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Title details for The Half King by Melissa Landers - Wait list

The Half King

#1 in series

by Melissa Landers
ebook
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Wait time: At least 6 months
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0 of 2 copies available
Wait time: At least 6 months

"An engaging adventure and a promising beginning to a new fantasy series." —Kirkus
"Landers (Starfall) brings a mythic fairy tale aesthetic to this new adult romantasy, crafting a complex world and vivid characters." —Publishers Weekly

A king by day. Shadow by night...
The Great Betrayal changed everything for the Allied Realm. Long ago, the kingdom's noble houses rose up against the goddess... and for their treachery, the firstborn of each noble family was cursed.
One with perilous beauty.
One with destructive knowledge.
One with insatiable bloodlust.
But the royal house Mortara received the worst affliction of all. For while the king exists during the day, he fades into nothingness at night...until his twenty-first birthday, when he will be lost to the shadows forever.
Now an acolyte has arrived at court. Like all the second-born children of the Allied Realm, she's destined to serve the goddess and become a Seer...only Cerise Solon has no gift of foretelling. In fact, she has no magical gift at all.
Instead, she's surrounded by courtiers and priests—smiling sycophants whose hearts are filled with secrets and lies. And at the center of it all sits His Majesty Kian Hannibal Mortara, with his haunting eyes, sharp tongue, and an unerring ability to send her pulse skittering at the worst possible moments.
Falling for him is unthinkable. Because the king is the last of his line, and as the specter of his twenty-first birthday—and the full force of his curse—approaches, the kingdom holds its breath.
But there's only one way to save a dying king... and it lies with the one person who's hiding the biggest secret of all. Cerise.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Half King

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 19, 2024

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781649374912

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781649374912
      • File size: 3362 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Booklist

      October 1, 2024
      As a second-born daughter, it's been 19-year-old Cerise Solon's destiny to become an Oracle for the Order of the Goddess Sheira. But as her Claiming Day nears, there's been no indications of the Sight appearing, which leaves Cerise uncertain as to her fate. When the Reverend Mother has a vision that includes Cerise, Cerise is sent as an emissary to the court of the Half King, His Majesty Kian Hannibal Mortara, a young man cursed to disappear into the shadows every night. Cerise feels like a sham as an emissary with no Sight, but soon discovers that some fates are beyond sight. When she goes on a quest to break the king's curse, she finds that what is cast in shadow will be brought into the light. YA author Landers' latest (after Make Me a Liar, 2023) is a compelling new-adult romantasy slightly weakened by a lack of build-up in the love story and several plot points. However, the story's ending twist will leave readers hoping for more about Cerise and Kian.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 9, 2024
      Landers (Starfall) brings a mythic fairy tale aesthetic to this new adult romantasy, crafting a complex world and vivid characters. A thousand years ago, the heads of the noble families of the Allied Realm performed the Great Betrayal, a failed attempt to kill the goddess Shiera, which left each of their first-born descendants with an inherited curse. Now second-born Cerise, an acolyte of the goddess Solon whose expected gift of seership has so far failed to manifest, is sent to serve as emissary to King Kian Mortara. Kian’s bloodline curse causes him to disappear each night, and the curse is progressing to where he will soon vanish entirely—and without leaving an heir. As Cerise befriends the other important residents of the castle, digs into the previous emissary’s coded journal, and seeks to understand her fated part in an epic quest to break the curses, a sweet love blossoms between her and the doomed Half King. The heavy metaphysical worldbuilding emerges fairly organically, but readers will wish for a more in-depth exploration of the political, social, and religious conditions of this war-torn land. Fortunately, a sequel seems to be in the cards. Readers will be eager for its arrival.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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