Cover Image: Realm Breaker

Realm Breaker

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Member Reviews

An exciting start to an epic fantasy adventure with a unique and diverse cast of characters. The story spanned across continents, with our crew racing through deserts and sailing across seas, battling sea monsters and fighting armies it was easy to get immersed in this world. I liked the multiple perspectives. Reading through the eyes of Erida was especially interesting as she was quite the wild card. Looking forward to seeing the story continue.

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I really enjoyed the Red Queen series so I was very existed to read Victoria Aveyard's newest release! Realm Breaker is very different from Red Queen. It is a high fantasy story with multiple pov characters. It gave me Game of Thrones vibe. There has very well thought out and expansive world building and it's implied that there is this rich history to it. We also get chapters from different characters that are all interconnected and from different sides of the conflict. There's a squire, an immortal, an assassin, a queen, and the heir to kingdom. To me it read a lot more like high fantasy than ya which made it a little difficult to get into at first. It really started too pick up towards the middle to the end of the book. That being said not a whole lot happens in this first instalment. It's very much a setup for the next book. I'm interested to see how the story continues to play out and I hope that there are more chapters from Erida's point of view because she is by far my favourite character. So much so that I felt some of the other characters chapters dragged on or were unnecessary. I really excited to see how a certain relationship of her plays out.

Overall 3.5 stars

Recommend for high fantasy fans that enjoy rich world building and multi-pov stories

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This book is powerful and stunning. Anti mainstream story about hero. I really want to write long review but i kinda scared imma spoil anything lol but i can tell you this book will be another hit on America

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This is a fine book. Not one of the best but it works. I wish there had been a little more humor in the relationships/dialogues. But it works and maybe teens will enjoy it I think.

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I can see why this book appeals- it’s high fantasy with a varied cast and lots of well loved fantasy themes. I can’t quite tell you why I didn’t enjoy it? But I felt no attachment to the characters & the continuous introductions felt tedious. I’m sure other people will love it!

Thank you so much Netgalley & HarperCollins Children’s books for the e-Arc!

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First line: No mortal alive had ever seen a Spindle.

Summary: Corayne, the daughter of a pirate, along with a band of misfits are on a mission to save their world from a growing threat. A new army has risen and is threatening everything they know.

My Thoughts: I was on the fence about reading this. In one corner it is exactly what I love. Young adult fantasy, perfect. Great cover, wonderful. Band of misfits, excellent. But I struggled through the last book in the Red Queen series so I wondered how this one would go. Maybe I am just not in the mood. Or I’ve read too many of these. It is a big book with lots of characters, many points of view and long chapters. I hope that one day, maybe when the rest of the trilogy is out I can pick them up and enjoy them but I only made it about 40% through before giving up.

FYI: Lots of POVs.

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Oh Aveyard, you know how to write books! This story grabbed me from the beginning, and I was immediately invested! I thoroughly enjoyed the adventure, plot twists, and the band of random people coming together for a single cause. I enjoyed more that the band of people don't entirely trust each other because let's be honest, that is reality! There is a very cool world she has created, and I am hoping to see more of it as the series continues. The only thing that is holding me back from giving this 5 stars is that there are parts that seemed to drag a bit too long for me, but this is definitely a series that I will continue with, and one that I will be recommending to people!

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I went into this book without knowing anything about the story. After reading the Red Queen series, I will pick up anything that Victoria Aveyard writes. This book is about a girl who is 'the chosen one' essentially, who goes on a journey with a ragtag team to save the realm. It started quite slowly, but picked up the pace in the latter half and was overall entertaining. The characters were enjoyable and a the twist was not what I expected. I will continue the series, but I hope there is a little more to the next two books.

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Loved the Red Queen series? Wait till you get your hands on this one! So much action and suspense and the hope of romance- HIGHLY recommend!

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I was excited to read another of Victoria Aveyard's books but I found this one did not hold my attention. I know that it's the first book in a series but there was a lot of world building. I didn't connect with any of the characters, they fell flat for me. I found myself skimming a lot to find the dialog to move the plot along. I don't have plans to read anymore in the series but I would still recommend my library to purchase this book for the younger teens.

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I was a bit disappointed with this book, the main characters annoyed me. The book had many nice elements but the plot was slow. As someone who likes seeing multiple POV’s I think five was a bit too many. Erida’s POV was my favorite, villan or not she has unique goals and her marriage was fun to follow along with.

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While I wasn’t the biggest fan of Victoria Aveyard’s previous series I really enjoyed this novel. The world building was fantastic and the characters were well developed.

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This complicated, enthralling story has a large cast of characters with exasperatingly complex names and criss crossing plot lines, but it's a thrilling story of conquest and conquering, good vs. evil, and full of people finding strength they didn't know they had. It's also about people forming alliances they might never have considered under different circumstances and opportunities to change. It's definitely a YA read and people who enjoy stories like the Hobbit will love the world building.

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I wanted to like this book but I just don’t think I’m a fan of Victoria Aveyard’s writing style. I ended up dnf’ing it but I did purchase a copy for my library because I know others love her.

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I was excited to read an ARC of this book from Netgalley because I loved the Red Queen series and so do the teens at my library. All in all, this was a great first book to a new fantasy series! I loved the world building. It really transports the reader to the setting. The wide range of characters is also appealing. Multiple villains, morally gray characters, pirates, magic wielders, this book has everything! I also think teens will enjoy that it isn't focused on romance. It's more about the adventure and friendship and relationships between the characters.

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I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I am no stranger to reading fantasy or books that tell the tales of made-up worlds, so the premise of Realm Breaker intrigued me. Since I have not read the Red Queen series, I didn't know much about Aveyard's writing style, but this was OK as I like discovering "new-to-me" authors.

Realm Breaker begins with quite a bit of world building, which I expected, but I felt like it dragged my reading progress to a crawl. This almost made me stop reading. Thankfully, there are multiple points of view woven in this tale, and that is what spurred me on to continue reading. I enjoyed the heart of the story even though it took me longer than expected to finish this novel. I enjoyed getting to know each of the characters. Despite my own personal hangups, Aveyard delivered a great first installment of the Realm Breaker series.

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This book sounded so promising, and I tried so hard to like it...but unfortunately I just did not like it. I made it through chapter 11 before I finally gave up. By this point there were several different stories going on at one time, I never did understand the purpose of the spindle, and I felt as if I was missing a large part of the back story. Was this part of another series that I was unaware of?? I kept reading because I kept hoping that all of the different stories would eventually come together, but I just could not hold out long enough. Victoria Aveyard's The Red Queen series is a favorite in my school library. I can't seem to keep it on the shelf. I will probably purchase this book because the student's love the other series so much. Hopefully my teens will like it more than I did.

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Never judge a book by it's cover, except for when it comes to the Realm Breaker. The prologue itself had my adrenaline pumping and I could already see myself getting ready for an adventure. I loved the diverse range of characters, mortals joining forces with immortals against a common enemy, army of corpses, knights, queens, fiesty female pirates, relams within realms. This is a fantasy that will keep you up at night and pulll you out of the book slump you've been complaining about all these months!

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I really liked this book! It was so fun and a lot darker than I expected.
The one issue I had was with the beginning of the book. Some of the descriptions that f the places the characters were located were very confusing and the cities could have been developed more.
The pacing at times was a bit all over the place, but I throughly enjoyed this book and will be continuing the series!
For content wise, I think it is on the older end of YA fantasy, so some younger readers should be aware of some scenes with violence.

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Victoria Aveyard can seriously do no wrong. Realm Breaker delivers another new world of diverse characters, witty banter, and oh-my-god-I-did-not-see-that-coming plot twists. This is the kind of book you devour in one sitting and complain when someone tries to diver your attention away.

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