Thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately i had to DNF this book after 100 pages. I did not feel connected to any of the characters, nor can i think of any specific character traits they have.
The plot of this book is nothing new (at least the part that i have read), which is nothing bad, but if i read a book with a well-known plot structure and some common tropes, i need to be gripped by the characters and their story to enjoy a book.

The writing wasn't bad, but it felt a bit too flat for me. I did not really see the world or the characters in my mind, In fact, i was quite confused in what time period this book is set and only could pin it down to the fact that the author mentioned the painter Albrecht Dürer.

Overall, this book is by no means bad, it just isn't the type of book for me. So if you enjoy some "light hearted" fantasy, where you can just layback and enjoy a fun story, you should still give this a try!

I don't like giving star ratings to books that i don't finish... I will give this one 2 stars, simply because i don't think 1 star would be justified and i definitely see that there will be a lot of people that can enjoy this book.

4 stars

You can read all of my books at Nerd Girl Loves Books.

This is a really good stand-alone fantasy book. Although the book is 480 pages, it's a quick and easy read. Told in short alternating chapters from three main character's points of view, the story sucked me in at the start and kept a steady pace until the satisfying ending.

The King of Zavonia has been killed and the Queen is missing. The usurper king quickly takes the crown, assassinates the High Guard that is accused of conspiring to kill the previous king and takes the country to the brink of war. Valdas, Captain of the High Guard, is accused of killing the king and is on the run. Riddled with guilt at failing to protect the King, he initially vows to avenge the king and find the true killer, but is set on another path to find the Queen and her unborn child - the dead king's heir.

Mirza is a healer-witch of a traveling Landstrider band. She treats an injured Valdas and while walking in the spirit world to help heal him, is tasked with helping Valdas in his quest by his dead king. An unsettling, dark magic surrounds Zavnoia's capitol, and Mirza wonders if she's strong enough to overcome it. Agreeing to help Valdas to settle a debt owed by her band to his dead king, Mirza senses she will not return from the journey.

Lind is the assassin that killed the king. But who is the master behind the plot? Lind had no idea his actions would set into motion such a complicated series of events. How will he deal with his new contract by the same master? Will he be able to overcome his traumatic past so he can have a future?

I enjoyed this book and read it in three days. The main characters were likeable and well-defined. The author did a great job of portraying their growth as they overcome hurdles both internal and external, particularly with Lind. Issues of sexual assault and mental abuse are dealt with frankly, with sensitivity and understanding.

There is plenty of action, with the characters facing multiple obstacles during their trek. Sword-fighting, magic, necromancy, sulky ass-biting horses, ambushes - this book has it all. I particularly enjoyed the bit of humor the author injected into the story when things got too intense. Stand-alone fantasies are rare to find, and this is one of the good ones that I highly recommend you read. This is the first book by this author I've read, but I will definitely read more of her books in the future.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and DAW. All opinions are my own.

The Amber Crown, by author Jacey Bedford, brings together three of societies outcasts who must work together to fulfill the orders of a dead king's ghost or risk their nation falling into the hands of a tyrant. Valdas, Captain of the High Guard, has not only failed in his duty to protect the king from being murdered, but he's been accused of the murder, and now he's on the run. He's sworn to seek justice, but his king sets him another task from beyond the grave. Valdas doesn't believe in magic, which is unfortunate as it turns out. Especially after meeting Mirza who saves his life from a brutal attack.

Mirza apprenticed for 6 years under the Bakaishans Shulam. A Shulam is both a healer and a witch. With her death, Mirza became the healer-witch of a Landstrider nomad band which travels from town to town trading whatever they can to survive. Valued and feared in equal measure for her witchmark, her scolding tongue, and her most interesting ability is that of a spirit walker, or ability to walk the spirit world. Mirza has only her new apprentice as someone she can trust and rely on. When she's given a task by Valdas' dead king, she believes that the journey she must take is one she can never return from. What she doesn't know is that she will find herself deeply involved in a major conspiracy and it may take everything she has in order to survive.

Lind is the clever assassin who is responsible for making Valdas look as though he failed his duty. Yes, someone paid him to kill King Konstantyn, but who is to blame? The weapon or the power behind it? Lind's second job is to kill the Dowager Queen Kristina. Little does Lind know, but Kristina is pregnant with the real heir to the Kingdom, and if she falls into the wrong hands it's game set and match and the entire Kingdom will be at war against countries that share a border. In order to be successful, he must not only face his traumatic past but trust Valdas, and Mirza not to kill him first.

There is a fourth player in this play and her name is Dahnay. She's sent to help Mirza and Valdas by the former Kings sister Tsarina Zofia. One could legitimately say that Dahnay follows the Koran and her beliefs sometimes conflict with Mirza and Valdas. Yet, Dahnay isn't one to shirk her duties, even though she is a spy, or walk away when things get extremely dangerous for Mirza and her allies. In this story, the villain is really powerful and extremely dangerous. So dangerous, in fact, that I was crossing my fingers that our heroes and heroines would survive.

There is a rather large grouping of sexual scenes in this book. There is also a dream like flash back for one of the characters that is sickening and just plain brutal. No spoilers. I will say that Valdas is a sex fiend who falls for almost every woman he meets. From Aniele, the prostitute he was with when the King was murdered, to Mirza who hasn't been trusted to be with men, or was almost sold off to another tribe to get rid of her and her witchmark. He even values Dahnay although on a sisterly level not romantic. Even Lind has some scenes where he allows himself to actually trust a woman to comfort him.

This is a standalone, and the author does a pretty good job of wrapping things up for all of the main characters. This story reminds me of a cross between a Persian setting, and a German one. The story crisscrosses the world and it never seems to be in a rush to get to the end of the story. It sussess out each character and their histories, and then let's the characters be who they are, with a few exceptions.

Based off the synopsis, I wanted to love this book, but it just wasn’t for me. I ended up DNFing. I thought the characters were interesting but couldn’t get engaged enough to finish.

Thank you to NetGalley and Daw Books for sending me an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I know the saying goes that we’re not supposed to judge books by their covers - but I have to admit it was the beautiful cover of this book that first caught my eye. Luckily, the story matched the cover.

The Amber Crown is a new adult fantasy novel that follows our three main characters/unlikely heroes as they attempt to fulfill the wishes of the ghost of their dead king and save the kingdom of Zanovia from falling into the hands of a tyrant.

The story is told from multiple POV’s and is full of political intrigue, magic, and interesting characters. I enjoyed reading about all of the characters and finding out their backstories. Mirza was definitely my favourite though - she’s a witch and a healer who can walk in the spirit world, and I loved how snarky she was.

I was definitely invested in and enjoyed the story. The only things I would mention is that this book does deal with some pretty dark subject matter - so don’t go into it expecting it to be light. I also occasionally struggled with the pacing and wanted a bit more from the ending. However neither of these things detracted from my overall enjoyment of the story.

What a fantastic read! I didn't realize what I was diving into! I was even a little scared of the split POV throughout the book, but in the end, it was such a strength for the storytelling!

Alright, so the plot is pretty typical for a fantasy novel. King is killed, his queen goes missing, and an absolute idiot rises to power. The head of the guard is quickly accused of the murder, and is wanted. After he barely manages to escape, his path crosses the one of Mirza, a witch/healer from a nomad people. Together, they will set on a quest to find the real king murderer, and maybe themselves too. On the other hand, we have the POV of the actual assassin, who was hired by mysterious people to do the deed. So he too flees the city, a strange woman in tow, as a favor for a friend.

The plot was a little bit basic, I will admit that. Predictable a bit, even, from time to time. But honestly, it is soooooooo overshadowed by the author's writing! The descriptions are pretty vivid, whether of the world the characters evolve in, or the characters themselves. Also, the plot got really intricate sometimes, and took some weird little roads to keep the reader wondering, while still weaving an entertaining tale. I really loved that!

The characters were also thought of thoroughly. Their evolution throughout the book is so clear by the end of the book, and since they're all pretty loveable, you ought to be proud of them! Mirza especially made an impression on me, and got me like "Ooooh the growth babyyyy!" at the end haha! But seriously, NO CHARACTER was left behind in the writing, and even the side characters have got some kind of depth to them. Now that's real talent for writing.

I wasn't familiar with Jacey Bedford before reading this, but I enjoyed her writing style a lot, and the way she can create a whole believable universe, with captivating characters and an intelligent way of bringing the reader where she wants them. A brilliant fantasy for everyone!

A wonderful adult fantasy book that I strongly recommend anyone who wants to get their fantasy genre fix in without committing to a long series.

The book contains an engaging, easy to follow plot with well written (and diverse!) characters that I quickly found myself invested in the world.

The only warning I would give is that it does contain dark gritty elements so if you want a more lighthearted fun, I would definitely skip this.

<i>Please note in an exchange for an honest review, I received an advance reader copy (ARC) from NetGalley.</i>

Well, this one was super dark and grim! If you enjoyed the Rowankind series like I did this is every bit as well written but much much darker and bloodier. So much blood and so many gory deaths and torture. So if you like your fantasy light, this isn’t the series for you. But if you like to wade through the blood and muck of the adventure and want that sense of the Middle Ages grimness and grim in your fantasy step right up, but mind where you step to miss the spilled intestines on the floor.

The more I think about this book, the more I enjoyed it. It’s a relatively straightforward journey tale, but the characters have an autonomy to them that I’ve rarely seen in fantasy. It’s not driven by patriarchal nonsense; despite the central figure being male, he’s not what I’m
used to in these kinds of books. There’s an undefinable kindness to the whole thing that feels just right.

I really liked it.

The Amber Crown by Jacey Bedford is a stand-alone fantasy novel. The story starts out when we meet our hero, Valdas, who is the Captain of the High Guard, protecting the King. Valdas learns after his liaison with his girlfriend, that while he was away, the King was murdered; and he is being accused of killing the King; all of his soldiers have been killed, by those protecting the new King, and the Queen is now missing. Valdas has to run and hide from the usurpers who are controlling the new King, and pushing for an all-out war.

We meet Mirza, our heroine, who is a healer-witch, and has the ability to enter the spirit world, which she will come face to face with the dead King, who sends her on assignment to help Valdas, and save the Queen (who is pregnant).

We also meet Lind, who is the assassin who killed the King, having been paid to do so; but Lind discovers the Queen in hiding, and is determined to help protect her and the baby, which in time will bring all three together to defeat the evil villain, who is determined to take and use magic, as he plans to take over the crown.

With three narratives, the story becomes a bit complex, trying to keep up with everyone, but by the last third of the book, everything begins to tie together. This is a complicated storyline to review, as there are so many details, surprises, attacks and events along the way. Though this is fantasy, it is a historical vibe of magic during the Prussian time frame. I will say that I did like the main characters, with the third (Lind) being better later in the book. It is a unique story line, with the two amazing leads (Mirza and Valdas), who fought their way through danger at every step.

The Amber Crown was a complex, but very good fantasy, which was a bit slow early on, but got more exciting in the second half of the book. The three of them joined together to try and save the queen, defeat the evil villain, and bring the country back to its rightful heir. The Amber Crown was well written by Jacey Bedford.

Thank you to NetGalley and DAW Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

After finishing this book, I checked around just to see what other people’s responses were, and it looks like I’m in the minority, so do what you will with my thoughts.

The synopsis of this book hooked me! It gave me political intrigue with mystery and multiple different characters and I just couldn’t say no. My fingers were crossed hoping I would . Unfortunately, this book fell incredibly flat for me, which is so disappointing, because I was hoping I would really love this book.

The background of the characters was intriguing and their interactions helped to make the story interesting. The three main characters each have complexities that would have really contributed to a great storyline. However, through no fault of the characters, the plot fell short.

Despite a strong synopsis, I thought the plot suffered. I wasn’t overly engaged in the actions of the characters as it felt as though they were dragging. What felt like it might be the most intense point of the plot, turned out to be anticlimactic and the ending didn't feel as satisfying as I would have liked. That being said, I liked the characters themselves, but they definitely had to carry the book for me. Additionally, there were numerous references to and descriptions of rape that I felt were unnecessary to the movement of the story.

I had hoped that my enjoyment of the characters would be able to make this book a more enjoyable read, but that wasn't the case for me.

Content Warning: rape, implied rape, and threatened rape

The Amber Crown by Jacey Bedford contains several elements that tend to have me leaning away rather than into a book, including rape, implied rape, threatened rape, and some torture/horrid executions. I mention them upfront for the convenience of those who can tell already the book isn’t for them and so will stop reading the review now (I should note they aren’t egregiously gratuitous, mined for trauma (as characterization) rather than titillation, the book is far from torture porn). For those for whom those are not dealbreakers, Bedford delivers a solid work set against an interesting quasi-historical background but with a plot I found far less engaging than the characters. In the end, I can’t say the book’s strengths fully outweighed its weaknesses or my distaste for some of those aforementioned scenes, though one’s mileage will vary on that.

The book seems to be set in an area and time roughly akin to 17th Century Central and Eastern Europe, though it’s not an exact analogue. The Zavonian king, Konstantyn, has been assassinated and the captain of his High Guard, Valdas Zalecki, framed for the murder. Avoiding capture, Valdas vows to find and kill the actual assassin, though he’s more than a little hindered by being the most wanted man in the kingdom. Along the way, he picks up (or actually is picked up by) a wagon group of Bakaishans and finds himself an unexpected quest partner in their group’s healer and witch, Mirza. Meanwhile, the assassin has also managed to escape the capital city, though in doing so he unexpectedly become far more entangled in affairs than he prefers. Eventually, the three characters’ stories will intertwine fully (along with a fourth) as they become embroiled in a conflict far larger and more dangerous than a mere coup.

As noted, the characters are a definite strength of the novel. Lind is a man torn by a host of competing drives and emotions as well as haunted by trauma whose origins are slowly revealed piecemeal throughout the book. He’s the type of character we’ve seen before — the cold-blooded assassin the reader eventually warms to — but Bedford executes it well, which makes all the difference. Mirza is also well drawn, an outsider even amongst her people, one isolated by her magical abilities (which her people, particularly the men, fear at least as much if not more than they respect) and a disfiguring birthmark, so that when the group’s original witchwoman dies at the start (Mirza is her apprentice), Mirza must fight for even the barest acknowledgment of her authority. This doesn’t change once she joins Valdas on his quest, given how her people are viewed as thieves and whores by nearly all nations, none of whom will tolerate their presence for more than the briefest of times before forcing them to move on. Valdas is a bit more stock than the other two, less complex, more straightforward, the noble soldier driven by honor to do the right thing, but a kindness sits at his core that is often missing in other such characters (or over-shadowed by their banter or tough guy façade)), even if at times it’s a bit overtly highlighted.

Secondary characters are more hit and miss, sometimes drawn briefly but sharply, as the with the female head of a spice trading company. On the other end of the spectrum, the taciturn warrior/spy character feels more like a plot prop, though I’m honestly not sure much would be lost in plot or character if she didn’t exist. Meanwhile, Valdas’ main love (he “loves all the ladies” as one character says about him), is the typical happy sex worker who is more competent than her profession might lead one to guess and is also both kind and carries a spine of steel. Similarly with Lind, Bedford executes the familiar character type well. That said, I’m not typically a fan of this character type — which paint such work in a far softer light than is usually the case. Which makes it all the more discordant when specific mention is made of how the women need to keep cosmetics to “cover up bruises” from those who “beat on a woman . . . plenty do.”

While we’re on the topic of sex, I may as well mention there’s a goodly amount of it here (to be clear, I’m separating “sex” from rape) — with lots of references to and descriptions of koks and breasts as characters spend a lot of time thinking about sex, talking about sex, or just getting around to actually having sex. Too much for me, not for any prudish reason but because I find such scenes rarely add anything but more words to the text, hardly ever moving plot or adding to characterization, and the words they do add are rarely well strung; it takes a deft hand to bring off a good sex scene and most writers I’ve found don’t satisfy.

Speaking of not satisfying, if the characters are a strength, the plot is a weakness here. The characters sort of meander from point A to B in the first half, only to end up leaving point B to return to point A. This structure isn’t inherently bad, but here it just felt a bit listless and more as if the characters were being moved to various places just to separate them before they could be moved back in place to connect with each other. The villain is not just the weakest characterization in the novel — stock villain sorcerer, no motivation really, not particularly competent — but far worse is that he’s supposed to be some deeply hidden manipulator behind the scenes but it’s obvious throughout the book, becoming more painfully so at the end which makes it all the worse when the characters still don’t get it, even though he may as well have his name emblazoned atop the citadel like Trump Tower. Finally, the ending is more than a little anti-climactic, which is too bad because Bedford sets up some situations that are potentially rich for a mining of emotions and complexity that never really happens.

By the end, I’m still not sure honestly how I feel about The Amber Crown. I enjoyed the three main characters and wish they’d been better served by the plot and less burdened by an abundance of not particularly interesting sex (or discussion of sex). Typically that sort of combo — good characters with a bad plot or bad plot with good characters — will garner a “solid” rating, a 3 or 3.5 depending on how balanced the strengths and weaknesses were. I’m giving The Amber Crown a 3.0 but adding that my personal rating would be a 2.5 because of my distaste for the several rape references/threats/acts and detailed torture description. Again, not torture porn here — Bedford doesn’t dwell overlong in these moments — but they’re just not my thing.

From the moment I started this book I knew I wouldn't get on with it. It starts with a very strange sex scene and the female character is objectified in a weird way. I'm sure some might like the humor here, but it just didn't jive with me, and the writing style felt very simplistic too. DNF.

I was so excited to get approved for this ARC and I couldn't be more happier now that I finished it! The story wasn't what I expected it to be but I still liked it! I don't know why it took me so long to finish, I guess I took my sweet time savouring it.

I always forget there are authors who still write traditional fantasy and not just YA-goes-adult. I appreciate both, but there is a different kind of enjoyment for me when I come over a more traditional book. And The Amber Crown was definitely that!

I loved the complexity of the story and the characters, the way everything unfolded little by little and the way it was all tied together and came to a full circle.

At first I was a little confused about the setting but I soon realized it was a magic infused, fantasy version of European history and reading quickly turned to a treasure hunt between the pages, seeing how many things I could spot and place.

The characters were unique and loveable with their chaotic mess of lives and surprisingly enough, I was in all of them, not just one or two.

I think it was a treat, and the perfect book to ease me back into epic fantasy.

Thank you Netgalley and DAW for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Entertaining fantasy with satisfying magical elements as well as romance. Well-paced plot and strong lead characters.