Book Review: Protect the Prince (Crown of Shards #2)

Crown of Shards
Jennifer Estep
4/5

Overview

I think that this is a great series, it has so much substance and emotional depth and I really connect with the characters. This is the second book in the Crown of Shards series, it follows Evie and all of the assassination attempts she's facing after claiming a crown that she never should have been in line for. There's romance, political intrigue, and great fighting scenes. Also, the magic in the universe is super unique and just building up and getting better and better.

I think the first 75 percent of this book was amazing and I read it super fast and was super invested and just losing my mind over how good everything was. The last 25 percent fell a little flat for me, I was honestly a little lost and probably given this book a lower rating if I hadn't loved the first 3/4ths so much.

I'm going to get a little spoilery, so if you haven't read the book you should probably skip this paragraph. From the introduction of the mountain thing I knew that it was going to be something involved with Sully and Evie, but the execution of that just felt awkward. I love Sully and Evie together, but their sex scene felt obligatory, random, and pretty weird. The whole idea of a romantic break during that series of events was just wrong for me, Sully's entire attitude towards it felt wrong and out-of-character. Not to mention unfair, he yells at Evie for being engaged to his brother, then says he doesn't care, then yells at her again, then says he couldn't ever be with her even though she offers him a place, and then just shows up to take his place? The pacing felt wrong, the ending felt like the ending to the series but you know without addressing all of the political factors. I don't like it when characters only end up together in the last book, so that was nice, but there are so many factors to their relationship that just weren't addressed in favor of a cleaner looking ending.

Don't get me wrong though, this is an amazing book and series. The queens are gladiators and Evie isn't usually an emotional-wreck, like I loved the little parts where she has the internal debate with herself and then chooses the logical outcome for her kingdom. She feels like a real human leader, she makes mistakes but she's also great at making the right choices. She feels like an Arya Stark who's not afraid to lead a kingdom and I honestly love her for it.

Would I Recommend?

Despite my issues with the ending, the rest of the book and series is just so good that it's worth it. If you like Throne of Glass, I would totally recommend this one because it's like ToG but without like 70 percent of all the stupidity you have to deal with with Aelin. I'm still highly anticipating the third book next year and would totally recommend getting into it.