This is quite a heavy read.

The story is really about power, how it corrupts eventually even the very best intentions.

A bit gruesome in places but I did enjoy it.

Really liked this book! I mean.... "The day Eridani killed a man for the first time started out as perfectly ordinary.'' What more do you want for a first line?!

Eridani's Crown is the story of a courageous, feminist princess rising to become something you would have never expected her to become. In this book, you will see Eridani travel through various kingdoms, fight in uncountable wars and try to get an advance on her enemies, in any possible way. She will challenge your morals and make you ask yourself: where did it all go wrong? Eridani is a character who I related to at first, understood and reasoned with, but later on, became an actual horror. You go from admiring her for being so clever to being horrified that she did that. She makes you wonder what you yourself could become in that scenario. You related to her at first, could you also become so power-hungry, so cruel?

An interesting world filled with intriguing characters and alluring mythology. The politics and tactics were one of the most interesting parts of this book. Although there were big time jumps, we truly see a story from the beginning to the end. Characters who you thought would be there forever, died quickly and others you didn't consider all that important stayed until the end. Characters are easily killed off, the only constant is the ruthless Eridani and her lust for power.

Four stars. An unnerving meditation on how cruelty begets cruelty.

Eridani, the princess of a petty kingdom, faces unspeakable treachery at an early age. Haunted by a prophecy that everyone she knows and trusts will betray her, she begins to seal off her heart and betray them first.

In the beginning, this feels like a standard fantasy story, mixed with over-heavy doses of anachronistic feminism. It suffers, too, from the familiar flaw of “telling,” not “showing.” But the payoff is well-done. Shvartsman builds on Eridani’s early experiences to produce a believable tyrant (albeit a little extreme toward the very end): cynical, self-deluded, and obsessed with birthing her own legend. But her destruction is not complete - not yet.

The temporal shifts are particularly effective, smoothly conveying emotional distance. Shvartsman also excels in creating in-world legends and myths, even offering a fresh take on the origins of the vampire and the dragon.

Content warnings (tailored for Catholics; may not be exhaustive): occasional vulgar speech; sorcery/fortune telling; one instance of affirming transgenderism; one instance of non-marital cohabitation; at least one instance of off-screen rape; pervasive violence, sometimes graphic.

In sum: looking forward to the sequel.

From badass female characters to dealing with the ramifications of politics, you would think this novel would have won me over. Nope. In the beginning of my reading, I enjoyed myself immensely but as I gradually started to work myself through the novel the build-up to the epic finale started to plummet in a downward spiral before falling flat. It was missing that spark to ignite my interest, and when I found myself skimming a little over the half mark I knew this was a goner. To be honest it's hard to pinpoint what exactly caused this downfall but it was lacking that something something to win me over. Despite that, I would still highly recommend this "Eridani's Crown" due to its unique take on politics, ruthless heroine, and in-depth writing style of the author.

From strong female characters to politics, fighting and prophecies, this book ticked a lot of boxes.

As a main character, I liked Eridani for most of the book. She was fierce and calculating, and having a character be presented as both strong and smart made her much more likeable. However, at times I found it hard to connect with her due to her brutality and would've liked to see a bit more of her vulnerabilities, something to show she's still human.

Prophecies of not being able to trust anyone made up a major part of this book. Although I understand how important it was to the plot, I couldn't help but wish for more characters that would stick around, and someone else to like as it made it harder to read when I was only rooting for Eridani.
The world creation in this book was superb. I really enjoyed reading about the different kingdoms and how the politics tied them all together, it was written with incredible detail.
If anything, there were too many twists in the story for me and too many new characters introduced over the course of the book. It may be my fault for really taking my time with this book, but every time I put it down for a few days, it took me a while to get back into it when I started reading it again.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone, thanks to the author for allowing me to read this pre-publication through Net-galley. All views expressed are entirely personal to me and are absolutely no reflection of the author.
A full review of the novel, including a break-down of ratings, will be released on the blog linked shortly.

Wow! First off, the ending and change of events was shocking and unsettling to say the least; not necessarily in a way of disappointment, but more so that I could not put the book down wondering what was going to be the next turn of events. The MC’s changes throughout the novel seemed to be for the worst; though, realistically, there have been plenty of Eridani’s in the past and present (the lust for revenge and power). Although I did fall in love with the courageous, caring queen she was in the beginning, it is because of the changes of her character and surprises throughout the novel that I give the author immense credit for his story telling. There were many lessons to be learned throughout the story that included sorrow, hope, and the change of fate that depended on what may or may not be noble choices. All in all, the story itself was astonishing, the author did a good job hiding future events with no plausible outcome until the reader travels throughout the journey with the MC to see the ultimate ending; thus, drawing me in to the interest of Alex Shvartsman other novels.

Thanks to Netgalley and UFOpublishing for giving me an ARC in return for an honest review.

I haven’t enjoyed a book this much in awhile. It starts out with Eridani going through hardships and wanting to take back the crown to make the world a better place. Over the course of the novel, she becomes a rather different person.

The change in her character is outlined so well and reminds me of Daenerys. The author did an amazing job with the story. I enjoyed every second of it.

I received an ARC from net galley, and I’m leaving this review voluntarily.

Well, that was an interesting book in fantasy setting, but what makes it unique is protagonist - Eridani. I don't think that I ever gave 4 stars to the book which protagonist I completely despised. Eridani is ruthless and powerhungry she has absolutely no loyalties and she is able to sacrifice even most trusted friends to get what she wants.

But we meet her when she's 15 and her parents and brother are murdered, so she decides to get her revenge. But vengeance isn't enough and she leave a lot of bodies behind her goals. But, though she definitely isn't a nice person, I think the author meant to write her that way. And it works.

I have some complaints, and the main is the fact that the story is focused mostly on Eridani and her being who she is . She is surrounded by some interesting characters and I wished them to be more explored. But it is worthy read for fantasy fans.