Cleo was so naive and unconvincing as a strong lead. OK so I’ll be perfectly honest….the first half of the book did not appeal to me AT ALL. So I’ve been on a YA high fantasy kick lately so I thought I would give this one a once over. Everyone says it’s a great read for fans of A Song of Ice and Fire (AKA Game of Thrones series). I’ve had it to read forever and just haven’t gotten around to it. This book has been in my radar for a long long long time. All of these main characters are caught in a dizzying world of treacherous betrayals, shocking murders, secret alliances, and even unforeseen love. There are four central POV characters, Cleo, Jonas, Magnus, and the sorceress, Lucia (also Magnus’s sister).

For him to rule, he must do so through magic and sacrifice. The time is ripe for the King of Blood to seize all of the kingdoms for himself…and conquer he will….by any means necessary. When a man is murdered in cold blood by Princess Cleo’s friend, his death sparks a revolution putting all three kingdoms against each other.

In the middle region, which is full of rebels lives Jonas…and there the people are ruled by a chief claiming to have magic but none have seen it, and in the south a prosperous region exists where Princess Cleo lives in a wonderfully naive world where magic is the stuff of myth and legend. In the north where Prince Magnus lives, the King of Blood rules and longs for power and unlimited magic. In the kingdom of Mytica, magic had been forgotten until three three very different rulers look for what was once lost.

The falling kingdoms books