The book opens with a band of knights and immortals who have been united to save the realm. They are swiftly defeated by an army of the undead. A young squire is believed to be the only survivor of the battle. From there he eventually joins an immortal, a pirate’s daughter and an assassin in a second attempt to prevent the destruction of the realm.

Red Queen fans will not be disappointed. This book is a delicious mix of Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and Six of Crows.

What an adventure this book is! I will admit, I was insanely confused for the first part of this book and all of the information thrown at you right away, but after I found my footing, I enjoyed it much more. This book has everything you could want in a fantasy, and I love the medieval vibes! Those who manage to stick with it will enjoy this very much, I think. Excited to see where this goes!

Ok first off I really disliked the Red Queen series so going into Realm Breaker I was not expecting much. What I got was amazing. Victoria Aveyard has grown as a writer and her imagination is going wild. I loved this books plot, world, and characters. There was a moment that I felt a connection to the book Six of Crows and some may also see it. This will be a series of Ms. Aveyard that I will happily continue without it feeling like it’s my job.

Corayne an-Amarat is meant for bigger things, even if her mother, the pirate queen doesn't think so. Denied her chance to sail with the pirates, she grumbles at home, until she learns she's Corblood - the last of a race of mortals from another world, long though dead when her realm closed the Spindles, magic portals between worlds. The Spindles allowed travel between the worlds, and were thought destroyed, stranding a race of immortal Elders in Corayne's world, but saving her world from ruin from What Waits. Now someone is opening the Spindles again, and only Corayne accompanied by an assassin, a disgraced squire, an Elder prince, a bounty hunter, a forger and a witch, can save the realm.

This was super disappointing, because I'm a big fan of Aveyard's other series. But this had major issues - for starters the pacing is WAY off. The first half of the book is just setting up the characters who are going to go on the quest, but without any real character development besides Corayne. The premise - long-lost portals between worlds - is confusingly explained. And just huge parts of the books make no sense: the Elders are immortals, except half a dozen of them are killed in the first chapter? One of the last remaining Cor - who has enormous power - was abandoned in the woods as a child just, because? The assassin knows how to find Corayne how? The Elder knows how to find the assassin how?

I really enjoyed this book but there were times that I was bored. I really related to the main character and feel the author gave her a lot of depth. I will be recommending this book to all of my friends.

It's nice to have Victoria Aveyard back into the writing world again! The Red Queen series was written during the Prime YA period, where massive fantasy worlds and magic systems were everywhere and in everything. The Red Queen series was the favorite of so many readers and is still talked about widely today. Realm Breaker is her new foray into the world of fantasy, and oh boy does it have it all!

If you want a book with
Magic
Alternate worlds
Assassin guilds
Pirates
Immortal (or nearly so) beings
At least five narrators
Diverse characters
An insane sea battle
Murder. Lots of murder.
Hordes of demonic beings
And a villain called What Waits

Well, this is 100% the book for you. Sitting at a hefty 570+ pages, Realm Breaker is a lot to take in, being the novel that establishes the world and its systems for this series. With the multiple main characters, it can be slightly confusing at times to figure who is where and doing what and why, but the further you get into it, the more things begin to make sense. The list of things to expect inside is basically a summary of just how chaotic this book can get. While significantly better than the Red Queen in the areas of character development and world building, it definitely gets chaotic. I'm curious to see what future books hold, but it may be a series for readers to pick up after its completion rather than reading it as it comes out. I'd like to see how the world takes this series before I look at it deeper.

This is a solid start to a new series! Medieval pirates, magic, romance, fantasy... it has it all. I am interested to see where she goes with this. This is a book you can recommend for young adults looking for fantasy.

So, unfortunately, I could not complete this book. I made it about 50% of the way through. It is heavy on the world building and just as I started to get comfortable with a character it would switch points of view. It made it hard to develop an interest. I even found the mid book action moment uninteresting because I was dreading having to learn more info and relive the same moment from 3-4 different perspectives before truly getting past it. I think this book would be good for people who really love high fantasy and do not get frustrated with the points of views.

Realm Breaker is a fantasy book that will keep you at the edge of your seat. Victoria Aveyard did a wonderful job creating a world full of interesting characters and intrigue. Sometimes there seemed like a lot of information to keep track of, and the beginning was a little slow. Readers who enjoyed the Red Queen series will be sure to like this one as well.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Harper Collins Canada for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review *


“ A Squire, the survivor of a failed quest
An Immortal, timeless and unfathomable
An assassin, skilled and heartless
And a pirate’s daughter, the ward’s last hope”


Man, I love a good cliffhanger. I find it makes the story so much better. Makes me really think: “wow yea I’m invested and will pick up the sequel”. So the ending definitely helped me boost the star rating.

It took until about the 150 pages mark to actually be invested. The writing felt very clunky and disconnected, making it a little harder to read on. Especially with totally weird character names and weird sayings like Spindlebroken Spindleborn, Spindlecursed, Spindlelucky was just soooo weird hahaha. But the story really reminded me of Erika Johansen and John Gwynne but unfortunately not in the best way. I wanted to read those instead of continuing on with this ARC.

If you like Victoria Aveyard’s other series you’ll enjoy this. You’ll also enjoy it is you’ve read either of the two adult series above and Seafire and Sarah Henning. It had a good premise but because I found it so comparable to Gwynne and Johansen it unfortunately didn’t match it to their caliber! The cliffhanger brought it up from a 2.5 to 3!

I still think this would be a great book for traditional YA readers but for me it didn’t live up to my other fantasy reads.

Really enjoyed this one and excited for this new world! I thought Aveyard’s Red Queen series started strong, but ended flat. I’m interested to see what she does with future stories in this world and think her writing has grown a lot as a writer since War Storm.

Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

After reading the synopsis, I was excited to read the book. Now that I read the book, I'm feeling let down. This book could have been at least 200 pages shorter. The author spends SO much time world building and describing/explaining people, rooms, thoughts, observations, problems, etc. that it feels like nothing actually happens.

The prologue was maybe the best part. It sets the story up so we understand the premise. After that, it's another 50 pages before Coryane learns of her Corblood, and another 50 pages after that before her, the immortal, and the assassin meet up with the squire. We are now probably 150-200 pages in before anything actually happens. Once Coryane, Dom, Sorosa, and Andry are together, they agree to go to the Queen to warn her about the Spindles being opened. Only then, do they realize they've been betrayed and action ensues as they try to escape and figure out their next move.

There is a lot of traveling that occurs without a lot of events happening to drive the plot forward. During their stay in Galland, they pick up Valtik, the sorceress who only speaks in rhymes. After that, it's another 100-150 pages before we even meet the final two players in this merry band of misfits. Even after they meet Charlon and Sigil, I can't say the plot picks up. There is some exciting action when they have to split up in hopes of exiting Adirsa to get to the Spindle in the desert. Even the climax felt anti-climatic.

The story was told from multiple points of view. I"m not really sure I understand why Ridha had her own chapters. I'm assuming they are setting the stage for what is to come in future books, but nothing really happens in either of her chapters. They are informative at best. The multiple points of views from different characters were necessary because it isn't a linear plot and other things are happening simultaneously elsewhere. However, I should use the word "happening" loosely because it mostly just feels like various chapters are dragging on or have nothing significant happening.

This book read so slowly for me. It wasn't plot driven or even character driven. It was a lot of world building along with descriptions and explanations of people's backgrounds, what they are observing, what they are thinking, and/or something else. I can count on one hand the number of major events that provided obstacles for the characters and actually moved the plot along. I am sad to say that if the first book is any indication, I won't be finishing this series.

I was so excited to be able to read this! And I dived right in as soon as I got home from work. But sadly where I fell instantly in love with Red Queen. Realm Breaker just fell very flat for me. The prologue was so long and full of info dumping I almost DNFed it. But I gave it another shot and liked it. Then on to the actual chapters I went and all I found was a story full of heavy descriptions and a main character that I just didn’t care about. So sadly at 40% in I gave up with this one.

I very much enjoyed this book. Although it did not sweep me away and pull me into the world, it was still easy to follow. The betrayal wasn’t as painful as the betrayal in Red Queen and I kinda saw it coming.

Corayne can feel that there is something wrong in the world. Darkness is growing and spreading across Allward. Not everyone can feel the darkness, but it seems that Corayne is part of an ancient line that is destined to save the world. Luckily, she doesn’t have to save the world alone. Her quest gives her a variety of helpers with a unique skill set to get the job done. Separately they would not survive, but together they have a chance to overcome this evil. What will Corayne need to do to help her world?

Realm Breaker is the first book in the series with the same name. This fantasy novel is rich in symbolism and mysticism and Aveyard’s world-building brings the characters alive. Since Corayne has such a varied group of helpers there is most likely a character that every reader will relate to. As with any novel that includes a quest, readers will enjoy an adventure through an unfamiliar world and slowly learn the quirks of each person as the story unfolds. Now that the foundation of the story is set, I look forward to the next book in this series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My opinion was not affected by the free copy.

I regret to put this on the DNF pile. I think I'll come back to it when it's on audio-book, since that's how I got through the Red Queen series. There was just a lot going on early on in this book that it got overwhelming; I have a feeling it will be easier to get through if I listen rather than read.

I almost put this on the DNF pile right at the beginning. The prologue is like a punch to the face with lots of character names and world details introduced that are unfamiliar to the reader. I was completely lost and when the battle took place, I found myself struggling to feel invested since I didn't know any of these people. I got as far as the 20% mark and I can't say that I'm any closer to understanding much of the world-building.

I also discovered that I was constantly re-reading passages or glazing over others because of how this author writes. Sometimes things are super melodramatic and the phrasing made me wonder if I missed something. It's a weird mixture of throwing a lot of unfamiliar names (of people and places) in the reader's face and over-explaining things. I guess it's a style I can handle more in audio.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this excellent fantasy novel!

Realm Breaker is, in many ways, a classic companion quest novel, in which a group of characters have to go searching for something to save their world. In this case, doors (known as Spindles) have been opened to other realms, and creatures from those realms are breaking through to wreak havoc. The main characters have to go find those Spindles and shut them down again before their world is overwhelmed. The group contains some of the classic character types for this type of book - an assassin, a bounty hunter, a forger, a somewhat sheltered girl who is aching for adventure, a squire who has adventure thrust upon him, an aloof immortal, and a witch. Also, following the classic tropes, the sheltered girl aching for adventure is (of course) the only one who can close the Spindles because of her bloodline.

All of this, I'm sure, makes it sound like Realm Breaker is just another one of those kind of books, with nothing particularly special to recommend it. However, the world-building is brilliant, and all the various kingdoms and places the characters visit and talk about feel very real. The characters themselves are well fleshed out, and the story is told from multiple third person perspectives, so the reader gets to know each of the characters but also gets a broad view of what is happening in the world at large. There are also some interesting twists, and the reader gets some insight into a character who isn't in the group on the quest and may even be acting against them. While the plot follows a somewhat familiar path, the setting and the characters make this book quite a lot of fun. Also, although one of the main characters is a teenager, all the rest are not, so it doesn't really read like a YA novel but reads more like an adult epic fantasy novel with less explicit sex. It can definitely be enjoyed by readers across many age groups.

Definitely recommend to fans of quest novels and epic fantasy in general!

It’s being marketed as a teen book but this would be a perfectly fine book for adults as well if the lot appealed to them. It’s a story of a plucky band of heroes on a quest to save the world. The A team failed though. All those knights and heroes with their gleaming armor, fine horses and the backing of kingdoms. This is definitely the B team and the odds are well stacked against them. The author does a fine job of keeping the pace moving and the characters interesting. You know at least some of the heroes will live to see the day saved and at least one will die tragically yet heroically I suspect but it’ll be a fine time seeing the story play out!

Realm Breaker is an amazing fantasy novel that builds an incredible world you won't want to leave. After reading my review copy, I opted to preorder a signed first edition because this is a truly great novel. The characters are well written and the plot has twists and turns that I did not expect. It's a unique take on an arthurian legend style piece with lots of elements of magic. I truly enjoyed this and highly recommend it.

If you're looking for an adventurous read, this is the book to pick up. Victoria Aveyard's newest book is action-packed, thrilling, and exciting. It boasts a group of characters that you will enjoy getting to know, and the plot promises to be epic in scale. Fans of her Red Queen series will gobble this up eagerly, and will look forward to each installment. Definitely getting a copy of this (or two) for our collection.