Book Review: Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman

Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman is a wonderfully written story where history blends with the best of fantasy and adventure. I honestly wasn’t sure what I expecting with this novel since it was a Goodreads Giveaway book that I randomly entered to try and win (not expecting to actually win), but has since sat on my shelf for at least a year.

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Synopsis: Imagine a time when the gods turn a blind eye to the agony of men, when the last of the hellions roam the plains and evil stirs beyond the edges of the map. A time when cities burn, and in their ashes, empires rise.

Alexander, Macedonia’s sixteen-year-old heir, is on the brink of discovering his fated role in conquering the known world but finds himself drawn to a newcomer…

Katerina must navigate the dark secrets of court life while hiding her own mission: kill the Queen. But she doesn’t account for her first love…

Jacob will go to unthinkable lengths to win Katerina, even if it means having to compete for her heart with Hephaestion, a murderer sheltered by the prince.

And far across the sea, Zofia, a Persian princess and Alexander’s unmet betrothed, wants to alter her destiny by seeking the famed and deadly Spirit Eaters.

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Okay, so I didn’t love this book and a big part of that was because there were some parts where the wording is too close to being cheesy. You know when a writer tries to be clever on why it’s important that two characters meet or we get one or two sentences that describe a character’s thought process on why they suddenly have to know the other person? Alexander and Katerina meet because Katerina happens to be the one person that Alexander doesn’t automatically get glimpses of her past and he’s intrigued. He must know why, etc.

It’s just one of those things that has always bugged me.

Anyways, luckily those little sentences only popped up here and there. Annoying, but I easily got over it since Herman is a good writer and I liked that she did her homework and blended real parts of history with a little bit of good ole magic with a small dash of adventure.

My favorite character to read about had to be Katerina. While she travels to the royal city on a revenge mission, she learns way more about herself and the royal family than she originally bargained for. But it gives some good character development on her part.

Alexander is definitely interesting to read about since he’s on a mission to prove himself worthy of being a king (or maybe emperor would be more accurate). His closest and most loyal friend Heph is also interesting and definitely goes through some interesting character ups and downs. Jacob is similar though wasn’t always the character that I wanted to read about.

My only problem is that Alexander in the beginning wants to go on a quest to find the Fountain of Youth to heal an old injury. His initial motivation is basically about vanity – he thinks he has to look perfect in order to be a good king and this is something that sticks with him for basically the entirety of this book.

Jacob also has a weird way of wanting to show Kat that he’s worthy of her. And then he basically goes and joins a cult and I think he’s just going to go downhill from there. We’ll see.

Overall, it was a very entertaining read and I enjoyed the mix of history with fantasy, but I wished it was a little more complex, I guess.

Have you read this one? What are some of your favorite reads that mix history and fantasy?

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2017 Reading Challenge Prompts satisfied:

Sorry, I’m Booked 2017 Reading Challenge: Historical

PopSugar 2017 Reading Challenge: First in an Unread Series

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