The Shadow Throne

The first book in this trilogy is my favorite the next 2 books seem like the same scenario over and over. But I love the characters and the dialog.

“Sacrificing oneself so that others might live was the ultimate act of love.” (chapter 35)

As you may know, fantasy/royalty books are not really my jam, so the fact that I've stuck with this through the whole trilogy definitely speaks to the quality of these books. I love Jaron! I love a sassy, more-capable-than-he-seems teenage boy king, it turns out. I didn't remember all of the details of the last 2, but enough to know that this resolves a lot of balls that were thrown in the air in the last 2 books.

I also normally hate meditations on ~the meaning of being royalty~ but Jaron makes it kind of tolerable.

I also really liked how Jaron resolved things with Amarinda and Tobias.

I was kind of disappointed about Imogen, I guess? This WHOLE TIME I've been assuming that she would turn out to be some kind of, IDK, secret princess or something? But I guess she's just legit a ~beautiful servant~? I guess that's fine? I don't know. I feel like her love story with Jaron was never as developed as Jaron's love story with Carthya. Oh well.