Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes (2013)

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*Rebel Spring is the second book in the Falling Kingdoms series by Morgan Rhodes
Cleo is a prisoner in her own kingdom. While Mystica used to contain the kingdoms of Limeros, Paelsia, and Auranos, the King of Blood has now taken of all of Mystica, and now occupies Cleo former castle in Auranos. With him, he has brought his brutal son Magnus, and his magic-ridden adopted daughter, who has been unconscious for the last month. Desperate to take back her kingdom, Cleo aligns herself with the rebels, who are led by the boy who inspired the King of Blood, Jonas. However, the kingdom of Mystica is not all politics. Over the years, the color and liveliness of Mystica has been draining. Finally acknowledging that their world is centered around magic, everyone is on the hunt for the Kindred, which is supposed to restore balance. With the Kindred comes immortality, and without it comes death. This is crunch time, and no one can escape the wrath that’s coming.
To start off, this book was not a disappointment. It was absolutely fantastic, and was even better than Falling Kingdoms. I know a lot of people find high-fantasy intimidating, and this series is the place to start. The world is very clearly laid out and understandable, but at the same time extremely complex. Action scenes are written perfectly, making them easy to follow. The books are told from four points of view- Magnus, Cleo, Jonas, and Lucia, which definitely gives the story advantage. All the characters live in different places and have different backgrounds, so the reader has a better sense of how the world works under different circumstances. At the same time, different points of view also makes the story so much more complex. At certain points, you can connect all the pieces together, but individual characters can't because they don’t know what the other characters know.
All the characters became way more developed from Falling Kingdoms. I was very impressed with Lucia, both with how much she matured, and also with how realistically she thought. She knew her situation was absolutely insane, but also reacted to the situation in the same way an average person was. I got a little frustrated with both Jonas and Cleo in that they were really naive in their plans to defeat the King. However, I do understand where they were coming from- neither of them had any experience in war and just wanted to solve the problem. Again, it was realistic in the way they acted. Ah, and Magnus. Magnus, Magnus, Magnus. He was my favorite character in the first book, but I became really disappointed in him. Basically, in one scene he borderline sexually assaults a character. Then, later in the book, he shames someone else for doing the same thing. I found him to be a huge hypocrite and power hungry.
At the same time, I really liked how much this book discussed a women’s value. In Mystica, it was viewed that a woman had to be passive, as well as “pure” for her husband. Still, there was a lot of characters that recognized how ridiculous that notion was. In that way, I think this book was a feminist book, which I personally loved. I also really loved that there was an underlying LGBT theme. To me, it makes total sense that in other worlds humans would be attracted to both men and women, because honestly that’s how our biology works.
The Falling Kingdoms series is becoming one of my favorites, and this book definitely added to that.

5 Stars

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