It didn't take me long to start enjoying HEIR OF ILLARIA and the characters quickly grew on me, but there were a few things that kept book one in the Illaria series from being a total hit for me.

Wilona was easy to like. She was raised to think she was just a normal girl and ends up finding out that she is actually a princess and the true heir to the throne. Wilona is a bit naive and very innocent, but she grows from weak to strong from start to finish of the story.

Although we have seen the whole 'normal girl is really royalty' storyline before, I still enjoyed the plot of HEIR OF ILLARIA. I enjoyed the progress that both the story and the characters made and I also enjoyed the world that everything took place in.

Now for the not so awesome parts. I found the romance a bit lackluster. It was missing the zing I look for in a romance. There is definitely room for that zing to grow, but so far I'm missing it. Another thing was the pace. For most of the book the pace was great, but there were times that it went a little too fast and I felt like the details just weren't there. These issues weren't huge enough to ruin the story, but they were worth mentioning.

I definitely enjoyed HEIR OF ILLARIA enough to want to find out what would happen next for Wilona and the rest of her allies in book two, ORACLE OF ILLARIA.

I gave it 3.5/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I'll be honest, I gave this a good go. I was interested in the premise, though the summary sounded more like a cheesy TV opening summary than a book summary, but within the first few pages it was clear this was not the book for me. The pacing was wonky, very rushed, and not enough explanation was given for any characters' motivations. If we're to believe that the MC would follow a woman she's never met before after being attacked then we need to see how desperate she is to learn more about her pendant, so that a woman showing her the same symbol would spark her curiosity. But we weren't given that, which makes it hard for me to believe that she'd hop on a horse and ride for hours with a stranger for no reason.

The dialogue was awkward too, and I just didn't get a sense of any of the characters' personalities.

Wanted to like this, but couldn't finish it.

I went into this looking for a light YA fantasy novel, and to a certain extent it fulfilled this criteria. However, I really struggled feeling any kind of emotional tug whatsoever about this story, whether one way or another.

Wilona has been raised alone by her grandmother her whole life, segregated from the nearby village and believing her parents are dead. Until one evening, while picking berries, she's interrupted by guards - an event which will trigger an adventure to self discovery, and the downfall of a tyrannical ruler.

I found the writing itself rather simplistic, and the world building itself was extremely lacking in places. It's implicated that there are several different lands or continents - Winona's mother is from a different country, however most of them are never elaborated on, which I felt was a missed opportunity. We are also never really given a greater explanation to the magic system used within the world, and I felt. A little more time spent explaining things would have been beneficial.

The pacing was good, and we are quickly swept into the action. However, I felt this came at a detriment to the story at times. After just a couple of pages of introduction, we are meant to be so invested in these characters already (for example Saffron) that when they bare their soul, and speak about the horrific deeds the Necromancer king has done to them and their families, we're suppose to care. Without any real emotional depth and understanding, and a lengthier understanding of previous events, I felt I couldn't really bring myself to be that bothered.

As a main character, Wilona was able to carry the plot well. However, I had issues with her ability to just mindlessly accept everything she is told and reach the same conclusions as complete strangers after one conversation. The plot itself was also very similar to other fantasy novels - including the romance element, which came across as very cliched. As with all fantasy novels of late, this suffers the same fate as other 'trilogies' in that there also wasn't any definitive conclusion. As stated before in reviews, this is a major bugbear of mine.

That all said, this was still an entertaining read which managed to keep me engaged enough to read to the end. I'll possibly pick up the sequel.

I really, really wanted to like this one but it fell short for me. The story had a lot of promise but there were some issues I had with the editing and they kept pulling me out of the story. The pacing was also a pain point for me as there were parts that dragged for me and other parts where I felt like I missed something.

I did like the characters and thought between the king, the White Ravens, and Wilona, there is a great story here. I might check out the next book just to see what happens next but we'll see.

Greetings, I trust you have all had a good week. I was wondering, based on the weather, if we had fast forwarded to November. It was pelting down with rain, freezing cold and windy for the early part of this week. Normally, that makes me want to cuddle up with a good book. The books I have tell you about this week were a bit mixed. I mentioned last week I am part of the beta review group for Michael J. Sullivan's newest instalment in the First Empire series. Time flew when I was reading it, but alas I can't tell you what I thought about it. So what else did I read to take my mind off the weather?
The Heir of Illaria is Dyan Chick's first instalment of the series of the same name. Young Wilona discovers that everything she thought she knew turned out to be a lie. Rather than being a poor orphan living with her grandmother it turns out that she is none other than the Princess of Illaria. She has been hidden from the Necromancer King who killed her family. With the help of the clandestine organisation the White Ravens, Wilona's mission now is to defeat the King and restore her family to the throne.

I haven't read youth fiction for awhile and thought I would give Heir of Illaria a go. I also loved the cover. I was quite disappointed with the story however. While I thought the premise of the necromancer king was a good one the story itself was very predictable. In fact, I guessed many of the things that happened in the story. I believe this would be a good book for young readers, especially those who are new to fantasy.

TWO WORDS: WHAT HAPPEN?!?!?!?! Sometime I do wish I was a princess. Lol. The writing for this book was well and the cover was well made. I love when authors comes with awesome covers and very catchy book titles.

<b>Rating:</b> 3 stars

<i>Heir of Illaria</i> is everything you can expect from a YA fantasy book. In a new, unique fantasy world, our female protagonist has always lived her life as a normal villager until a certain event. She turns into this special snowflake and has to save the world. Oh, and of course a love interest appears as well. We can't forget the romance.

I personally am a sucker for clicheness (sometimes), which is why I <i>did</i> enjoy this first installment. However, I can see lots of people becoming annoyed while reading this book because of the predictability of the storyline.
Moreover, the characters and romance weren't the best written ones but frankly, I could oversee its flaws and still enjoy reading about them.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read but it was nothing special.