Reign the Earth
A.C. Gaughen
Shalia will marry to stop her desert family from warring with the Trifectate. Calix the God-King will stop at nothing to destroy the Elementae – little does he know that his soon-to-be wife may have the power of Earth. Can these two strong willed people fall for each other? Or will they be ripped apart by their different beliefs.
Shalia is a decent enough character who is determined to stand on her own two feet. However, sometimes this just doesn’t work for her. I felt confused that sometimes she stood up for herself against Calix, but the rest of the time she didn’t. Do you have the power or not Shalia? She seems to have faith in the power of marriage even as she subverts it. I didn’t understand her well enough to get what she really meant.
Now, about those almost- sex scenes. I appreciated that the author wanted Shalia’s first time to be acceptable enough, and I was grateful that the rape was not depicted. But what I was disappointed in was Shalia’s expectation that loving someone would mean that everything was ok.
Good, but not good enough you know? I finished reading it, and instead of being excited to read the next novel I felt myself wanting to just go find the ending, rather than investing the time and effort to search it out. Or perhaps not. It could have been that this was a reread and it just wasn’t worthy of rereading. It’s been a full year since I received this novel for reviewing, and perhaps it’s time for the next to appear. The author was suffering from a range of health issues which I can only hope have resolved for her.
Now that I look at the synopsis on Goodreads for the second novel, it doesn’t appear to be about Shalia at all. I expected that it would be about the next part of the prophesy that Calix is so worried about. That synopsis feels like another cliched story waiting to begin.
Think Warbreaker or any other range of novels where the princess falls for the wrong guy after marrying for an alliance. There’s a lot of them! This is one of the better ones with a strong fantasy element in it though. I’m giving it 3 stars here, but I rank it far higher than Ash Princess.
Bloomsbury | 1st February 2018 | AU$16.99 | paperback
