KING HALL
Genre: Paranormal/New Adult/Romance
Recommended age: 15+
Goodreads rating: 4.37
My rating: 5 stars
*This review contains spoilers*
King Hall — where the Mysticals go to learn their craft, get their degrees, and transition into adulthood. And where four new Rulers will rise and meet their destinies.
Lily Ruckler is adept at one thing: survival. Born a Mystical hybrid, her mere existence is forbidden, but her nightmare is only about to start. Fluke, happenstance, and a deep personal loss finds Lily deeply entrenched with those who would destroy her simply for existing — The Mystical Kings. Being named future Queen of the Shifters shoves Lily into the spotlight, making her one of the most visible Mysticals in the world. But with risk comes a certain solace — her burgeoning friendships with the other three Prodigies: a wicked Vampire, a wild-child Mage, and a playboy Elemental. Backed by their faith and trust, Lily begins to relax into her new life.
Then chaos erupts as the fragile peace between Commoners and Mysticals is broken, and suddenly Lily realises the greatest threat was never from within, and her fear takes on a new name: the revolution.
Where has this book been hiding! I spend hours scrolling through books on Goodreads and then I came across this book, which when I finally clicked out it seemed to be the #1 a lot of lists. I wasn't sure whether I should read it, as I have a habit where if I see a book with a bad review and automatically dismiss the book. Despite seeing the dreaded bad review I picked it, and boy was that a good decision.
I haven't read paranormal books for a number of years as the majority are poorly written and with predictable storylines, but this was anything but! The friendship between Ezra, Jack, Pearl and Lily was beautiful and the progression of this friendship was realistic. I'm a sucker for friendship books (you only need to look at how much I adore The Book Thief) and it's a refreshing change from the 'love at first sight' or 'jumps into bed straight away' novels. The sexual tension between Ezra and Lily kept me on the edge of my seat but without taking the focus away from the story line. WIN WIN.
The Kings were some of my favourite characters. There competitiveness and there habit for betting always get me entertained. They came up with some inventive punishments too! They were a great source of knowledge and helped keep the story line moving along.
Although I gave this book 5 stars by no means is it perfect. The ending was poorly done when you found out her Uncle had abused her. There was no mention of this throughout the novel and it felt like Dawn just went 'I need more drama in this scene, lets wack this in'. I would like for it to of delved deeper into this and the repercussions it would of had on her emotionally rather than just being a chapter filler.
Also the pacing wasn't great, it felt like I was all over the place. One minute she was depressed the next everything was fine without much indication that a large period of time had passed. Maybe this was why I didn't sympathise with Lily that much because it gave the impression that she didn't care when in fact a number of months had just passed.
All in all, I would whole heartily recommend this boos. It was like a breath of fresh air.
