I have read Summerill’s first two books in the series and was anxious for me. This was, unfortunately, somewhat of a letdown. The characters and setting are still engaging and detailed, but the story lacks a lot for me. This is more of a political struggle for Aorden and did not peak my interest as much as the other two. It was interesting to learn more about Aorden and Lirra, yet I liked Britta and Cohen’s story much better. This lacked the constant urgency of the first book and the love triangle of the second. There just wasn’t enough drive for me to keep my interest peaked. This is a decent follow up, but only for those who have read the series and enjoyed it.

This series has been an absolute swoon-worthy adventure! I loved that our beloved characters were strong enough to stand on their own two feet against a galeforce (winks at Lirra) of trouble, but are better together. I was crushed when the book ended, this was the story I wanted and needed for Aodren. I wish I could have stayed here with them for a few chapters more.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I didn't realize that it is the last of a trilogy. To get to it, I needed to read Ever the Hunted. So, I did.

And I hated it. I couldn't force myself through it to get to this one, so I will not be reading this.

I really enjoyed Ever the Hunted and Ever the Brave, but I could not get into this book. Whatever magic happened with the first two titles slipped away with this one. Definitely does not work as a standalone and the writing was stilted and choppy. I ended up rereading several passages over just to try to make sense of them.

It may be that this just doesn’t work that well as a stand-alone (I didn’t read the first two books) but I struggled to keep track of the multiple kingdoms and I kept wishing the stakes were higher than they actually were?

The romance was sweet though.

There was nothing in the Net Galley page for this book to indicate it was part of a series. If I had known it was I would not have requested to review it. It does not stand alone well. I am not a fan of Sarah J Maas who recommends this. I should have taken her recommendation as a bad omen and steered clear. My bad!

I think books in a series, especially in a trilogy, and especially if it's a YA trilogy should carry a warning sign like on cigarettes. In general terms, and while there are exceptions, series are not known for being inventive. The whole existence is predicated upon derivation and cloning and that's what this felt like, even not having read the first two volumes. The earth, fire, water, and wind motif is overdone in books, and the way it’s depicted here is far too reminiscent of Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series for it to be truly original.

I was really disappointed in this because it offered so little that was new. It's like the author read a dozen popular YA love stories and appropriated the most clichéd parts of each of them. I was still waiting for the king - the male interest - to be revealed to have gold flecks in his eyes when I DNF'd this out of disgust at twenty percent in. Out of sheer devilment I did a search to see if 'gold flecks' or 'gold flecked' appeared in the book, but it doesn't; however, in conducting this search I discovered that the king's other golden traits: hair, skin, eyelashes, are trotted out a sickening number of times, so in my book that counts just as badly as the gold-flecked eyes!

So this is your standard tired story of a man and a woman who hate each other and then fall in love, so there's nothing new there at all. I can't even give any credit for the author making him a king rather than a prince because really? If it had been the other way around and she was the queen and he the 'maiden-in-distress' character that would have made at least a bit of a difference, but as it was, I saw nothing here that I haven't read two dozen times too many in female-penned YA novels.

Why so many female authors pen themselves up this way is a mystery to me, but then I like to read something new when I pick up a new book - not the same tired old thing I've read a score of times before. Far too many YA authors seem not to care about that in their desperation to sell their trilogy, and neither do publishers, evidently. I think it's because, for too many writers, it's not about the writing, it's all about the Benjamins isn't it? They seem like they want play it safe by cloning trilogies of other writers, and recovering old ground endlessly, rather than take the road less traveled and bring us something truly sterling, and it's a crying shame. Rest assured I will never go down that path. It's too boring.

Funnily enough, that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was that once again the author of a YA story goes for the first person voice and then doubles-down on her error by making it dual first person. I read the first chapter (in the female's voice) and then went on into the second chapter not realizing it had changed to the king's voice. For a screen or two the story made less and less sense than it already had until I realized the author was using worst person times two. That's enough to turn me off a story even if the story is interesting, which I honestly can’t say about this one. Maybe if I’d read the first two volumes it might have made a difference - at least in that I would not have had to read this one?

The main female character, whose name I already forgot, is not an actor, she is a thing which is acted upon: just a girl who can't say "No!" The blurb even tells us that "...when he asks for help to discover the truth behind the rumors, she can’t say no" and maybe it’s a bit cruel to quote that, especially since authors have nothing to do with their blurbs unless they self-publish, but this is actually an accurate portrayal of her weakness. She is controlled and buffeted like an insect in a bathtub drain, and if she'd shown some sign that she was rebelling against this and taking arms against this drain of troubles instead of being the tool of men (take that how you will), I would have at least had the temptation to continue, but she offered me nothing. I wish the author all the best in her career, but I cannot recommend this novel based on the thoroughly unoriginal and uninventive part I could stand to read.

Boy, what a disappointment. First of all, nowhere in the description does it say this book is a continuation of the series that started with Ever the Hunted. There's so much reference to backstory that while I suppose this story technically stands on its own, I was kind of confused by how often past events were discussed. Eventually I put 2 and 2 together. As it happens, I actually read and liked Ever the Hunted, but I missed book 2 when it came out. This one feels like a rush job. The story alternates between two points of view: King Aodren and Lirra, a Channeler who can use wind magic, although she only does it 3 or 4 times.

The writing is stilted and awkward. For example, every time Lirra is lying on the ground, she doesn't just get up, she presses against the dirt or she pushes against the ground or she presses her weight against the floor. Just get up already! The language was so jarring it stopped me in my tracks again and again.

The plot made little sense. There's a magic potion that's killing people, but we won't tell anyone that it's killing people because we don't want them to get mad at the people with magic because most of them are good. It would have been so simple to announce, "Hey, everyone, someone's making a counterfeit version of the potion and it's poisonous." Also, it took a year to make a tiny vial of the real stuff, so I don't know why anyone believed the fake stuff flooding the market was real in the first place.

And finally, Lirra's motivations were all over the place. She was trying to prove herself to her father so he'd let her help with his business, but he didn't want her help, and she'd rather be doing other things, but she kept trying to insert herself into his business dealings.

On the plus side, I liked King Aodren, and I liked the scenes with Lirra and Aodren together.

I didn't dislike the book enough to quit reading, but I sure wish it had gone through another round or two of editing and revision.

I tried, I really tried to read this book. As an avid lover of fantasy YA, I thought this was the perfect fit for me. It's not. I was confused and unmotivated to read anymore after the first two chapters.

This series is still a lot of fun and full of great characters. The plot is still exciting and I love the world.

Set in the same world as Ever the Brave, this story follows King Aodren and Lirra during a competition between kingdoms. This story wasn't as good as the other two in the series, but still a good read.

I’m sure the book got better as it went, but I couldn’t get myself to open it up and read more of it. No matter how hard I tried or how many times I opened it, I couldn't read more than a page or two before closing it.

I didn't realise this was the third book in a series when I picked it up in Netgalley. In fact it's an add-on to a duology and you really need to read the others to get up to speed. It took me a while to work out what was going on as I hadn't done that. Lirra is a 'channeler' with the ability to control the wind and goes to the aid of Aodren, a king whose ancestors persecuted channelers.
Lirra and Aodren met in the previous duology and their interaction from before is quite important in their current behaviour.
Despite Lirra's initial reservations and mistrust, they work together to save the kingdom and end up falling in love.

I really didn't get on with the first book in this series. So much so that I didn't read the second book - I despused the MC too much. I wanted to give the author another try though so I came at this as a standalone and was pleasantly surprised. It's highly readable and far better than its predecessors. Aodren and Lirra have great chemistry and it's that which carries the plot. A decent YA fantasy.

The first two installments of this series we're nothing remarkable, in my opinion. So Once a King was read pretty much as a standalone, with little to low expectations and it turned out to be a fantastic, fun and enjoyable read!

Aodren is a young King trying to enact change. Lirra is well-versed in the art of espionage. These two have incredible chemistry, great dialogue, life matters of purpose, and a friendship that tumbles and crests as we cross our fingers and hope it turns into something more.

They are both surrounded by ample characters, all of which added enough texture to a fairly predictable story that could have depreciated easily into a less satisfying and unrewarding read. Summerill managed to keep it all light and tidy without seeming vapid or losing any of that lovely tension.

I'm really happy I read this. I enjoyed the writer's style and the pacing was quick and painless.

The past traumas are alluded to within the narrative so it's not really necessary to read the first two books in order to understand where the next installment of the series is going. I like that I'm not required to read what came before. This book feels like quality improvement, and in this regard is miles ahead of them. Quite pleased with this read!

I would like to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was hoping this book would provide redemption for the bore book 2 was. Once a kkng, is admittedly more entertaining, but still struggles to hold my interest. While attempting to be spoiler free here The main characters go through stereotypical YA drama. The angst, hopes, desperateness. It's all there, but it's all contrived from words on paper. What I mean is it's not a story. It didn't pull me in, it didn't present anything unique; it just presented plots we've seen before and the author failed to make them her own.
I admit I do like the authors writing itself, I just don't think this was t,he series for her. All in all? I would give her a second chance we're she try her hand at another series. Also, let's be honest. The Covers of this series are simple and gorgeous. They are simply gorgeous and of you're a sucker like me, that'll pull you in too.

Once a King reminds the reader that fantasy reigns supreme right now! Erin Summerill has a wonderful series with The Clash of Kingdoms. The characters and setting bring young and older readers into the story. I love the romance sprinkled through, but the politics is my favorite part.

Magical fantasy world of Malam. Where a young king, Aorden, and a young magical channeler woman, Lirra, are brought together to unite a kingdom that experienced 20 years of discord. Wonderful world and character building. I am looking forward to the next chapter in Lirra's, Aorden's, Orli's, and Leif's lives as well as the rest of the colorful characters of this story.

The nation of Malam has been divided for years as its people without magical abilities oppressed and harassed those who are magically gifted called Channelers. Now that there is a new king, the young King Aodren, the nation finds itself standing at a crossroads. King Aodren wants to reunite the people of his country, but cannot do so alone. His people, on the other hand, are still wary of one another. Luckily Aodren gets unexpected help from Lirra, a girl who has every reason to fear standing up for Malam but does so anyway.

Once a King is the third book in the A Clash of Kingdoms series. For some reason, this was something I overlooked and I read this book without having read the previous two books. It turned out that you can do that easily. Other than a few remarks from the characters to the events in the previous book this book tells a solid story of its own.

The main characters Aodren and Lirra are well written and feel natural because they are not without flaws. The supporting characters, on the other hand, left me with some questions. I think this is mostly because I indeed did not read the previous two books, but I think that especially Orli could do with a fourth book.

The story itself might be a bit cliché. I mean, revolution, an evil villain who tries to prevent the revolution, and a romance are the main themes. Also, it was halfway through the book when I was sure who the villain was going to be, and this indeed proved to be the case. Yet, it was worth reading and I even shed a few tears at the end.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are entirely my own. My review is susceptible to changes in the final copy of this work.

My rating for this book is 4 out of 5 stars. Highly admirable that the third book in a series does so well on its own!

This is an acsm file. In order to send to kindle, since there's no send to Kindle button, myself and others have to download a few different apps and figure it out. Reviewers, readers and bloggers don't have the time and shouldn't struggle to find a way to open files unsupported by kindle or other popular reading devices.

I respect a publisher's decision to only upload a protected file but in doing so you're basically uploading a file no one will be able to read, its pointless.

Didn't open the file, didn't read the book.

Sad to say but I can't read this ARC since it's only an epub file. I read on a kindle, which requires a mobi file. Maybe I'll read it after release day if I can. Thank you for allowing me the chance anyways.