The Elysian Prophecy ~ Vivien Reis (Keeper of Ael or The Deian Chronicles #1)

[WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS]

★★★☆☆

I received an eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My opinion is in no way influenced by the author or publisher.

So, I believe in rating absolutes (partly because Goodreads does as well, apparently) but man, I think I'm gonna have to give this a half-star kinda rating. 3.5, I think. Definitely not a 3, it was too good for that, but definitely not a 4 either.

The Writing

This is a fast-paced story, meaning that events happen in rather quick succession and do not tend to slow down for too long. However, sometimes the book was less fast-paced and more rushed. The first 7 chapters were very exposition heavy, which dragged down the overall feel of the story, as I felt talked at and explained to, rather than experiencing the story. Around chapter 8, things started picking up with the inciting incident and I found myself very drawn into the story. I felt like I was reading a book sometimes, which I don't like, but it did pull me in a lot.

There were two primary storylines: Abi's and Ben's, especially after Abi gets kidnapped by the King's Army, the antagonist organization. I found that Abi's plot tended to be very rushed whereas Ben's narrative voice was consistent and engaging. The scary parts made my heart race and the sad parts made me feel so sad, but mostly only in Ben's parts.

Also, Jesse kept saying that they were monitoring Abi’s family, but either he was straight up lying, the Marker was a lying traitorous spy (and wasn’t important enough to warrant a revelation in the book), or this was just bad writing, because obviously Ben was constantly getting hospitalized and was having episodes that literally got recorded and went viral, but no one thought that, maybe, just maybe, he was an Oracle too.

The World-Building

The Order felt forced at first, I gotta admit. It took several chapters before they started to feel less like a Clave rip-off/Camp Halfblood wanna-be and more like their own thing. The King's Army felt very real from the start and remained so, but I believe that is probably because they primarily featured in Ben's plot, which was, as you can probably tell at this point, superior and my favorite part of the story.

The magic system was interesting and unique, though not super defined, which isn't really negative since that just means it was more soft magic versus being hard magic.

The Characters

Ben: Favorite character. I have a thing for slow descents into madness, so he was absolutely awesome. All of his scenes were consistent and intriguing. I wish the whole book was just about him. I would read the heck out of that book.

Abi: Abi...oh Abi. Abi was kind of annoying, but only because she was sort of inconsistent. She would flip between being determined and strong and being petty and childish. Yeah, she’s fifteen, but the number of times she just straight up forgot very important things was really annoying. I was fifteen once. I didn’t forget things that easily, I assure you.

Cora: She started out as the classic cool, extravert with multicolored hair and best friends with the bookworm, but really became her own person as the story went on. [I hope she doesn’t become a freaky demon talon thing from the final chapter because Ben gave her the kiss of death and all. (hide spoiler)]I hope she doesn’t become a freaky demon talon thing from the final chapter because Ben gave her the kiss of death and all.

The Rooftop Gang (as I like to call them):

Jesse was the classic heart-throb obvious love interest. Not much else going on though. A bit of a deus ex machina tbh.

Myra was nice and consistent. Good character.

Theo was very infectious, I must admit. I really liked him, but not enough to feel sad when he almost died. My WIP has a character basically just like him (they're even both black), so it was fun to read scenes he was in. He really made Elysia feel real.

Shelley: She was there? Kinda? She really wasn’t important.

Austin: Was he important? I really couldn’t tell you.

Red and Rogan: Classic villains. They’ll need more time in a sequel to really become something special, but they were definitely effective. I was spooked.

Ravi: He was honestly such a surprise.

Conclusion

The book was good. I liked it and will definitely read the sequel. Ben was my fav and I heart him, even though he’s kinda corrupted and crazy. It’s a fast read, even though it’s like 400 pages. It honestly flies by. I read it in 3 days, but could probably have read it even faster if I hadn’t gotten stuck in the middle-of-the-book slump.

Buy the book here:

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