The Hollow King (Warhammer Age of Sigmar)

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Throughout this story, I was pulled into a new world, dark, filled with magic, action, and perilous adventures as Bastien and Grace struggled to defeat the deep dark. Misha, Danny, and Ellyn all played a big part and I loved the loyalty these characters had. New characters were introduced too and Rynn was a big surprise and I found myself shouting nooooo more times than a little. Grace is a great character, she’s strong and courageous but not showy with it and she seems to have grown more into her skin in this second book. Her passion to protect her friends and Bastien and the fact that she’s more in tune with her power make her standout. Told by two POVs, Grace's and Bastien's, the story follows the main characters, while they trying to uncover a convoluted scheme. Both Grace and Bastien are interesting characters, both of them struggles with their memories and emotions for each other and they are strong and loyal to their people and family. Interesting are the side characters and the villains in the story. Ellyn is the trusted friend and soldier, Daniel is, maybe, the naive and in love guy, ready to do anything for the people he cared about. I really wished the author would have developed more Ellyn's and Daniel's characters, because I really liked them and I hope the next one will do, because I need to know more about Daniel's family, Misha and Kurt and Ellyn's. I managed to finish the non-fiction first after all and now I'm focused on this one. But wow.. I do NOT like Aurelia and Asher. AT. ALL. Bastien.... *sigh*

There were plenty of villains in this story, new and old - but more often than not the main characters were their own worst enemies! There was so much self doubt that it was heartbreaking and a torture to read from Grace and Bastien's POV. Meanwhile, innocent mageborn are being corrupted and becoming nightborn once thought to be legend, growing dangerously powerful as the Deep Dark spreads. The only way to protect themselves and save the people he's sworn to protect seems to be agreeing to the price the Valenti royal family demands. Though Grace knows the sacrifice is necessary for the good of the kingdom, he's her everything.. and watching it all happen is not easy. This started off as a murder mystery, set in a city with oppressed magic. I was completely hooked by the world and the rules that the author had created. It was quite refreshing to see the vulnerabilities of not only Grace but Bastien too. Grace was in fact his saviour and there wasn’t any of the usual masculine bravado that you tend to see in these kinds of stories. Grace and Bastien complimented each other well and supported each other as equals (even after certain revelations). All the mageborns are collared and submit for the kingdom to take control of them. Some many years ago they have a very huge war: "Last Great War" where so many mageborns were dead and the Larelwynns take control of the kingdom.Trigger Warnings: physical violence, Slavery, mild gore, physical injury; mention of sexual assault by woman. Mageborn (The Hollow King Book 1),' is the story of a cynical, orphaned solder, Grace Marchant, who is charged with capturing dangerous magic wielders called the mageborn that have often gone rogue and begun harming people. There are others of course, but the magic that is born into them is outlawed, and if they don't volunteer to be enslaved to the crown, soldiers like Grace are sent to retrieve them. After an incident in the field, she becomes caught up with the heir to the throne.. a prince called the Lord of Thorns.. Bastien Larelwynn. A man that the entire city is terrified of, all is not as it seems with him or nearly anyone amongst those connected with the palace. The mageborn who submit are collared, then handed over to the King’s cousin and heir: the elusive, shady and dangerous Bastien Larelwynn, Lord of Thorns. Romance is not only welcomed for me in a novel, but it is delightful as a bonus. And that's how it began in Mageborn. I was on board, I was enjoying the tension-filled attraction that Grace and Bastien felt for one another... And then I started to notice that that plot was being sacrificed for the romance. This happened to such a degree, that there were moments when either Grace or Bastien seemed to be trying to move the story along after an action sequence, but the other would interrupt this to either flirt or initiate a sexual encounter.

Once again Grace shone, and her character development and inner struggles made you feel all the emotions. Grace has the weight of the world on her shoulders the protection of Bastien and her friends, the future of the kingdom that they have had to abandon, how they are going to stop the magic addicted Asher and Aurelie, and now following Bastien saving her from the brink of death the malevolent power he unwittingly released. In the aftermath of the Last Great War,that happened long ago, now every mageborn(those born with an ancient and now outlawed magic) should surrender their magical abilities to the Crown,or be destroyed. The story opens with Grace Marchant and Bastien Larelwynn (the Lord of Thorns) in a foreign court, where Bastien is playing -or rather trying not be played by - courtly games. Meanwhile something odd is happening to the Mageborn. They are being converted, filled with darkness and turned into vicious and powerful Nightborn. There's no way to save them, and the only way to destroy them is to kill them or let them kill themselves.So I feel like the synopsis is mysterious but a little too mysterious for my taste. After reading the book I would probably describe this book much differently than how the publisher's decided to go about it. I didn't have the same excitement over Grace/Bastien. I didn't find the bumps in the road of their relationship believable. I wish that some of the other characters had been fleshed out better, and I wish that it didn't end the way it did. It looks like another book is coming, but it wasn't really a cliffhanger so much as like hey look there's a cliff in the dista...