Breaking Legacies by Zoe Reed

Breaking Legacies by Zoe Reed

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I was going to start off whatever I end up writing here (a review, a mini-something or other) by noting something like ‘I saw everyone and the billy goat too just loving this book so I added it, but then didn’t read it for a longish while’. Except, looking at things now, most people read and loved the book long after I got the book. I believe it might have been Luce’s review that lead me to consider the book. And Starsandsun who reinforced my decision to add the book to my pile. Then everyone else came along after that with high praise (well, with high ratings at least), with one exception. 21 friends have read and mostly enjoyed the book, to an average rating of 4.76. Both an inducement to try the book and an impediment (as in, what if I don’t like it?).

And yet . . . still took me 9 months to read the book. I’d make some vague comments about fantasy being something I entered more as an adult than as a kid growing up (though my first beloved book was a form of fantasy, I mean it had a vampire and everything!, course the vampire was actually a bunny, but still, talking about Bunnicula), and stuff of that nature, but that’s really boring, so I’ll just leave it at ‘I don’t know why it took me so long to read this book, maybe the length?’

It’s possible that everyone who would be interested already knows about the book and/or have read it, and probably written reviews about it. So what’s left for me to say?

The story stars two young adult women, though it isn’t always easy to remember they are young. I say ‘two’, but it is entirely from the point of view of one of them – Kiena. And that’s what she normally tells people when they ask her name, just Kiena. For, if she told them her full name, she’d reveal something she really doesn’t want to reveal. For her father was a traitor and was killed in a rebellion he started and lead. And so, she’s just Kiena, not Kiena Thoan (hopefully I got the last name spelled right).

The book opens with Kiena hunting with her dog, her constant companion. When she returns home she spots the cottage filled with soldiers. She worried less about herself and her mother, and more that her brother, the thief. Thief of sweets, just can’t stop stealing sweets. But no, they are there for her . . . to give her a task from the King. Kiena knows two things at the same time, her child-hood friend, Silas (now Sir Silas), thinks he is doing a good thing for Kiena, but Kiena knows that he’s basically given her a death sentence. For, you see, the princess has gone missing and the king wants her tracked and found.

Before I recount the entire 442 page book in my review (and no, I’ve barely scratched the beginning of the surface), I’ll dart away. I went in with basically the knowledge that the book was a fantasy and that everyone, seemingly, loved it. So I had even less knowledge than I’ve already conveyed. Is it easier to read with little or with a lot of pre-knowledge? No idea, but I’ll leave things at an ‘everything can be fresh’ level for others and not reveal too much more of the book.

The story was a lot more angst-y and dramatic than I expected. And the ‘hero’ was a lot more . . . . well, I said I wanted to leave things ‘fresh’ for new readers. (view spoiler)[a lot more hesitant to do things and about their own abilities; separately: why the hell is this super super good archer . . . almost never actually use her bow and arrow in combat? Instead trying to use a weapon she really sucks at (sword)? Tis true that she had other means, but . . . even when it was an opportune moment for her to at least use her bow once, she didn’t – like when she and her companions arrived at a castle, she told a fellow archer that they (her and them) will take out the other archers, and that other archer started to do so. Kiena? Didn’t touch her bow once during that fight. Weird. She also didn’t want to use it in a competition. From being super good with a bow and using it always in the beginning of the book, by the end she never used it as if it was an evil entity that should never again be touched. Quite . . . confusing that; also separately – WTF happened to Maddox the falcon? Both in – a hunting bird that always ran away during combat? And literally, did the poor bird explode at some point? Because, after a certain point, no more mention of bird (granted there were a lot of reasons, reasonable reasons, for how they could have lost the bird but . . . I don’t recall any mention of the bird’s death or loss), (hide spoiler)]

Before I distracted myself with random spoiler-y things, I was going to mention: a few moments here or there were tear-y eyed moments, though, oddly, I felt more that way in certain moments than in ones I would have expected to feel that way. Though I might be remembering my reading experience wrong.

Right, so, kind of didn’t say anything and now my head hurts so I’ll depart.

Rating: 5.0

July 20 2017



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