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4.5 stars! This review will contain no spoilers!
Summary:
The Crown's Game is book one the Crown's Game series by Evelyn Skye. As the Ottoman Empire's and Kazakh's threats to Russia increase, the tsar finds he is in need of a powerful enchanter to help him rule at his side. The problem is: there can only be one and at the moment two exist. The Crown's game is initiated and both the enchanters are to take turns trying to impress the tsar with their magic to beat their opponent or kill them outright because the loser will die at the hands of the game or the other enchanter. Vika Andreyeva is an enchanter that can manipulate the elements and animals. She can summon ice and fire, summer and winter as she pleases. Her powers are based more in nature and strength. Nikolai Karimov is an enchanter who's powers are more about the mind and mechanics. He can see through walls and manipulate machines. Nikolai and Vika find themselves at odds with the thought of killing their opponent, but neither want to give up the opportunity to be imperial enchanter. The more they enchant, the more their magic calls to each other and when Pasha, Nikolai's best friend and heir to the Russian throne, begins to fall in love with the enchantress, things only get more complicated. In the end, only one will win, only one can come out of the game alive.
Thoughts:
4.5 stars to this wonderful piece of work! The characters are entirely lovable! Vika is the fierceness and fire I love in a female protagonist. Nikolai is the cool and calculating type and Pasha is the naive and generous prince of Russia. I love them all (except maybe Renata)! Oh, and the world building was incredible! Evelyn definitely knows how to use the right amount of detail with out boring you with info dumps. She created not only an accurate depiction of Russia in my mind, but added in magical elements that were very easy to follow. The magical feats these characters were able to complete were out of this world, but not so complicated that I couldn’t keep up with them. I was pleasantly surprised with the way the Game was conducted in this book, too. The pacing of the book was done so well with each turn the enchanters took. Every time I thought it was going smooth and steady, something would change dramatically and it would get really intense and crazy, then mellow out again for the cycle to repeat. There was not one moment that I wasn’t engaged in the story!
*I read this book using Audible The narrator, Steve West, has an enticing narrator voice and I'd definitely recommend him.*
Plot:
So I went into this book thinking a devastating and brutal battle was going to come my way, but that did not happen! And that’s definitely not a bad thing. Each move the enchanters made had the right amount of impressiveness for the tsar and deadliness towards the opponent. I also felt like the magic itself was a simple thing to understand, but very intricate in the same sense. Knowing that these enchanters have been training their entire lives for this Game, it’s not surprising that the magic came easy to them. It’s actually refreshing to know that they’re both so powerful without breaking a sweat.
Then, as the game progressed and more reveals kept popping up into the plot, everything became even more complicated and crazy in the best way possible! All leading up to what I thought was the most perfect way to end this book. The ending was my favorite part of this book, equal parts heart-breaking and exciting. I, personally, did not want a simple ending and found that this was far far far from simple. I had no idea how Evelyn was going to go about writing the last bit of the game to make this plot unique, but she did it and now I’m sold for the sequel. I still have so many questions I need answered!
Aside from the Game itself, there is the romance that is woven in. One of them I really, truly ship. The other two… Eh. The main love interests are obviously Nikolai and Vika. Their romance is the one I liked in this book because there were so many conflicts with them falling for each other, I did not know how it would work out. I liked how Nikolai was trying not to fall in love with Vika, but he couldn’t help it. The way "like-calls-to-like" makes the romance even more endearing and reminiscent of a fairytale love/star-crossed lovers. It maybe could have been drawn out even more, but I’m still very much fine with how this “relationship" developed. I, however, did not like Pasha’s insta-infatuation with Vika, nor Renata’s long unrequited puppy love for Nikolai. I mean Pasha’s “love” for Vika was sort of cute in a way, but the way it developed was too unreal to appeal to me. Renata’s thing in this book, I could’ve done completely without. I could really really appreciate Nikolai just having a childhood girl best friend at his side and that would’ve been cool, but her love stake in all this made the love triangles unnecessarily messy in my opinion.
Characters:
Vika is my favorite character in this book. She is fierce. She is fire. She is head-strong, beautiful, and quick as an asp when it comes to defending herself. Nikolai is more of a gentleman sort. He’s really formal and proper, but has his moments when propriety takes a back seat. He’s also crazy smart, but more book smart than “forest”-smart like Vika. I liked how in this book, we get to know more about their backgrounds than they do. We’re very all-knowing about them in this book and I hope we get to know even more and get to see how their magic changes as they change in the books to come.
Pasha is, for lack of a better word, cute. Super cute. He’s a generous prince with a big-heart. He wants to have the freedom that Nikolai has, but knows he won’t get that chance being the tsesarevich.
Renata… well. You already know.
Lastly, there’s Galina and Sergei. Sergei’s role in this book makes me so sad. He is such a wonderful father to Vika. Galina on the other hand, has such a black heart that I just cannot wait for her to pop in the next book. I want to see what will happen to her (secretly praying its something bad).
Overall:
I am very excited for the sequel! That ending. That ending. That ending! However much I love it, my heart is still broken because I need to know if my babes are going to be alright! I’m also super excited to see if the sequel’s cover is going to top this one because I think this book’s cover is down right gorgeous!
Thanks for reading! :)