The Demon King - Likewise Book Reviews

"A bit bland but fun at times and has the set up for a lot of potential in future books of the series. "

"The book is extremely well developed for juvenile fiction. The writing is beautiful, the story is well formed and engaging, and it's pacing is perfect to me. This series should be far more popular than they are and it's definitely going in my top fantasy reads. "

"This book has one of the best main characters I’ve read in a while. I also appreciate the author not being scared of putting her characters through things. The writing was amazing and the storyline kept me hooked the whole time. Enjoy reading this!"

"My sister showed me this series, and it is one of my FAvORiTE book series ever!! You will not regret reading it!"

"If your looking for a series to read after throne of glass, I highly recommend this series! The world building and character building are amazing! There’s so much to love about this series including the magic system, romance, and story line!"

"I’m looking for another fantasy book like The Demon King. Any suggestions "

"3.5 Stars"

"Totally "

"@austin_burks "

"I was surprised an quickly read the next few books in the series in the next few weeks 😊"

"This book introduces a cool fantasy world with interesting characters. I like how everyone’s lives are slowly intertwined and the setting is expanded. It has a nice mix of world building through teaching the royal family’s history and showing us the different groups that live on this land now. The relationships between people and magic are very complicated, and there’s conflict going on in other areas which sets up believable stakes. The battles are happening in the background since they haven’t reached the country our main characters live in, so it’s just one part of the political climate we end up learning about. <br/><br/>We get two third person limited POVs and switch every couple chapters between Han and Raisa. Han is just trying to get by and take care of his family, but all these things start happening to and around him which makes that difficult. He’s scrappy and sympathetic, so I’m not trying to be mean to him, but he’s kinda stupid sometimes. He occasionally does things that don’t make sense and forgets stuff that’s kinda important, but it’s clearly a character trait rather than a writing flaw. Raisa is a good main character too because she’s strong willed, but she also makes questionable decisions due to her upbringing and lack of experience. She can tell her mother isn’t doing enough as queen, and she wants to be educated on the outside world, make her own decisions, and be a good leader. I respect that when she learned how poor some of the people in the queendom are, her first thought was “I will simply redistribute my wealth.” She’s a good mix of brave, naive, romantic, and capable. The author set these two up in a way that made me care about them and look forward to their future growth.<br/><br/>This is also a story about a bunch of 16 year olds that really wanna kiss each other. There’s a big focus on the romantic side plots in this but in a way I’m not used to seeing in YA. Usually, there’s one person the main character(s) like, and a love triangle is introduced, at the most. The main female character in this lets her mind wander a little more because she’s not in a relationship, so she freely thinks about what it would be like to kiss multiple people at different points. I thought that made sense with how it matched the culture they live in, their circumstances, and her personality. There’s still a small love triangle aspect to this, but both options are sort of forbidden, so she doesn’t seriously pursue them. And Han has a bit of a love triangle too, but it’s much more of a minor aspect of his story. I can feel the author’s experience with writing romance novels through this book even when that’s not the main point. She’s also good at making likable side characters and compelling villains.<br/><br/>The Demon King is mainly set up for the second book in the series. Even when I was mostly done with this book, I was wondering when the story was going to start. That sounds weird because things do happen, and characters make choices and teach us more about the world through their actions and conversations. There’s multiple side plots happening at once that overlap at random times. But I didn’t know what was gonna happen because the characters didn’t know what was going on, and it isn’t until 85% of the way through that things really pick up. It feels like a majority of this was an introduction to the world, characters, and some mysteries, but the plot progression is saved for the very end. We finally get explanations and reveals which catapult everyone into moving forward instead of just wondering how to make their situations better. I was waiting for a long time for the title to make sense and connect to current events, and it did a little, but it hasn’t been fully explored yet.<br/><br/>I like how wizards are viewed differently in this world depending on who you ask. The dynamics between the royals, wizards, and the people who keep wizards in check are well thought out. It’s a flawed political system that you can tell is being threatened, and the wizards play a big role in its history. The magic system and amulets are well integrated and complex too. I didn’t think they would range from necklaces that can make fire to rings that work like roofies, but they do.<br/><br/>I hope the next book focuses on grief a bit more since that’s one thing I thought was brushed over a bit in this one. Some pretty bad things happen, and the characters don’t have a big reaction to it for very long like I would’ve expected. The ending gives us a good foundation for The Exiled Queen, though. It makes me want to see them go to the different places they namedrop and figure out how to hone their skills. I think the rest of the series will be fun, and the following books will probably have more of an obvious overarching plot than this one."

"my favorite book omg"

"Just read it! You won't be able to put it down!"

"The characters are EVERYTHING. spoke to the heart "

"Great book to read "

"I admit, I left this book on the bookshelf, determined not to read it, for about two years. I was aware of it, but was convinced the magical-ness (wizards and such) within was going to overpower the 'medieval'-ness of the book (the real reason I sort of wanted to read it). I felt this way when I'd read the second book in her Heir series, The Wizard Heir; I had adored The Warrior Heir. But when I finally took the plunge to read The Demon King, it took me all of a day to get through all 506 pages. And then I went to the bookstore and bought the next two in the series. It took me less than a week to get through those monsters (586 and 517 pages, respectively). <br/>This is hands down the best YA fantasy series I have ever read, and I've pretty much read them all. I would go so far as to say this series could contend, easily, with the A Song of Ice and Fire series from George R. R. Martin. It's got intrigue, love, lust, adventure, betrayal, lies, and best of all PLOT TWISTS like you would never believe. It's the perfect fantasy series. If you haven't read it, read it now."