#valtik

✩⚔️🐉Series Review:

⋆ Found family

⋆ Multiple povs

⋆ High fantasy

Growing up, my dad was completely enamored by “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of The Rings”. Try as I might, I found the books he continues to put on a pedestal hard to get through (nobody tell him I said that). But I think I found what he loves so much about those books in Victoria Aveyard’s “Realm Breaker” trilogy. From the very first page, Aveyard completely immersed me in her complex world and invested me in the lives of her diverse, well-developed characters. With each new chapter, I couldn’t get enough of the dynamic between the Companions and held my breath as their lives were continuously jeopardized the closer they came to completing their quest to save the realm. And of course, because this is a Victoria Aveyard book, there were many betrayals that caught me by surprise, swoon-worthy (yet subtle) romantic moments, and epic battles that held my attention as I progressed through each book in the trilogy. The ending is everything I could have wanted and more and still leaves the door open a crack for more mischief to occur. 

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All I’m saying is that when I was rereading Realm Breaker before Fate Breaker came out, I saw this line right here:

“Any more dreams?” he asked, glancing at his charge sidelong. His vivid blue eyes searched her face with the focus of an eagle.

And I thought, “Hmm, that’s an interesting description of Kastio. Could he be related to…? No, that’s crazy, I’m looking too deep into things.” And the only proof I have of CORRECTLY catching this little detail is that I told my husband, who absolutely does not remember.

(It's not my template I just added the names)

"Better bitch than wizard broken, the gods of the Ward have spoken." - Bad Bitch Valtik from Blade Breaker

Alright, I have lots of thoughts about Realm Breaker, gonna share some stuff here even though no one asked

Andry is a soft boy and I really wanna know what happend with his mother!!!

I love characters like Corayne bc she is strong but she doesn't have any experience with fighting and dealing w the stuff she had to deal, and she's really young and I love that the other characters recognize this and help her a lot

SORASA! I love this woman, she's Incredible. The sarcasm! The acid comments! I really want to know more about her backstory

Domacridhan, he's amazing too. He made me laugh a lot and sometimes he seems like a stubborn brat. The way he only knows how imortals work and simply can't understand mortals is really funny

Valtik... I don't get her, but who does? She freaking rimes every single sentence and reads bones but helped a lot a couple times and I think she'll be even more important in the next books

SIGIL my god! I freaking love her too. I almost screamed when she "betrayed" them bc I was really onto her and her story, and seeing she was smart enough to do all of that only to help them... I should've seen that coming

Charlie, well, I do like him and apparently he's gay, or maybe bi, which makes him even cooler, hope to see a lot more of that in the future

Erida is THE woman, strong and feminine, she's a 18 year old queen, like, that's powerful! I love female villains hehe

Alright Taristan is HOT AF. I always loves Maven and how he was constructed was amazing, but I feel amazed by Taristan in another level didn't even know that could happen. He's so charming and persuasive and I want MORE.

I was SO happy when I met Meliz bc she's hot, powerful, charming, strong and a PIRATE, I love pirates dude! And she's a bisexual which made my heart explode

And there's also Rhida. I am still a little confused with her povs and backstory, but she's one of those strong female characters that I love, so she has potential! And I love to see the cousin relationship with Dom!

Things I liked:

-       Victoria Aveyard has this amazing ability to make all of her main characters lovable.  I love all seven of the Companions.  

Love that Corayne just accepted her job as the worlds savior.  She feels super relatable, in like a down to earth teenager way.  Like I could have been friends with her in high school.  

Andry, my sweet little baby boy.  Just so wholesome, all he wants to do is save the realm and see his mom.  He is better than any knight ever, so he doesn't have to worry about that.  

Sorasa is the sassiest and best assign ever.  Love that even though she is an assassin she's not like super dark and private like other ones I've read about.  You can feel that she wants to be better, and I want that for her.  

Domacridhan is probably my least favorite, but only cause he's kind of one note sometimes.  But I have high hopes for him! I think the more we get to know him the more Ill love him

Valtik is by far my favorite person in the whole book.  From her first sentence I loved her.  She's just a kooky old sorceress that is living her best life at all times.  

Charlie is also pretty fun.  Love that he used to be a priest that just denied to commit a shit load of crimes cause he was bored.  I hope we get more of him in the next books.  Maybe even a few chapters from his perspective would be fun 

And lastly we have Sigil!  She is also really interesting.  I like her dynamic with both Charlie and Sorasa.  I love how she wants to turn Charlie in, but is also like his friend?  Like the three of them joking around is some of the best content in the book.  

-     The dynamic between Taristan and Erida is very interesting.  Most of the time in fantasy novels you see a romance blooming between the good guys, so I like the idea of seeing this in the villains too.  

Things I didn't like:

-     One of my biggest pet peeves in a book is long chapters, and this book had them.  When chapters are super long I find it hard to really get in and read a book.  But this is just a personal preference, so I can look past is a little bit.  

-     I wish we saw more into the mind of Ronin and Taristan.  We saw some stuff from Erida, but I really want to see into the minds of the villains.  I want to get to know them and really learn how they work.     

Overall:

-     Overall, I think it was a really solid read!  Loved every character, from the villains to the main ones.  They all had amazing details and really all stood out as individuals.  I loved the added romance between villains.  It added a new twist to fantasy that I have yet to read.  The books as whole kind of started all really slow, but that's to be expected in a book where they have to travel a lot.  But once it picked up it really picked up.  The last half of the book was full of fun twists and turns, and lots of action that was really fun to read.  Of course I would love to see shorter chapters, but that's just me.  I would love to see more into the villains in later books, especially if Aveyard to putting so much emphasis on the romance between two of them in this book.  I will be reading the next one when it comes out.  Love Aveyard, and she is totally one of automatic read authors.  

✩🥀🗡️Review:

*Thanks to @epicreads and @vaveyard for gifting me a Fate Breaker Box!*

I found myself holding my breath at all times while reading this book! 

With the realm hanging in the balance “Fate Breaker” follows the Companions as they race to reunite while they rally old allies and seek unexpected new ones, in one final push against darkness.

Though the Companions spend a majority of the book apart, Aveyard manages to create captivating storylines for each character that advance the plot of “Fate Breaker” forward. With the Companions separated, their different points-of-view allow the reader to explore different regions of the ward and see how they have been affected by Erida’s reign. As always, Aveyard completely immersed me in her complex world with her detailed descriptions of each region and its customs. At the same time, Aveyard further develops her characters. With war on the horizon, I really enjoyed watching Corayne step into her role as the Breaker of Fates. I was also fascinated by Erida’s character  as she descended into darkness to achieve her goals. Above all else, I LOVED chapters written from either Sorasa or Domacridhan’s perspectives. Their chemistry is top tier, their dynamic is entertaining, and the shenanigans they get up to only strengthen their bond. 

Once the Companions reunited, the epic battle at the novel’s end was everything I wanted it to be and more! The elaborate action sequences blew me away, the betrayals were a punch to the gut, and my poor fingernails went through it as the lives of favorite characters were threatened. In the end, I was left feeling satisfied (perhaps also a tad horrified). I cannot thank Aveyard enough for the bonus scene starring my favorite ship *squeals* in the Barnes & Noble exclusive edition. Enduring all the pain and one of the slowest burning romance subplots I’ve ever read was so beyond worth it.