Falling Kingdoms (review)

Three adjoining kingdoms have maintained an uneasy truce for a thousand years, but it's destroyed when a wealthy nobleman of Auranos carelessly murders a peasant boy from Paelsia, inciting a rebellion that is soon backed by the royal family of Limeros. Four teenagers find themselves in the middle of the political machinations. Princess Cleo of Auranos, who was there when her betrothed murdered the boy, is unwilling to stand up to her domineering fiancé and to her father, the king. Jonas, brother of the slain boy, joins the resistance but begins to question the group's morality when he finds them making unseemly deals with untrustworthy people. As the offspring of the ruthless Limeran king, Princess Lucia and Prince Magnus are expected to be as heartless as their father, and they have both the physical and supernatural abilities to do so. Rhodes balances the macro-political plot developments with careful characterization, creating four complex protagonists whose actions and perspectives will challenge the reader. There's a little overexplanation at times, but the different viewpoints combine in a complete picture of the world and its residents. The two female leads undergo impressive transformations from passive, unlikable girls to heroic women willing to fight for what they believe in, whether readers agree with their ideologies or not. Rhodes racks up quite the body count by the book's end and even beloved characters are not safe, but the promise of more adventure, romance, and war is sure to bring readers back for the sequel.