Stunning photo by @julianamargueritebooks
Hello everyone!
It is day 1 of our Readalong of A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy and I am so excited to get right into this one!
Before we start though, how is everyone? Are we all having a good December/holiday season so far? Let me know what you have been up to and get to know each other in the comments!
Alright, now that we’re all caught up, let’s get on with the readalong!
Today, we start from Chapter 1 and we will be reading to the end of Chapter 6! 🙂 Grab a beverage of your choice and some snacks and snuggle down for a reading session and then join me to chat about it!
Please be warned, the following will include spoilers for A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy Chapters 1-6! Read only if you’ve finished those pages!
-!SPOILERS!-
We meet Asim who is waiting to be told which magick the Princess holds so that he can announce it to the people. When he eventually finds out, however, he doesn’t tell the people first, instead, he sends a Raven to someone who plans to bring down the Queendom. Ooooh, I’m intrigued.
The princess is sneaking around the passageways beneath the palace joined by Falun, the second in command of her guard. They head to the Night Souk, the smugglers market, where they find a dance floor filled with the fey of the city. The smugglers market sounds so vibrant and fun and I would have been just as tempted to dance as Falun and the princess.
Falun and Eva, as we now know is the Princesses name, are both having a wonderful time until Eva realises she is dancing with a city guard. Suddenly the market erupts as the singer shouts ‘raid’ as many more guards rush in. Eva, separated from Falun must get back to the palace without being noticed! Falun, however, finds her and manages to glamour them! It’s so lucky that he went with her that night as I think it would have been much more difficult for her to get back by herself!
We find out that Raina the First was the first human ruler who got the title by leading a rebellion against the khimaer and killed almost all of them! The humans have ruled ever since…
Does the queen being called Lilith make anyone else think she’s gonna be evil? I just get that vibe…
Ah yes, Eva doesn’t have the best relationship with her mother or her sister for that matter but I guess that would happen if you are meant to fight each other to death for the throne…
We find out that Eva is unable to control her magick and has been shamed for it since she returned to the palace.
Isadore, Eva’s sister, possesses persuasion magick and uses it on the court to gain their favour and tries to use it on Eva but Eva knows that feeling pain can stop you going under her spell! I feel so bad for Eva, she’s treated like she’s less than nothing even though she’s still a princess.
Ah, so Eva can’t wield her magick properly because there is nobody who possesses the same magick to teach her how.  Since everyone found out which kind of magick Eva possessed they have been scared of her and the power she holds even though she can’t use it.
Eva and Falun head off for another evening of revelry and agree to a meeting place so that the disaster of the night before is not repeated. However, when Eva gets there it is not Falun waiting for her but an assassin.
Omg, so Eva managed to draw her magick and killed the assassin before he could kill her! It was so easy for her to kill someone so you can understand why people are scared of her but surely if she knew how to control it she would be fine! I want to know who hired an assassin to kill her!
Eva makes her way to the temple to find out everything she can about Raina’s past to see if it will help her at all. While waiting for Sarou to find the books she needs, she goes on a walk with Falun which brings up a lot of old memories. It’s so sad that she used to be so close with Isadore but they will be pitted against each other so I guess that couldn’t last…
Oooo who’s in there? They way they said visitors makes it sound like they’ve been there a while?
We’ve learned so much already! What are we thinking so far? And what were your favourite bits from today’s pages? Let me know in the comments and we can have a chat!
See you tomorrow!
Love,
Amy
I was not initially very excited for this book but I´m really getting into it now. Worldbuilding is always very important to me, sometimes more important then the characters and I´m intrigued! It´s a sadly very underused setting which makes it feel new and like you could discover something new after every pageturn. Love the dancing. I am very much looking forward to seeing how the four different species will be integrated into the story and hope none of them will fall short of their potential. The khimaer kind of remind me of Daughter and Smoke and Bone.
I can´t really say much about the characters yet but I kind of get Elsa vibes from Isadore, i feel like there´s something deeper behind her dislike for her sister. Don´t like the Queen (yet) but maybe by being cold to Eva she just wants to protect herself against the pain of loosing two beloved daughters (because i don´t think Isadore would be the same after killing her sister no matter how cold she acts towards her).
No Idea about the mysterious figure from the beginning yet and i´m normaly good with things like that.
Really had to stop myself from reading into chapter 7, because that was a mean place to stop!
(PS: This is my first Readalong, can you tell that I´m rambling because I´m excited?)
Thanks for joining us! I’m so happy to hear you’re enjoying the readalong!
Hi fairylooters ?
I never look into what a faityloot book is about and so far I have been pleasently surprised with this one. I hope we get some more worldbuilding and some more backstory to the characters (since this is such a short book I wonder what will be ‘missing’). In these chapters I enjoyed the action, so I also hope we get more of that!
Hope everyone has good time reading ✨
There have been some good action bits so far! I’m excited to see what is to come!
Hello! So glad to be back for another readalong! I hadn’t heard much about this book and it’s pretty different from what I typically read but I’m willing to give it a try.
The writing to me is a tad odd, but that could just be me. The pace as well is extremely quick, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing; just a lot has happened so far.
I’m really hoping that some sort of revolution is going to occur and her and her sister work together. It seems like they were really close as kids and it’s sad to see a relationship torn apart for a throne. Also… Three Dark Crowns vibes anyone?
I’m wondering if maybe the person they found in the library has knowledge about her magick and is going to help her refine it!
So far it hasnt been my favorite one, but I’m excited to read more and give it a shot!
I’m also hoping she’ll join forces with her sister! It’s too sad that they have to fight each other!
Hi. This is my first time truly participating in a fairyloot readalong. I have Read all the books that have been in the readalongs but I have never posted my thoughts on the books in the community blog section or anywhere else. I’m really shy and get a lot of anxiety posting stuff on the internet but I’ve been trying to get out of my comfort zone lately and I’ve decided this is the next step. Sorry I have been rambling but I’m really nervous and I’m not the best at putting my thoughts into words but I’m going to try . I Didn’t think I was going to like this book has much as I am I don’t usually like books where the characters all have different powers it kind of gets to be to much some times but I’m not feeling like that with this book it’s really intriguing and It keeps me wanting to know more about the world . Eva is a really interesting character and I like her more than I thought I would and I feel bad that she has to deal with such a cold and unkind mother especially when she also has a sister who is destined to kill her. I can’t wait to see what happens next with Eva’s magick and I’m really curious about who sent the assassin I feel like it could be Eva’s mother or that person Asim sent the letter to . I am also excited to learn more about that mysterious person from the end of chapter 6 .
Thank you so much for joining us! Everyone here is super lovely so I’m sure you’re going to enjoy it! I’m happy to hear you’re liking the book so far!
Hi everyone!
I’ve got to be honest, if I’d have spotted this book on a shelf in a shop, I probably wouldn’t have given it a second glance – it’s probably my least favourite cover since I started getting Fairyloot. That being said, once I read the synopsis, I was looking forward to reading it – and so far, it doesn’t disappoint!
The magic system is really intriguing, I’m looking forward to learning more about it, and other people’s particular skills, as the book progresses. And I can’t wait for Eva to come into her own with her Marrow and Blood magick – it’s got to happen at some point! She’s already used it, so just needs to practice some!!
The idea of having to kill off a sister to gain a throne is horrendous – I’ve got 4 of them, and I can’t imagine ever doing anything to hurt them, let alone kill them!! So I’m really hoping that they manage to find a way around it, so one of them doesn’t have to die. Even though Isadore is really horrible to Eva, I hope I’m right in thinking it’s just a front she’s putting on so it won’t hurt her so much when she has to fight to the death against Eva.
Lillith – oh, you know straight away from the name that this one is evil! I’m sure that at any point, the current reigning queen could put an end to the sororicide, and just decree that the first born daughter will take the throne….
I really love Eva and Falun’s friendship, and can’t wait to see what other scrapes they manage to get into.
Oooh, stranger in the library – I wonder who this is?!?
Looking forward to reading Day 2 🙂
I can agree to what you said about the cover! It’s not the best, but I kinda like that there’s art of the characters on the front – it helps me to create some kind of mental image of them, that I can use while reading.
I have a sister that’s 1.5 years older than me – she also looks like Isa, which kinda creeps me out a bit – but I can’t imagine how horrible it must be to be forced to try to end your own sister! I certainly hope that Eva ends up leading some kind of a revolutionary army to overthrow the evil queen (Lilith sounds like a demon…), and starts a new and better era for the whole continent.
Maybe I have too high expectations to Eva???
I’m so happy to hear you are enjoying the book so far! I can’t wait to see how Eva develops when she figures out her magick!
I don’t really know how I feel about this book yet. So far it didn’t really click with me ( if you know what I mean). I couldn’t really connect with any of the characters yet and I truly hope that I will soon. Because if I don’t really like/connect with the characters I usually don’t like the book.
Although I really like the world so far it has a great potential.
I’m really hoping to see something different and from the title I kinda expect them to fight… but we’ll see.
I’m kind of hoping that the first queen wasn’t all that bad, but so far it seems to be the case.
Let’s see what happens next
Hopefully the next few chapters will draw you in more!
Hi everyone
A little late to the read along but here goes
The dancing scenes were written so good that I wanted to join and the way it made Eva feel was hot but then she remembers she can not fall in love because of the rivalry soo sad
its soo sad how Eva was once close with her sister but now there is only bitterness and her mother soo cold its not her fault she was born with this magic
But I do like it that she was able to use her magic to survive I do hope she will use it for good some hove if she survives
uuuh that person in the library who is it i hope he will be able to help her I have a feeling he will sooo exciting so far
I’m feeling the same about the cover it’s not my favourite but I do like that it helps me visualise what the characters should look like.
I haven’t really decided how I feel about the book yet, I like that it’s fast paced but I feel like I haven’t really got in to it yet.
I’m hoping I can get the next 70 pages or so done in time.
🙂
I felt like there was a lot of information. I haven’t really gotten into the book yet but so far it hasn’t been bad. I want to see more of Isadore though.