5 Stars ★★★★★

The only female magician in an all male magical kingdom Eryn tries to keep her magic a secret like her father tells her too but through some unlucky happenings she winds up under the Kings and Magical Order with each their own ideas of what to do with her. This book keeps you on your toes wondering what will be next, a thoroughly enjoyable read.

General Comments

This book was great I love longer books because that gives me more time to enjoy them since I read pretty fast. I liked our main characters boldness, she stood up for herself even to her superiors which sometimes wasn't the smartest thing to do, but she did it regardless. At times I got annoyed with how they treated her by lying and manipulating situations but it wasn't enough to put me off from the story. I would recommend this book when I put it down I was looking forward to picking it up to read more. The ending wasn't the greatest but at the same time the way it ended and how long the story is to me, makes it seem like they're will be more books and it's a continuous story, it sort of has the feel of Diane Gabaldon's books of how they end and can get picked back up again into the same story but newer settings. I think I'm just more annoyed I can't instantly pick up the next book and continue since this one is new to come out and I am just impatient. Some things I wished were addressed but never were like Eryn speaking about her father with Enric I thought that would be a nice bonding experience that didn't happen but maybe it will in the next book.

Characters

I think they characters developed very nicely with the length of the story, the friendships happened very naturally as well as the romance it wasn't rushed into an insta love connection which is refreshing now a days when we find characters falling in love after just meeting. I liked the main character Eryn she stood for what she believed in but was willing to bend to learn other things. I think the way the other characters in the book treat her at times is appalling but it goes with the story and who those characters are and how they behave, but it went with the story so it worked.

World building

I think the world building was interesting it evolved at a slower pace with the story. At one point we see that mostly everyone in the kingdom is fair and blonde or of light hair colour and is later explained why, and I had been wondering about it so I was glad it was explained.

Overall I would say read this book, I want more and will definitely have the next one on my to read list!

A female lead in a magic story? Sign me up! Unfortunately, Eryn is a bit obnoxious and a bit of a bitch. While I have no problem with sticking up for yourself, but when nearly every interaction is like that? No thanks. And everyone still seemed to like her. Anyway, Eryn is the only female magician in the country (she is from somewhere else) and she is forced to join the Order. But then people from her homeland come with the plan to take her back. It follows Eryn’s journey through her experience of being found out and her time in the capital. There is also a love story that is a bit ridiculous on both sides, but sort of enjoyable in a way when you hear the ridiculousness from both characters.

The Order by A.C. Donaubauer
Genre: Sci-fi and Fantasy, I really wasn’t sure I’d like this book – it sounded good but would I find it’s one of those full of battles and gore that I hate? Well, it isn’t, and I loved it. At over 900 pages its a solid read, but it’s all relevant. Nothing that feels added to pad out the content, and slowly the story starts to build up and grow.the pacing is perfect, and I really felt I knew the characters as the book continued. I loved the way Eryn’s abilities grew slowly, no sudden mystical, magical powers but magic that she either works out herself, learns from others, or where she watches and experiments building upon what’s already known. I hate those reads where people just suddenly gain – out of the blue – a slew of powerful abilities, it just feels like the reader is being cheated, but here everything develops at a believable rate, thoroughly explained and its easy to see how Eryn reaches the conclusions and developments that she does. I love that’s she’s a strong and moral character, it would be easy for her to just give way to The Order but she stand firm in her beliefs, even at personal cost. I loved Vern too – he’s a great addition and provides someone for her to have fun with, relax, and I’m sure he’ll be a strong focus in further books. Then there’s his father, Orrin, and he’s another strong person, but always fair, and he’s a huge support to Eryn after their initial skirmishes. Enric, second in command, and only a few years older than Eryn. He’s attracted to her and the more they are together the stronger that grows for him, but he’s hampered by their first meetings where he had to use force to subdue her and now she hates him, really resents him and what he stands for. Its going to take lot to change that but he’s a planner, a patient man. The whole story flows really well, is full of interesting characters and plots and was one that despite my reservations I really enjoyed. Would I read it again? Well, not for a long while but I certainly want to read more from the series,and will be looking for further books. The length, over 900 pages, is fantastic and for quick readers like myself that's perfect, lets us get lost in another world for hours. When some authors are turning out “books” from as little as 50 pages its a real treat to get one of this length, and so fairly priced. I’ve just seen one thats less than 100 pages for almost the same cost. 100 or 900....I know which I'd go for ;- )
Stars:Five, a fabulous, engrossing read and I’ll look forward to more. ARC supplied by Netgalley and publishers.

I really enjoyed this magical world along with the characters. I love how it was written. I could picture the scenes like a movie on a big screen. I couldn't put my kindle down. Stressed? This book can take you away.

Wow this book blew my mind and it's apparently the authors debut! I had this recommended by a fellow book worm and I'm so glad I listened. I dont read a lot of fantasy and this is a seriously long read (913 pages) but so engaging I just wanted to keep reading. Our main character is Eryn a young woman alone and hiding her magical abilities. Unfortunately an accident sees Eryns cover blown and she is sent to the King believed to be a spy. Held captive it's soon discovered that not only is Eryn not from their land but she possesses magic which is usually only found in males! Her captors might fear her abilities but they are not stupid and wish to persuade her to join the Order but they have a fight on their hands as Eryn believes magic should only be used for good and healing , definitely not for fighting or war. I cannot express enough how much I enjoyed this book. The characters felt so realistic and at times I wanted to shake them and then I just wanted to laugh with them but most of all I wanted them to be real. True talent lies in bringing not just the central characters to life but also imbuing the surrounding cast with diverse personalities and that's exactly what we get here. There is a strong sense of romance building but the deceit and manipulation as the political intrigue is revealed had me so angry on Eryn's behalf but she doesn't need me in her corner because that brave clever girl can out badass the best of them! You will hate the King and maybe even the master magician Enric too at times but you will fall in love with Vern a fifteen year old who turns the tide for Eryn. This was a fabulous book and now I need the next to find out just how Eryns life will pan out I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley

You would think a book with this many pages couldn't keep your interest the entire story and you would be sooooooo wrong. This book was a very welcome surprise. I loved Eryn. Her humor, her witty comebacks, and her strength won me over from early on. She was compassionate and kind, but didn't take anyone's crap. Enric, oh Enric, there were many times I wanted to smack him, but he was just too charming for words. I loved his jealous tendencies, even if Eryn didn't always appreciate them. The supporting characters were great. The ever-inquisitive Vern, stern, but protective Orrin, and clever Tyront. Although I didn't care for the king, you had to see the beauty in his schemes. This was a great read from start to finish.

In short, the beginning was amazing, the middle was blah, and the end was ok-good. The Order is a great magical world, excellent plot, and good strong characters. The downside was the MC's boyfriend, who is abusive & controlling. It wasn't exactly an insta-love, which is so overdone these days, but they did rush into the romance, especially on his part. That's not the end of the world, though. But when he locks her in a room and practically forces himself on her, and forbids her from so much as speaking to another man, that ruins their relationship, and the middle of the book. I had to force myself through the parts where he goes on about how much he loves her, watch the controlling measures he takes, just so I could get to the end, where the plot finally moves on and answers the questions that left me in suspense.

While I found their relationship to be a very big negative, the rest of the book was wonderfully suspenseful. The magic system captured my attention. The length was perfect. Most author's would've broken it into two books to make more money. The MC was a good strong female character. I'd rate this book 4.5 stars without the 'romance,' and 3.7 with it. The 3.7 is my being generous, because the controlling relationship really ruined the book for me. But overall, the book is definitely worth reading.

Also, I should mention it kept me up really late for several nights when I desperately needed sleep. Is that a negative or not?

Disclosure: I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Order THE ORDER is a science fiction-fantasy story for tweens and very young adults. It tells of a kingdom filled with kings, magicians and humans living together much as we do here. Most just struggle to get by as others are trying to get to the top of the ladder.
Eryn lives with her father in a small village out in the middle of nowhere. Her father is teaching her to be a healer, until one day when he is killed and she must fend for herself from then on. As she is gathering herbs on day, she falls becoming unconscious only to awaken in jail. Not soon after, she finds herself on the way to the palace and so her life changes forever.
Enric is the second strongest magician in the land, through no fault of his own. Once the carefree, lazy child, how he is saddled with politics and duty to king and country. He has sacrificed his life for his king and the Order itself. Things are going along without problems until he meets Eryn and knocks her out a few times.
The King of the land has no magical abilities, yet he rules over the land manipulating both human and magician alike to get the things he wants. He has power and enjoys his position. The King knows things no one else knows, including Lord Tyront, head of the Order.
When delegates arrive from another magical kingdom Eryn soon learns things her father had never mentioned to her. Her loyalties are tested and she has to choose to stay or go.
To me, this is an excellent beginning to a story, but it really doesn't fully wrap things up. It felt incomplete to me. When I finished reading it, I felt as if I had read an incomplete report paper. To me, I thought it was like reading Tolkien's Hobbit, only he ended the story when the dwarves came and they had just decided to leave on their long adventure.

This book came highly recommended by Dolly from Just Talking Books. When she told it was available on NetGalley again, I jumped at the chance to review it. There are a few things I will mention. I went into this book not noticing the page count. It has been a long time since I read a 900+ page book. I’ve listened to a few, but it has been a while since I read a book that long. It isn’t that I don’t like reading long books, it is just that the PNR/UF books that I normally read are closer to 300-500 pages long. All that being said, the page count in this book wasn’t a problem. It did take me longer to read than most, but I was fully engrossed in the story the entire time.

This is the story of Eryn who is a bit different from everyone else. She lives in a village where she hides her hair color magically as she is the only non-blonde person there besides her father. She also has magic which is not known to the town. That is until she is knocked out and her mind quits applying the magic to her hair color. She is then turned over to the king and the Order of Magicians where she is bound in gold to suppress her magic.

The Order and the kingdom have not seen a female magician in over 300 years. They also haven’t seen anyone with a hair color other than blonde in that amount of time. They are amazed at her lack of training, but also at her sheer power. She is the third strongest magician in the land, but knows nothing about it outside of healing, which they know nothing of. Her father is from a different kingdom and taught her different uses for her magic, but he also taught her to be very wary of the the Order and using magic for defense and battle. The one time she did, it went really bad for her, so when the Order forces her to use her to learn to fight, she is very reluctant.

It was fun to watch what can happen when you take a reluctant captive with a lot of brains and ingenuity and see what they can teach themselves. Eryn gets herself in quite the amount of trouble as she tries to escape and outsmart the elder members of the order. But it is also great as she becomes friends with them as they learn to work together. Eryn is a very fiery person. She is also very loyal to her trade as a healer and to the people she believes she needs to help. She has little respect for authority and doesn’t have a problem proving that fact to anyone.

The romance in this book is very much a slow build. Enric is intrigued with Eryn from the beginning. Eryn, not so much. Which, Eryn didn’t like the Order from the prejudice her father left her with about it and about fighting with magic. Add that to the fact that Enric had to knock her out at their first meeting because she was panicking and fighting back. Needless to say, their first meeting wasn’t a great one. Then they imprisoned her and forced her to learn to fight against her will. With Enric being the second in command of the Order, she saw all of this as a slight on him. It took him a long while to build the trust to romance her.

This story has great characters. There is her original combat trainer, Orrin, and his son Vern. I really loved them. I loved that as much as Orrin was a warrior, he loved his son, even though his son was so not a warrior. There is also Junar, a seamstress in town that befriends Eryn. The character I disliked the most was the king. He was a manipulative bastard. There was another character that I really disliked, but I’ll keep him to myself for now. There are many other great characters, but I won’t list them all. Just know that this story is full of wonderful characters.

The thing that is very different for me with this story, there is no epic battle, no epic mystery to solve. That didn’t mean I was glued to the pages. I’m very much used to stories like Kate Daniels or Gin Blanco running from one catastrophe to another without a chance to breathe. The stories are very fast paced. That was not the case here. I wouldn’t say that the story was slow, nor was it fast. It was just a pleasant stroll through the life of Eryn and Enric. There is the question about why haven’t there been any women magicians in 300+ years and why all the same hair color. These questions are answered in this story. I’m very interested in seeing where the story goes from here.

“Yes, Orrin,” she hiss. “I do understand you. I am neither deaf nor stupid.”
He straightened again. “Good. And it is customary to address a high ranking magician using the title of Lord.”
She smiled acidly. “Is it now? Thank you so much for enlightening me as to this charming little custom, Orrin.”

I was totally sucked in by this book, to the point that I lost my weekend because I just. had. to. finish! While I sometimes felt there was a bit too much caveman behaviour from the lead male, it wasn't enough to totally put me off, and the lead female was independent and strong in most cases. Definitely looking forward to the next installment.

Very good read. I couldn't put it down. I love the characters and world that have been created. It has some great twists and turns.