I actually could not bring myself to finish this book. The writing was weak, the characters were bland the world-building was lacking, which is always an issue for me when I am reading a fantasy novel.

*I received a free copy of this for review from Netgalley**

Solid YA fantasy adventure. Kept me engaged from the beginning to the end. Will be continuing on and picking up a hard copy for my library!

I did not finish this one, i did not like the writing but I can still see the potential in it and I Don't want to oersuade anyone not to read it , it was just not for ME. I can see other reviews are either very good, or very bad, so i guess it's the kind of novel that you either depise or love.

This one wasn't really for me. DNFed it half way through. The story itself isn't bad, actually. But the writing, I couldn't take it. Sometimes it was decent, other times, it was like the author wanted to write fantasy but was writing from the perspective of a 2000's teeny-bopper. There is a reason Fantasy is hard to write. Staying out the real world can be a massive headache. Your language and idioms have to fit THAT world, not our reality. It pulled me out of the world and just made me too aggressively annoyed to finish.

One of the best fantasy books I've read all year! Great diverse characters, a dark fantasy romance and an epic journey! what more could you want?

Prince Trystan needs to save his kingdom, and the only way to do that is to find the tri-guard and restore magic. Though it took me a bit to get into this book, it was full of twists and turns that kept me hooked until the very end.

I am eagerly waiting the next in the series.

1.5 stars.

This book was a real chore to get through.

I was so excited for this book, as I thought it had the potential to be another epic adventuring fantasy – the favourite novel of my childhood.

I was wrong.

This book felt extremely sexist. Within the prologue I was already annoyed, and it set me on a mood for the entire book. We begin with a main character arriving at an inn. Some direct quotes as to how this main character sees women:

“A woman brushed up against his back. “What can I get you, sir?” she purred. He shifted away from her ample bosom…”

“A different woman appeared. This one was older, carrying herself as if she was once a thing of beauty. She still had an attractiveness about her, but her hair was streaked with gray and rouge NO LONGER COVERED UP THE DEFICIENCIES ON HER FACE.”*

*this wasn’t capitalised, but I felt I had to yell it.

Already, within a few pages, this guy – who I have no reason to champion or root for – has gone off about an ample bosom, an old woman with ‘deficiencies’ and her voice not being soft. I wrote in my notes that I hoped he wasn’t meant to be sympathetic, as the misogyny was strong with this one.
In order to get across the backstory of this magical land where magic no longer exists – I barely remember the reasoning behind it – we had multiple huge and unsubtle info-dumps from the King, who turned out to be the sexist guy from the prologue, as he told a story to his two children, Trystan and Rissa.

The sexism continued in a character who was meant to be an antagonist. Although the “few men chuckled uncomfortably” at his words, it still annoyed the hell out of it. I don’t care if the characters – our main characters, our heroes – don’t like it, they certainly don’t condemn it either. I was finding it hard to like them, care about them, or even connect with them in any fashion.

The King in this book was an angry lout, something the book didn’t seem to be aware of. I was 10% in and it felt like the book seemed to have no self-awareness whatsoever. I was only just getting into the book, and it felt like I seriously had to work for it – and not in a good way.

Another direct quote from my notes section:
“These ‘heroes’ are the worst.”

The relationships between the main characters really sucked. We were supposed to care about Davi and Rissa and their mutual pining for one another. I did not. It just felt trite and overplayed. Davi and Trystan were overwhelmingly sexist towards Rissa, and to some extent Alixa. The overbearing, protective male trope is pretty much never acceptable nowadays and it just was so enraging here. None of the main characters felt like they had any personality. Rissa and Alixa were mildly more interesting, but even they felt like stock fantasy heroines grown in a lab. I didn’t even get Davi and Trystan’s connection.

Another quote from my notes, 49% in:
“This world is sexist and unredeemable.”

This book felt like a bunch of basic fantasy tropes just thrown together in the blandest way possible. I was very surprised to find it was written by women, because it read like a typical male fantasy version of fantasy. This was particularly prevalent in the way it depicted women, which – again – was surprising as I would have expected more from female authors.

I just honestly had no patience for this book, and would certainly have DNF’d it if I wasn’t a huge completionist.

I loved that book very very much!
I am amazed at the writing of the author and I loved the action and the characters.
The first thing that got to me was the title and I immediately decided that I wanted this book ad that I wanted to read it ^^
I am not disappointed and I hope everybody else gets to enjoy it as much as I did.

I was excited to read this book, because I love everything to do with magic and fantasy. The book description intrigued me and I was delighted to get an advance copy from NetGalley. The characters were interesting and well thought out and I really loved Rissa and Davi. I didn’t quite connect with Trystan. I felt the story dragged a little and the writing wasn’t the best. The change in perspectives was a little off putting at times and the changes in dialogue and the way the characters spoke. The premise of magic being stolen from the land is very interesting and as this is book 1 of a series, I’m sure there is a lot more to come. We did learn a little about how magic works and this does cause the reader to think and wonder what is to come in future books.

The story follows Trystan, Davion, and Rissa as they work to restore magic to the kingdom. The story contains magic, family secrets, fighting, love, and more and is a good start to the series. The only downfall, I wasn’t over excited and I could have put the book down at any stage and not finished. It just wasn’t gripping enough for me

DNF'ed at 43%.

I've been reading fantasy books since I was just a wee tot; I've always been most intrigued by the mythical, the magical and the fantastical. Throughout my teenage years and all of my adult life, these have been the basis for which I choose the majority of my reading material. So when I stumbled across this book on Netgalley, I was excited to give a new world a try.

Unfortunately, I was to be terribly disappointed. I read and read, trying to ignore the flaws in the writing to stick with the underlying story, which had good potential. In the end, I just couldn't make myself continue to ignore the way the writing would completely pull me out of the story in jarring ways. Character development was lacking, and often the character interactions would leave me gritting my teeth. I found myself throwing my hands in the air and walking away at 43 percent, unable to persevere to see if the writing style and story development became better as the book moved forward.

In Prophecy of Darkness, we follow a kingdom’s quest to try and restore its magic, and who better to achieve that, than the heir to the throne? But of course nothing goes as planned, as they never do. This book is what I would call ‘classic’ fantasy, very medieval, royalty, magic all of that, which is usually just enough for me to pick up a book being a fan of fantasy. I found the summary intriguing enough to pick up this book because while books usually deal with worlds already with magic, this one had its magical stolen from it and I thought that sounded interesting. I’ll start by saying I absolutely loved the female characters, there’s nothing like some kickass ladies, I also really liked Rissa and Davi’s relationship, I liked seeing how that developed through the book and there’s nothing quite like a good bromance. I thought that the world building was a little lacking and I would have liked to understand more about it, but maybe that was something that will come with other books and while I have no problem with switch in POVs, I felt they happened way too often and sometimes they felt a little bit unnecessary, especially because some weren’t constant and I would have preferred to either have had those POVs from the start or not at all. I thought the plot was okay, I didn’t love it, but I think the twists and turns in the end could be enough to keep going with the series, even if only to see how Princess Rissa turns out.

That was a cruel ending. Should’ve expected it. Someone should have shot the messenger. Death, love and betrayal in this one. Interesting characters. Nothing special about the prince so far but the princess is strong willed with her own secrets and it’s impossible not to love happy go lucky flirt with anything female Davi. Looking forward to reading the next part.

The best way I could describe this book would be, a spin-off or a retelling of Merlin.

This book reminded me of Merlin, one of my all-time favorite TV shows, except it wasn't exactly that. A lot of the main plots that make up the show Merlin are reversed and used in this book.

In Merlin, magic was banned and thought to be almost instinct. Although a few of the main characters believed that the return of magic would be a good thing, the King would kill anyone who attempts to do anything related to magic. In Prophecy of Darkness, the return of magic to the king is something that is vital for the Kingdom to flourish, fixing all of the problems.

Both stories carry the prophecy of having a commoner being by the side of the Princes as they attempt to save their kingdoms and return magic back to the lands. Even the clique of characters had a lot of personal trait similarities. but it is all jumbled up and given to different characters. And although I would have been satisfied with reading this as a Merlin Retelling, this story is so much more than that.

The magical world is simple, yet fascinating. From backstories to things that are happening in the present, the world building kept me hooked. But what I loved the most was the characters. The emotional struggles were so real, that sometimes I forgot I was reading a fictional book. The character I loved the most is Davi, and the character that I sympathized with the most is Lorelai.

What amazed me was how this book was written by two authors, yet there weren't any conflicting writing styles. Their voices blended as one, leading for the book to be perfectly executed.

I am not going to lie, that ending broke my heart. I can't wait to read the sequel, and hopefully, things get better in that book.


I received a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a hard book for me to review, but I am going to stick to my rating of 1.5 stars.

In Prophecy of Darkness we follow Prince Trystan, his sister Rissa, and his best friend Davion in an attempt to bring magic back into his struggling kingdom. The premise of this story is fascinating. I love the idea of a kingdom that got stripped of its magic and now our MCs need to work and bring the magic back. Each of the characters also had great personalities- from tight laced, honor bound Trystan, to spit-fire Rissa, to charming loyal best friend Davi-the idea behind them was promising. I also enjoyed that the romance wasn't tied to just the main character and that all the female characters in the story have been strong women with their own agendas and personalities.

However, I felt like this entire story was just the skeleton of something that could be SO much better. I did not feel like the story was well written and it really is a bummer because I loved the idea behind it. I was confused by the change in perspectives and how they sometimes spoke "medieval-ly" and then suddenly just spoke normally? There were just a lot of things that bothered me about the story detracted from the promise of the plot. I wish this concept was just written differently.

Overall the premise was so so so promising, but honestly I would pass.

Oh my. Firstly, thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

I just loved this book! I am pretty sure the pages turned themselves and it was all over far too quickly! Roll on May when the next book comes out and I can find out what happens!!

The story follows Trystan, Davion and Rissa as they learn about their kingdom, magic and family secrets. It’s got fighting, love, travelling..anything you could want in a really good story.

The characters are well thought out and you immediately root for the good guys. My only quibble, Alixa’s mouth, there’s no way she would get away with what she says to a Prince normally, and I wanted him to say that more.

I just finished a book that was a bit of a slog at times but I whisked through this in a couple of days. I could not put it down (and what more do you want from a book really?!)

Sooo glad I read this and really looking forward to Legacy of Light 😀

M. Lynn and Michelle Bryan

A new series to the rapidly expanding young adult fantasy genre, I was excited to read Prophecy of Darkness. The book is described as a coming-of-age adventure of a prince and princess coming into the power of a kingdom struggling with the after-effects of a lingering war. The title, Prophecy of Darkness, excited me - a lover of grim-dark fantasy. This novel is not a stroll in grim-dark fantasy, as hoped, but a teenage adventure story of family and accepting responsibility. 

The characters are shallow and fall painfully into gendered roles. The women cry at some point. The men all discuss women as sexual objects to be chased and conquered, playfully, of course! The women have all the emotions all the time. The men have emotions when they are quiet or acting out. While romance is sprinkled in the novel, it is as predictable and vanilla as the characters.  

The world-building is okay. The author gives the reader a lot of freedom to form their own settings; the palace is a palace with a garden, the mountains are mountains, and the swamp a swampy marsh. The realms are provided with a bit more description, but you won't leave this book with a lingering image of the world without a bit more imagination on the reader's part. The interworkings of the magic of this world are exciting and will probably be expanded upon in future novels. There are a few rules we learn, which peak the reader's interest. 

The language is efficient. The entire book lacked the depth that I crave in a novel, even in a short read. The writing suffered from this shortcoming, as well. The prose isn't particularly lyrical or metaphysical. The story is told directly and transparently. 

Overall, Prophecy of Darkness is a quick, predictable venture into a new world. It does not offer much more to the reader than a shallow, easy romp. 

I would like to thank NetGalley, Weapenry Co-op, M. Lynn, and Michelle Bryan for providing an eARC for a timely and honest review. 

I wish you all the best!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2340809665?book_show_action=false

I may have loudly said "oh hell naw" when it ended abruptly. I want to know what happens damnit! It started a little slow, typical fantasy, and by the end I'm glad it wasn't heavy on the world building. There's so much story going on it would complicate and waste things to add more. The story itself is great, I'm not so keen on the blatent "girls are useless" attitude of the Prince, and frankly I can't blame all the women in his life for wanting to smack him. While he says he's not a spoiled brat he behaves like a spoiled brat and while I hope to be proved wrong he seems like he would be a weak and easily led king. We shall see.

At first I thought this book was going to be another whiny teen book but it really wasn't, full of adventure, love, loss, betrayal. I really enjoyed reading this book, even shed a tear here and there, occasionally though I did feel that some of the characters were forgotten about on the quest but other than that I really liked reading this and I'm excited for the second book.