Four Ruined Realms by Mai Corland (book review)

GENRE: Adult Romantasy

LENGTH: 413 pages

PLOT

This is the sequel to Five Broken Blades and takes place pretty immediately following the events of that novel. The main characters travel to the kingdom of Khitan in order to attempt to forge an alliance with Khitan’s queen against the immortal king of Yusan.

CHARACTESR

The main six characters from the first book (Euyn, Mikail, Aeri, Royo, Sora, and Tiyung) all return in this sequel and are largely unchanged. We left them reeling from betrayals at the conclusion of the first book. Much like in that book, they are all distrustful of each other once more. Yet even when their trust in one another is fragile, they still work well together as a unit. There is a lot more relationship angst in this book, so if you’re a fan of that then you’re in for a treat.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much Tiyung was in the novel. Considering he’s imprisoned in Idle Prison, I assumed he wouldn’t be in the novel at all. He doesn’t necessarily contribute a lot to the plot, but I adore his character, so I was happy just to have him present.

I do wish we got to see more of Quilimar, the queen of Khitan and Euyn’s sister. She is described as being such a formidable character, but we only got a tiny taste of her in this book.

WRITING

The novel is told from six different perspectives – those of our core group. One of Corland’s greatest strengths as a writer in this book is how she makes each perspective so distinct. The characters’ personalities come through so boldly and it makes for a more engaging, entertaining reading experience.

The world is expanded greatly in this novel. As a fantasy writer, I love nothing more than world building. In this book, we get to explore a whole other land and culture. Not only that, but we learn more about the world’s magic system and the politics between the kingdoms.

Sometimes the second book in a series can feel like a slog to get through. It feels like its sole purpose is just setting up the plot for the next book. This book, however, never lost my attention. It set up the next book, yes, but it also contained its own adventures. Much like its predecessor, towards the end there were lots of shocking moments and reveals. That’s probably my favorite thing about this series. This time I knew to eagerly anticipate twists at the end and I was not disappointed.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s rare for me to enjoy a sequel as much as the first book, yet Corland accomplished that with this book. It may be a middle book in a series, but it doesn’t feel like filler. We get to see and learn about so much more of this series’ world, the plot is just as thrilling as the first book, and the ending left me just as eager for book three as the first book did for this one. Corland is fast becoming one of my favorite authors.

FINAL RATING: 5⭐️