Delightful. 

Magical. 

Fantastical.

Bewitching. 

Heartwarming. 

Charming.

To be a Waverley in Bascom, NC is a special thing. Some would call that special thing natureal, some would call  it strange. Some would embrace it and some would run as far and and as fast as they could from it. Accept it or not, appreciate it or not, the Waverleys are special.

Claire and Sydney are sisters who had dramatically different childhoods. One seemed to inherit the talent to use the edible flowers in their family garden to create enchanted dishes. So many secrets get passed down from Grandma Waverley to an eager Claire. Sydney, however, distanced herself from the “special” label of the Waverley name and escaped from Bascom as soon as she graduated high school.

Years later, Sydney is trying to escape from something else, and comes home with her daughter. Both sisters struggle to overcome misunderstandings from their childhood, and choices they’ve made as adults. They learn to trust each other, and eventually themselves. Once their carefully constructed walls of doubt start to crumble, they discover the true magic of old family ties and new love.

I can’t tell you how much I loved this book. The story is told in such a magical, almost sing-song way. I love that it’s not told by just one character, as well. Many of the characters get to tell their own tale, from their own perspective. So many things going on, but all blending and weaving together. It’s comforting, and despite the very obvious supernatural aspects of the story, makes you believe. 

The story is full of funny, quirky side characters that just move into your heart and stay there. Evenelle, who will show up at any time of the day or night to give you something that she just KNOWS you’re going to need (and you do, always, end up needing it) is one of my favorites. Not everyone has a happy tale to share, but the friendships that get them through those not-happy times are just incredible.

This was the first, but will absolutely NOT be the last book I read from Sarah Addison Allen. She’s worked her story magic on me, and I have a feeling she’ll do the same to you.

The Rogue King was PNR at its finest. Phenomenal world building and characters. I was instantly sucked into the story and didn't want to put it down till I finished!

I can truly only think of two minor things that were confusing to me. One being that the title and cover seem to indicate this being Brand's story and in a way it definitely is, but the description and the story itself seems to highlight Kasia more (which I loved) and it seems to me as if the following one(s) will be centered around her sisters and obviously their potential mates. I just found it an interesting choice. But what do I know, maybe hot male bods call out to their core demographic more at first glance? The other thing is I'm a bit unclear about the humans in this world. It seemed as if they are likely mostly unaware of the supernatural/shifter elements around them. And I get that there was multiple points made about the dragons especially being able to hide in plain sight in a multitude of ways, but something about that still seems so increasingly difficult when recruiting humans for dragon mates and a building dragon war. I'm curious to see if that's something that comes to a head in future books. It seemed hard to contain in this book and I'd imagine it will only be increasingly so as it proceeds. Dragons are kinda hard to miss, especially when engaged in battle and not as adapt at shielding.

Other than those two things everything else was masterfully done imo. The Supernatural element was superb, I highly enjoyed the politics within the dragon colonies and the larger story there with the high King oppressor and building rebellion. I was totally engrossed in it all. I also loved the other shifters and mythical beings, especially some that were a complete surprise *cough Hershel cough*. And let's not forget the star of the show, Kasia the Phoenix herself! She was awesome! Why is there not more Phoenix shifter books?! So so good. I really enjoyed seeing her learn and harness her own abilities as we went along too. I can't wait to see more about her sisters and how her story progresses as well!

The romance was great. Initially it did feel a bit insta but it honestly ended up being a little more of a slow burn which was awesome. Insta chemistry + some mystery is a wonderful combo.

I'm thrilled this is only the beginning of something much larger! I really look forward to more and I'm definitely going to check out more from this author.

I received an ARC of this book from Entangled Publishing via Netgalley and this is my honest review.

This was hard to rate. It was the third time around, and although I devoured it the first time, I meandered through it this time, partly because it was a pain to carry around. It was enjoyable but knowing some of what was going to happen took away from that a bit. It was still pretty awesome and thought-provoking, so I didn’t mind skimming over the odd paragraph that lingered a bit too long. Admittedly, when presented with really long lists like those at the start of the novel, I have a tendency to pick up speed as I read so they get presented as a gush from the character’s awe and amazement. Basically, Adso’s overwhelmed and yet he can recall every detail sixty years later.

I’m still not sure what the point of the outer framing story is though.

"This?" I asked, showing him a work whose pages were covered with abstruse letters. And William said, "No, that's Arabic, idiot! Bacon was right: the scholar's first duty is to learn languages!"

 

"But you don't know Arabic, either!" I replied, irked, to which William answered, "At least I understand when it is Arabic!" And I blushed, because I could hear Benno snickering behind my back.

And now they're just name-calling:

"Is it my fault if Louis reads my writings? Surely he cannot read yours, you illiterate!"

"I? Illiterate? Was your Francis a literate, he who spoke with geese?"

"You blaspheme!"

"You're the blasphemer; you know the keg ritual!"

"I have never seen such a things, and you know it!"

"Yes, you did, you and your little friars, when you slipped into the bed of Clare of Montefalco!"

"May God strike you! I was inquisitor at that time, and Clare had already died in the odor of sanctity!"

And so on...