The Half King Readalong: Day 1!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Stunning photo by @dianaslittlelibrary

Hi fairies!

Happy Monday, I hope you all had a great weekend!

Welcome to day 1 of the Romantasy readalong for The Half King by Melissa Landers. As a reminder, this will be our final readalong – thank you all for joining! I’m very happy to be reading this book with you all!

As it is the first day, we will be reading from the beginning to the end of chapter 6. Get cosy with your beverage of choice, your book and let’s get started!

When you’ve finished today’s section, come and join me in the comments to discuss the beginning of the book! Happy reading!

Please be warned, the following section will include spoilers for The Half King by Melissa Landers from the beginning to the end of Chapter 6. Please only read on if you have finished this section!

–!SPOILERS!–

We start with Cerise being ordered to bring a bunny to the Reverend Mother of the temple. She has to practise her Seer skills, if she can’t see the path the snake takes, the little bunny will die! 

Cerise was not able to see the path the snake would take, to stop the bunny from dying she gets bitten instead! She’s incredibly soft hearted! 

Priests are the only magic wielders, with oracles being able to see the future. Her gifts have not manifested yet and she has 3 moons until she is 20. The final day that if she is to manifest any gifts, they will appear. 

Cerise’s family are visiting which she is surprised about. She is from one of the four ruling families that each rule the four lands created by the goddess Shiera – the Solon family. The firstborns of each family have a curse. Her elder sister Nina has the curse of beauty. The Petros family have bloodlust, Calatris delirium and mortara, something horrifying!

During the meeting of her parents and the Reverend Mother – she has a revelation, which is extremely rare. She tells Cerise in private that she may remain at the temple with her but she believes her purpose is to replace her eldest servant – who has just died – as the temple emissary to King Kian Hannibal Mortara! 

The Mortara firstborn curse means that they turn into shadows at sunset and become whole again at dawn, until eventually they vanish completely…

The Reverend Mother tells Cerise she must tell no one of this revelation and asks her if she accepts, which she does. But she is to leave immediately after saying goodbye to her family.

Nina wants to say goodbye to Cerise in private and gives a battered chain with a pendant for protection, but won’t tell Cerise what it is. I’m very curious as to what it could be! 

Cerise has arrived in Mortara, there is a jagged peak where the Great Betrayal happened. The four houses had conspired to take down the goddess but had failed, which resulted in the first born curse! Oh that’s interesting! 

When Cerise gets to the palace, it’s stunning but she observes that she can taste the magic?? That’s very intriguing!

Cerise is intrigued about the king as there are many rumours swirling about him and she asks the priest what happens to him when he turns into shadows… The priest says he has no recollection. I wonder if that’s true?

Cerise meets the first born Calatris named Daerick, who is cursed to have more knowledge than the mortal mind can bear. He tells her that there’s a rumour surrounding her, that she will be the one to break the curse. 

Daerick tells her that the previous emissary had died by her own hand, leaving an almost prophetic message behind. The day that she had died is when the Reverend Mother had received a revelation. Ooo there’s a lot happening, I wonder what it could be! 

Cerise asks Daerick about the symbol the old woman had made towards her. He tells her about the triad. The goddess was seduced by a Solon woman, who she sired a race of demigods with… hmmm very interesting! 

In the morning there is a lot of chatter as the king’s courtesan had found a panther in her room in the night. It seems that the king will materialise wherever his spirit is currently drawn to and so they’re trying to hurt him! 

Apparently Priestesses should not engage in romantic relationships as it dulls their ‘sight’. I wonder if this is true, or a way to control them?

Cerise asks Father Padron about the old lady, worried she’s been killed. He says of course she hasn’t been… Does anyone else not believe him? I feel that there’s something a bit sinister about all of them. 

Cerise leaves Father Padron and sees a cute little frog in the garden! This ends up being her first encounter with our male lead as he calls her insipid for not knowing it’s poisonous… Their meeting is sooo interesting, I can’t wait to see more interactions!

The king is drunk the next day and along with Cerise, Daerick and the king’s courtesan, Lady Delora, they are going to the city. Wow the king, Kian, and Cerise are not getting off to a good start… 

Cerise notices that Lady Delora has a wariness to her around Kian and wonders what. I wonder as well, is something about to happen?

In the city Cerise and Daerick bump into a group of seers, with one of them being confused that she cannot see Cerise’s path! It also seems that Cerise gets on very well with animals. I’m so intrigued by all these little hints!

Cerise and Daerick engage in conversations about the priests and the order of things. Daerick takes Cerise somewhere to witness the priest’s in action too, planting questions and seeds of questioning in Cerise. It seems that she hasn’t thought beyond what she’s been taught from her upbringing. 

Daerick takes Cerise to meet a soothsayer to try and break the king’s curse. The soothsayer is confounded when he meets Cerise as he cannot tell her origins! He had also uttered a strange word… To break the curse, the soothsayer tells them, is to reverse the offence committed against the curse caster. The reversal of blood spilled is almost always a blood sacrifice…

Cerise takes Daericks advice and asks Father Padron to give her a tour of the archives. He agrees and Cerise is disappointed when she notices that he had hidden part of the archives from her… I wonder what’s in there that he doesn’t want her to see?

Cerise encounters the Kian again in the garden just before he turns to shadows, they actually get on this time and she sees his fear when he opens up to her a bit!

Wow that was quite a start, we learned quite a lot about the world and the first born curses. Even though we only read a few chapters I can already see a some character development too and I think Cerise will turn out to be quite interesting!

Do you have any theories as to Cerise’s origins?
Do you think Kian turning into shadows is the extent of his curse?
Do you think there is more to the Priests and them wanting to ‘control’ the seers?

I can’t wait to read more with you all tomorrow!

Love,
Isla