Publication: September 16, 2025
Pages: 400 pages
Rating: Three out of five stars ☆☆☆
Sweet Spark: Everyone had such a unique lifeforce. Well, right up until they died, for some.
It's apparently a snarky day for me, with lots of writing and reading - yay!
I wanted to truly love this book. I'm a big fan of Rebecca Mix, but I admittedly like the Mossheart series better than the King so far.
The story starts with young people arriving to an epic ball - two previously conflicting kingdoms are finally to be united through marriage. But as the party is just getting started, the lights go out on a half dozen unique characters meeting in the king's chambers, and when they come back on, the king is dead. And not just dead, but murdered. While the necromancer can re-animate the king to ask who killed him, he is met with only another riddle.
These delightfully unique characters have to overcome their intertwined pasts and conflicts to work together if they hope to solve the crime and see the success of the treaty the king was supposed to sign at midnight. Oh, they also want to not die while they investigate. It's quite a list, but they have the skills to accomplish, well, most of it. A healer, a necromancer, a prince, a princess, a wild beast tamer, a guard, and the unexpected addition, an assassin.
The plot has entertaining and unexpected twists and turns, as we learn about the characters and their life long motivations. As has been a theme in several of one author's previous books, the adults are..there. Someday, perhaps, the youth and young adults may not be expected to save the world again. The book earned 3 out of 5 stars. The plot seemed mostly tied up, but this is the first book in a duology, so we'll see what happens next for this fascinating cast.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book. Receiving an electronic copy of this book for free did not influence my opinions or review.
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