July 26, 2019

Review: The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye

The Crown's Game (The Crown's Game #1)
Author: Evelyn Skye
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: May 17, 2016
Pages: 407
Format: Audiobook/Library

Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are enchanters—the only two in Russia—and with the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threatening, the tsar needs a powerful enchanter by his side.

And so he initiates the Crown’s Game, an ancient duel of magical skill—the greatest test an enchanter will ever know. The victor becomes the Imperial Enchanter and the tsar’s most respected adviser. The defeated is sentenced to death.

Raised on tiny Ovchinin Island her whole life, Vika is eager for the chance to show off her talent in the grand capital of Saint Petersburg. But can she kill another enchanter—even when his magic calls to her like nothing else ever has?

For Nikolai, an orphan, the Crown’s Game is the chance of a lifetime. But his deadly opponent is a force to be reckoned with—beautiful, whip-smart, imaginative—and he can’t stop thinking about her.

And when Pasha, Nikolai’s best friend and heir to the throne, also starts to fall for the mysterious enchantress, Nikolai must defeat the girl they both love…or be killed himself.

As long-buried secrets emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes dangerously clear—the Crown’s Game is not one to lose.

Review: I enjoyed this. I listened to the audiobook for it and I feel like I enjoyed it more because of that. I really enjoyed that this took place in Russia. While there are a fair amount of book out or coming out now that take place there, there is't nearly as many as books that take place in say the US or Europe. So I really enjoyed it. And I loved it even more since it specifically revolved around the Romanov family. I absolutely love books set around the Romanov's! So one reason why I definitely feel like the audiobook let me enjoy this book more was because of the accents and the pronunciations. Being able to really hear more of a Russian accent and having the Russian names and places said aloud definitely helped me get more into the setting and really feel fully immersed in the story. So I highly suggest the audiobook when it comes to reading this! 

So the whole idea behind The Crown's Game was incredibly interesting. Normally, only one person gets the powers of an enchanter. And this person becomes the Tsar's Imperial Enchanter. However, during some generations, the enchanters power is given to two people and the two enchanters have to fight in The Crown's Game to win the place of Imperial Enchanter. So we have Vika and Nikolai who have the enchanter powers and have to fight in The Crown's Game. They were both raised and mentored in completely different ways and have different strength's going into the game.

I thought it was really interesting seeing them use their differing talents to attempt to kill the other. We see Vika try to use a lightning storm or drowning in water to kill Nikolai while he tries to suffocate her to death in a box. Their powers were so different from each other, so it was interesting to see what they attempted with each turn. It was also interesting seeing their dynamic with each other change as they got to know the other. Not only do we see Vika and Nikolai start to soften and even fall for each other throughout The Crown's Game, which obviously has a significant impact on the game itself. We see Pasha the heir to the thrown make things more complicated for the game as well. He is falling for Vika as well but on the flip side, Nikolai is his best friend. He doesn't necessarily want to see either of them die from the game. 

On top of The Crown's Game happening, we also have all this stuff happening in the background. We see Pasha dealing with the fact he's not super thrilled about becoming Tsar and dealing with all the diplomatic stuff, including potential uprisings against the throne. Both Vika and Nikolai get some startling news about their parentage. Vika about her father, and Nikolai about both his mother and father. I have to say the whole thing with Nikolai was more shocking. I was not expecting his mother to actually be a part of the book considering what we were told at the beginning about her. But her role and what she reveals about Nikolai's previously unknown father was surprising for me. And then on top of that, we learn about all these affair's Tsar Alexander had and even suspected affairs of the Tsarina as well. Clearly both of these things lead to the events happening in The Crown's Fate according to the description. There were just so many background stories happening during the main story and that definitely made things a lot more interesting.

The only thing I wasn't the biggest fan of was how so many people loved the main characters. The whole Nikolai and Vika falling for each other was super predictable with the way the story was written. To me they never truly felt like enemies. I mean, we know from the synopsis that it happens, but it just felt super predictable and obvious with how. And the whole Pasha falling for Vika too definitely felt a bit predictable as well. He was pretty starstruck with her the moment he saw her. And if that wasn't enough, the person who was pretty much Nikolai and Galina's servant, Renata, also declares her love for Nikolai. Cuz the whole Vika, Nikolai, Pasha thing wasn't enough. The ending with what Nikolai tried to initially do to end the game also felt predictable. I saw that coming a mile away. 

However, despite the predictability of certain parts of the story, overall, I really liked it. I'm excited to see where some of these story lines and twists take us in the next book!