Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes (Falling Kingdoms #2)

onyxdarkling
Aug 5, 2015
2 min read

In the aftermath of a bloody battle, all three kingdoms of Mythica are ruled by King Gaius. Not satisfied by his current power, however, the king now turns his eye on the Kindred, magical objects that he believes could help make him a god. Meanwhile, Princess Cleo vows revenge on Gaius for killing her family, Magnus strives to protect his sister, who's powers grow darker every day, and Jonas builds an army of rebels to retake his home.

Magnus is having a change of heart and wishes to protect people from his father, a trait not seen in the previous book, and Lucia's powers are beginning to warp and twist her. Other than that, I didn't see much character development, the first of several large problems with the series.

All the characters are talking about rebellion, justice, etc., and there's plenty talk of waging a revolution, but nothing actually happens. Not much of anything happened at all, really. The book dragged along at a snails pace with plenty of filler but no real advancement of the plot.

Overall, I think this series is clichéd and overrated. Rhodes has plenty of interesting metaphors and other figurative language, the series's one small redeeming quality, but the story itself is boring as heck. I'm also not impressed with the love interests - any of them - because I feel that the couple lack chemistry and the pairings feel rather forced, existing only for the sake of the plot and to create feeble drama. After hearing so much praise about this series I was eager to try it out, but I'm disappointed. Falling Kingdoms isn't as original or exciting as it likes to think it is, and Rebel Spring didn't redeem the first book at all. This is not a series I would recommend for fantasy fans, and I will not be continuing the series. It's become a waste of time. 2/5 stars.