evil dimension and the link to key characters in the past kept you as the reader on your toes, Just loved the whole story thread and the way the story unwrapped through the differing four parts of the book.

Definitely one to be recommended if you enjoy these type of stories with good fighting evil. A five star read for me and a book which will stay with me.

I would like to say thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing a copy of this book to me for an open and honest review.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review
Two people born on the same day of the same year but kingdoms apart. Linked by an ancient queen and her lost love. Lucinda and Matthew have an attraction towards each other but Lucinda is a reincarnation of Queen and sorceress Nysilla and Matthews is her love Thomas. The prophesy says that Lucinda will rise to become Queen of the Fifth Kingdom but she does not have complete control of her powers and Nysilla is still very powerful within her.
This story had it all love, betrayal, magic and loss. The world building was good but there seemed to be something missing that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I loved the strong female characters and the attitudes of some of the males in the story. I did struggle a little bit particularly with the changing back and forth in time lines but overall a great read

Was this review helpful?

The Fifth Kingdom is a solid fantasy read. However, I had some real issues with how simplistic the writing and character development was. In addition, there was no real introduction to what kind of world the five kingdoms is and the world building was mediocre which made it hard as a reader to really "believe". I found that the storyline was intriguing and would have loved to follow Lucinda's growth, but I couldn't get past the almost YA-type storytelling. At times the writing felt disjointed, which made it difficult to feel emotionally connected to the characters and their stories.

Overall, this was by no means a bad book. I genuinely enjoyed reading The Fifth Kingdom, and appreciated seeing a strong female protagonist in a medieval setting. Like another reviewer mentioned, this was probably geared toward a younger audience. I wholeheartedly agree, and would probably have loved to read this (and rave about it) when I was younger.

I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Was this review helpful?

In an intriguing way to write fantasy, Lisa M. James has broken down a tale lasting years, ancient spirits, torn families and a seemingly impossible love story into four novellas all under one cover. THE FIFTH KINGDOM is a tale of magic, fear, and a twisted sense of revenge as two lovers from long ago almost destroy four kingdoms when one sorceress sets her mind on payback for her own suffering.

Driven by and focusing on a few main characters, the author has not forgotten to build a world that feels real. Emotionally taut, the action is in drama created when hearts, fear and human differences become entwined in a miasma of facts (as known by the characters) and fantasy, myths and magic. Pain drives the actions of a rejected and feared queen who, only by the accident of birth made her different than those around her. Will history repeat itself when two lovers follow the same path?

I really enjoyed each novella, which while continuing the tale, gave a nice break-point and slight focus change to move this tale along. While the pace was sometimes uneven, it does NOT detract from this tale, but rather gives readers a believable break from the high intensity portions. Recommended for magical fantasy and doomed lovers readers!

I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley and Lisa M. James! This is my honest and voluntary review.

Was this review helpful?