King Breaker – King Rolen’s Kin #4 – Rowena Cory Daniells

Release date: September 17th, 2013
Publisher: Solaris Books
Age Group: Adult
Pages: 774
Format: E-book
Source: Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The conclusion to the hugely popular King Rolen’s Kin series!

The story of Byron, Fyn and Piro picks up immediately where the cliff-hanging ending of The Usurper let off! When Cobalt stole the Rolencian throne, Byren, Fyn and Piro were lucky to escape with their lives, now they’ve rallied and set out to avenge their parents’ murder.
Byren is driven to defeat Cobalt and reclaim the crown, but at what cost? Fyn has sworn to serve Byren’s interests but his loyalty is tested when he realises he loves Byren’s betrothed. And Piro never wanted to win a throne, now she holds the fate of a people in her hands.

Review:

May contain some minor spoilers!

‘King Breaker’, the last part of The Chronicles of King Rolen’s Kin, is quite a tome and took me some time to read. You can imagine there is a lot going on in this last book as it takes you from Rolencia and Merofynia to the land of the Utlanders and Snow Bridge. A lot of new places and people to discover! I had a lot of fun with this book and enjoyed the overall reading experience of the King Rolen’s Kin series. It has its faults and I’m sure some people will be bothered by them, but they didn’t bother me that much. The story was good, the characters wonderful and the worldbuilding elaborate. With magic, mythical beasts, kings, castles and armies, this was a series right up my alley.

In ‘King Breaker’ we follow the familiar characters of the previous books (Byren, Piro and Fyn), but there are also a few new POV additions: Garzik and Florin. I thought it was great to follow the story through their eyes. In Florin’s case especially because of the romantic tension between her and Byren. I hadn’t read the e-novella Daniells wrote about Garzik’s story, so I didn’t know anything about what he’d gone through when I started his storyline. Luckily there were enough subtle reminders to previous events built into his story that were clarifying and made it all easy to follow. If you get the chance though, I’d recommend reading the e-novella first before you read this book. Garzik’s story is one you’ll want to read in full and I know I’ll probably pick it up in the future to get to the bottom of how he ended up on an Utlander ship.
Fyn and Piro were my shining stars in the previous book, ‘The Usurper’, but this time I can’t pick favourites. I liked all of their stories and characters equally even though some of them made me grumble sometimes (Fyn and Byren are really thick sometimes, putting their honour before anything else. Go for the girl you love, you fools!).

‘King Breaker’ was quite an elaborate book, with the character journeying all of the world to achieve their goals. We get to see a lot more of the world Daniells has created: the whole of Merofynia, up in the mountains to the Snow Bridge and the villages by the sea where the Utlanders live. Due to the everything going on in this book, it took me some time to read it, because trust me, there is a lot happening. Fyn, now Lord Protector of Queen Isolt in Merofynia, has to deal with all the upstart Merofynian lords, who all want to take advantage of the young queen, and the Spar Warlords, who are raiding all over the country. Byren wants to take back the Rolencian throne, but he’s been portrayed as a coward and a usurper by Cobalt, so he has to come up with a plan to clear his name and meanwhile find himself an army. Piro thought she would be trained by the Mage, but instead Siordun dumps her with a noble family on Ostron Isle. But we all know Piro by now and when she gets a vision that Cobalt is planning on marrying a fake Piro to secure the Rolencian throne, she sets out to stop the wedding. Obviously without Siordun knowing.

Throughout the book we get a lot of awesome action. Fyn comes up with some cunning plans to root out the Spar Warlords who have claimed some of the Merofynian Lord’s estates and Byren has to fight off Merofynians during his travels, once even with the Ulfr pack by his side! The ending is even more packed with action, when Byren finally faces Cobalt. Aside from the exhilarating battle, I absolutely loved the ending. Not everything turns out as the reader would want, or as the characters would want. It was refreshing to read an ‘almost happily ever after, but not quite’ ending.
Another really strong point in this book were the female characters. If you ever want to read a book full of strong and amazing female characters, this is the book for you. Boy, did those women kick ass!

Though I really liked this book, there were still a few loose ends in my opinion. Garzik was one of them for me. I hope he’ll still find his way back somehow, someday.
‘King Breaker’ was definitely another great addition to The King Rolen’s Kin Chronicles. KRK is a solid Fantasy series that you definitely should try.