The Half King
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4.4 • 18 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“An engaging adventure and a promising beginning to a new fantasy series.” —Kirkus
“Landers (Starfall) brings a mythic fairy tale aesthetic to this new adult romantasy, crafting a complex world and vivid characters.” —Publishers Weekly
A king by day. Shadow by night…
The Great Betrayal changed everything for the Allied Realm. Long ago, the kingdom’s noble houses rose up against the goddess... and for their treachery, the firstborn of each noble family was cursed.
One with perilous beauty.
One with destructive knowledge.
One with insatiable bloodlust.
But the royal house Mortara received the worst affliction of all. For while the king exists during the day, he fades into nothingness at night...until his twenty-first birthday, when he will be lost to the shadows forever.
Now an acolyte has arrived at court. Like all the second-born children of the Allied Realm, she’s destined to serve the goddess and become a Seer...only Cerise Solon has no gift of foretelling. In fact, she has no magical gift at all.
Instead, she’s surrounded by courtiers and priests—smiling sycophants whose hearts are filled with secrets and lies. And at the center of it all sits His Majesty Kian Hannibal Mortara, with his haunting eyes, sharp tongue, and an unerring ability to send her pulse skittering at the worst possible moments.
Falling for him is unthinkable. Because the king is the last of his line, and as the specter of his twenty-first birthday—and the full force of his curse—approaches, the kingdom holds its breath.
But there’s only one way to save a dying king... and it lies with the one person who’s hiding the biggest secret of all. Cerise.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Landers (Starfall) brings a mythic fairy tale aesthetic to this new adult romantasy, crafting a complex world and vivid characters. A thousand years ago, the heads of the noble families of the Allied Realm performed the Great Betrayal, a failed attempt to kill the goddess Shiera, which left each of their first-born descendants with an inherited curse. Now second-born Cerise, an acolyte of the goddess Solon whose expected gift of seership has so far failed to manifest, is sent to serve as emissary to King Kian Mortara. Kian's bloodline curse causes him to disappear each night, and the curse is progressing to where he will soon vanish entirely—and without leaving an heir. As Cerise befriends the other important residents of the castle, digs into the previous emissary's coded journal, and seeks to understand her fated part in an epic quest to break the curses, a sweet love blossoms between her and the doomed Half King. The heavy metaphysical worldbuilding emerges fairly organically, but readers will wish for a more in-depth exploration of the political, social, and religious conditions of this war-torn land. Fortunately, a sequel seems to be in the cards. Readers will be eager for its arrival.
Customer Reviews
Great read!! 🥰🥰
First time reading anything by ML. The story line, characters, dialogue and plot pulled me right into her world. I was skeptical about it first. The heroine is a 19 year old and I was worried that she would be played very immature or annoying like other stories where the protagonist is young. But I loved how her faithful and unwavering her faith is. Did not come on too cheesy or in immature. And the story as a whole, will resonate with many women of our past and present!! Hope you’all decide to read it. Can’t wait to read the next one!!
A fun, quick read
A quick read with great themes and some very sweet spice. I wouldn’t be mad about picking this up in the airport lol.
I loved the world that was built and the characters were great. The themes about faith and where to place it were lovely and definitely my favorite part of the book. That said, it had some pacing issues within the storyline. I’m still not sure if this was supposed to take place over two weeks or a few months, and especially the third act felt rushed. The banter between characters was also very out of place at times, sometimes feeling too modern for the setting, or too casual for the length of time two people had been interacting. I wondered at one point if this was originally fanfic, and if understanding what it was inspired by would have helped me to see past some of those issues. (Adapted fanfic is fine with me btw, I just didn’t know how else to explain that feeling.)
Don’t let my criticisms deter you if you’re interested—I enjoyed this at the end of the day, and I’ll likely read the next one. This book has something larger to say, and I would definitely recommend this to someone looking to dip their toe into romantacy with spice.