I received this book for free from a Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
When I read the synopsis of Once A King I found myself eager to read the other books in the series, Ever The Hunted and Ever The Brave. I have been wanting to read those books since forever and of course that after loving the synopsis of this book so much – because honestly IT’S AMAZING – I immediately requested an ARC of the book. I jumped out of emotion when I got approved to read the book and I immediately started to read it.
Once A King is for sure one of the best YA, Fantasy books I have read this year and I can say with certainty that is definitely one of my new all time favorite books. As soon as I started to read this wonderful story, within the first five pages of the book, I knew I was going to love it. I was immersed into a fantastical world that I didn’t want to leave.
This is a gripping and beautiful written story that made me feel part of it, everything seemed so real and I found myself cheering for Aodren and Lirra from the beginning. One of the many things I loved about this story is that we get to read from Lirra and Aodren’s POV, it definitely helped me to understand the characters and the story in a better way. Their personalities were different from one another but they definitely complemented each other and the swoons….
Once A King has slow-burn romance! At the beginning Lirra isn’t very fond of Aodren and specially his kingdom because it took her mother away from her but as Lirra and Aodren start to work together, to discover who’s behind the creation of a powerful and deathly oil, she realizes that he’s not the person everyone, including herself, thought he was. These two will definitely make you swoon more than once!
Apart from the romance, the friendship in this book was amazing. Lirra and Orli have been best friends since forever and after a certain event that happened in the previous book, Orli is not the same. Lirra was very supportive of her and was always there when she needed her and Orli was always there for Lirra as well, she helped her when she needed her the most. And just as Orli, Leif, Lirra’s cousin and Aodren’s best friend, was an incredible character. He was brave and loyal til the very end. They all had dreams, hopes, fears and struggles and I was glad they had each other for support.
There was a lot of magic, secrets, betrayals and twists! Erin surprised me till the very end and it was impossible to stop reading once I started, this is definitely a book you REALLY don’t want to miss. It’s incredible and after reading and loving Once A King so much, I really can’t wait to go to the bookstore to get Ever The Hunted and Ever The Brave, I want to read more about the characters that were mentioned in this book.
Have you read these books?📚 Are you planning to read Once A King?👑🏰 Please let me know in the comments below!
About the author: Erin Summerill
Erin Summerill was born in England. After spending years bouncing between Air Force bases in Hawaii, England, and California, her family settled in Utah, where Erin graduated with a B.A. in English from Brigham Young University. She had aspirations to write the next great American novel, but writing proved tougher than she first thought. So she grabbed a Nikon and became a professional photographer while crafting manuscript after manuscript. The scenic detour of shooting weddings across the United States, as well as internationally, provided world-building inspiration. It gave her the vision to draft her debut YA fantasy, EVER THE HUNTED. Now when she isn’t writing, or shooting a wedding, she’s chasing her four kids, two dogs, one cat, and five chickens. This could be why she downs massive amounts of Coke Zero and Hot tamales.
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Fictional World Dreamer 