Rebel Spring (Falling Kingdoms #2)

This second book was better when it comes to explaining things. I could finally understand a little more about the Watchers and what kind of society they have, and also some of the characters are really changing and growing up.

I really love Magnus transformation from a puppet into a real man with his own thoughts. While in this book he is still following his father no matter what, I can already tell hes doubting many things. I cannot wait to see what he does in the following novels if hell finally be able to become more independent.

Jonas is still one of my favorites. I just feel so bad, because all the bad things seem to happen to him. He wants justice, he wants to free his people and destroy the king, but somehow his plans never seem to work. I feel like there was some kind of double romance here, even though the second one is still building. Not a big fan, but it certainly depicts very well how teenagers go from one love to the next.

Cleo. She was quite annoying in the previous book, but its quite easy to like her. As I said before, maybe because it feels like shes more of a protagonist than the others, or maybe just because everyone wants to see the kind destroyed. Im very glad to see shes maturing, that she can take more decisions by herself and shes not afraid of getting her hands dirty.

Now, Lucia. When I first started reading Falling Kingdoms, I really thought I was going to like her. Im not sure what happened, but somehow shes still my least favorite character. Now, I understand the corruption and everything, but I guess since shes this powerful sorceress everybody is waiting for, I was expecting her to be a little stronger. At least to try and fight that corruption. Lets see what she will do in the next book, though I dont think Ill change my mind about her.

In this second book, we also have new POVs, Lysandra and Alexius. The first one is incredibly annoying, and I have to admit I sometimes skipped all her thoughts and rumblings about the king etc. I mean, I get it you want revenge, but you either get it by yourself, or you follow the leader of the group you just joined willingly. Alexius doesnt seem very important in this book, but I have a feeling he will come back in the next one and either help or make things even more complicated.

Talking about secondary characters, prince Ashur is introduced in this book, and I have to say I like him. I dont know who he is and what he wants to do, but I like his personality.

Melenia is obviously the second villain in this series. I mean, of course, the king is considered the main one by the characters, but I have a feeling she will be a lot harder to fight against.

In a few words, I like this book. I enjoyed the story, the developments, the plot-twists. I also appreciated how the characters are growing up with the story, and I cannot wait to read more about them all.

This was epic, simple as that. Yet again I want to shake myself, why didnt I read this series sooner? Its utterly amazing and is quickly become a favourite, so much action, adventure, fantasy, magic and characters that I cannot stop talking about, a few poor people can attest to that!

It didnt really matter who someone was, princess, peasant, rebel, or just a boy or a girl.

Princess Cleo is now a prisoner of war; she continues to be controlled by the Blood King and with no other options she must be his puppet. She’s able to come up with great schemes and escape plans but shes forever brought back to square one, outmatched and outwitted by the tyrannous King Gaius. However the end of this book has provided a little light at the end of the tunnel for Cleo so I only hope that she takes this chance and gets her much-needed and deserved revenge.

A gown does not make a bride, just as a few empty threats do not make a rebel.

Rebel leader Jonas got a load more page space, which Im sure, produced many a girl including myself to squeal with excitement. After the events of Falling Kingdoms Jonas is left with little to nothing, his people are being enslaved left, right and center and the Blood King now reigns over the whole of Mytica. He knows he must stop this but with few rebels, his brothers murderer still going unpunished and little hope left, how much damage can a few boys do? With the weight of the world on his shoulders Jonas grows up, makes mistakes but these ultimately make him stronger, I cannot wait to see what becomes of him in Gathering Darkness.

There was no hope in death, only an end.

Magnus is still tormented over his sister Lucias rejection but what started as a Prince being betrayed, heartbroken and manipulated by his father gave way to so much more. With his eyes finally open as to how malicious his father actually is, Magnus forges his own plans and he may just be the dark hero who will take this series by storm. Magnus is such a complex character; I was fully prepared to write him off as a classic villain in Falling Kingdom’s but my opinion of him changed throughout the book and before long his chapters became my favorite. How did this happen? What is happening!

Darkness will always try to extinguish the light. The light will always try to repress the darkness.

Lucia makes little appearance in this book, which was completely fine by me. She has no control over her magic and I didnt want to read about her eternal struggle mastering her new gifts. However we didnt get this at all, instead her character is becoming much more intertwined with anothers fate. Lucias chapters were short and sweet and they slowly made me want more of them, Gathering Darkness looks like it’s going to feature a lot more Lucia and Im ready for them.

This book slowly introduced new characters and a whole other world but it was done perfectly, you are given time to adapt to this new dynamic and to decide if the character in question is good or evil some remained a question mark for me but I loved the mystery. Now for a High Fantasy series that has little romance in it, it sure does take advantage of those small, seemly insignificant scenes. My god, I spend the better part of a day on the edge of my seat counting down the endless chapters until I could find out what exactly what going on between characters and what is brewing between others. Some of my ships seem to be sinking but I dont seem to care because the potential one of the horizon is so tempting? Prepare for a lot of change in this book, nothing is at it seems!

She gripped the front of his shirt. It was all too much–she wasn’t sure if she was pushing him away or pulling him closer. Much like diving into deep water, she had no idea which way would find her air to breathe or which way would drag her down deeper into the depths where she would surely drown. And for a moment, just a moment, she found it didn’t seem to matter.

I have a really big feeling that Rebel Spring is yet again another stepping stone to a much bigger plot and world in the Falling Kingdoms series and I cant wait to find out what Rhodes has in store. I loved this book so much more than Falling Kingdoms and as Ive said before, this series is only just getting started so Im now staring at my copy of Gathering Darkness because I just had to buy it the minute I finished this. So much revenge to come, ships to sail, blood to spill and magic to be unleashed, what am I waiting for?

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I have to admit, the first half of Rebel Spring bored me. It wasnt horrible, but I wasnt excited about it. My lack of interest and enthusiasm was clear, and I had forgotten a lot of what happened in Falling Kingdoms, which didnt help things. It seemed to drag on, without a ton happening. It mostly felt like palace politics, then rebel politics, then back to palace politics, etc. I was bored, and a lot of it just felt trivial. There was a bit of skimming, Im sad to say.

Once the book hit 50%, I started to get more interested. At that point I still didnt LOVE it, but my interest was mildly sparked.

Finally, when I got to the end (90% or so), I was actually *really* interested. Finally things were happening and pieces were being moved into place. I was disappointed that we didnt get more info at the end though. The last chapter actually had me REALLY excited! but then the book ended. Blah.

I think one of the parts I liked most was Magnus and Cleo’s relationship. It gets pretty intense and I’m excited to see where it leads! And I applaud Morgan Rhodes once again for killing off an unexpected amount of characters! You awesome, ruthless woman! I didnt expect some of the deaths, so they were surprising.. but at the same time I didnt get torn up by any of them either.

So I guess with all that in mind, Id say that Rebel Spring is very clearly the second book in a series. It wasnt bad, but it was mostly just moving a few pieces around the board to lead up to something bigger. I am disappointed that I didnt like the book more. It wasnt bad, but I was missing that passion and excitement that I felt during the first book.

Rebel springs carries on straight after the events of falling kingdoms and carries on with each chapter concentrating on a particular character. With her father and sister both dead and king guis taken over her kingdom Cleo is desperate to take back her kingdom and discover what the mysterious answers her ring may hold, Lucia is in a coma after using her magic to allow her father to conquer cleos kingdom, king guis is plotting to conquer all of mytica and Magnus is trying to get through his arranged marriage to Cleo. All of the elements that i loved in book 1 are all also in place for book 2. There are many twists and turns some you will probably guess where as others you will never see coming. This was another wonderful installment of the falling kingdoms series and I can’t wait to see what unfolds next.

I didn’t give book 1 a 5* review because although it was good and made me want to read more – it didn’t have that wow factor. This book on the other hand really does!
I found it a little slow to start with but I truly think that was because I read 3 other books after Falling Kingdoms so it took me half hour or so to get into this one. After that I tore through the book in about 2 days. Am utterly hooked on this series now and just bought the next two books. I can’t wait to see where the character storylines go and consider myself now to be a lifelong fan of Falling Kingdoms.

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