Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller! Irresistibly action-packed and full of lethal surprises, this stunning new fantasy series from Victoria Aveyard, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Red Queen series, begins where hope is lost and asks: When the heroes have fallen, who will take up the sword? A strange darkness grows in Allward. Even Corayne an-Amarat can feel it, tucked away in her small town at the edge of the sea. She soon discovers the truth: She is the last of an ancient lineage—and the last hope to save the world from destruction. But she won’t be alone. Even as darkness falls, she is joined by a band of unlikely companions: A squire, forced to choose between home and honor. An immortal, avenging a broken promise. An assassin, exiled and bloodthirsty. An ancient sorceress, whose riddles hide an eerie foresight. A forger with a secret past. A bounty hunter with a score to settle. Together they stand against a vicious opponent, invincible and determined to burn all kingdoms to ash, and an army unlike anything the realm has ever witnessed.

Very fun read! I loved the plot and the world and I cannot wait to read the rest of the series.

This is a GREAT fantasy adventure, the king that you'd imagine seeing on the big screen. I haven't read Aveyard before, but considering that this is a series, I know I'll be reading her again. She's able to write fantasy in a way that, for the most part, maintains the thrills and keeps the reader (especially if they're a fantasy-lover) highly, highly engaged.

This book was literally such a slog to get through sorry. I had to power through because I did not care about like anything about it. The plot? Basically YA LOTR. Evil dude called “Who Waits” I think idek if that was his name because it was as bland as the rest of the book but ya know is basically Walmart Sauron is probably trying to destroy the world but our merry band of heroes including the chosen one who wields the All Powerful Blade are the only ones that can stop him. The characters? I did not care about any of these characters at all as one dimensional as it gets. Like Corayne is special and and feels quirky 24/7 we get it. Dom is immortal woahh that's cool bro. Andry is a nice boi. Saransa (was that her name idk) is an edgy assassin with a #mysterious past. That completely sums up their personalities. Erida aka the royal one was the only character remotely interesting for spoilery reasons. Def an Erida stan may she get everything that is rightfully hers!! The setting? There were a lot of names said and places spoken but that is all I could tell you about them. Anyways this book was just boring and uninspired but I guess it wasn't the worst thing ever and someone out there might like it.

The premise of this books sounded so good. Victoria Aveyard sold this to me from her Instagram stories and highly inspired by LOTR? COUNT ME IN!

HOWEVER

It failed.

The characters were bland, too similar and boring.

Coraynne was a daughter of a pirate and yet she was boring, wanted adventure but also Is destined to save the world? But shes useless apart from being smart

Dom — useless elder (who is meant to be super impossible to kill) was a pointless POV and a worse fighter.

The assassin was better but a bad version of celena from Throne of Glass.

A squire who's POV was slightly better but also pointless. (Also he's in the prologue that is pointless to have as we get all information in the first chapter repeated basically)

Like what's with the multiple POV?! DO WE NEED THEM? NO

The only interesting character was the antagonist.

It's a quest fantasy. Fine. But the characters fell so flat. And the plot was too plain to stand for such a long book.

Oh and DID I MENTION theres a chosen one trope?

Yup. The bland and boring chosen one trope.

where are the morally gray characters that will save their world for their own gain and not because of decency?!

The plot was overlong for a book. It felt like backstory instead of a plot, as if the book should have started where it ended.

Overall predictable.

And the POV shifts within another characters POV was jarring

The world was large but it lacked foundation. I found some of it confusing.

I wished it's DNFed this.

It's a shame as I want to like Victoria Aveyard's writing but, while her ideas are solid her execution fails