The Priory of the Orange Tree

This a very good book but I would be hard pressed to recommend it to anyone who isn’t a dedicated bookworm and lover of fantasy.

I wish I could give it 5 stars because the book was magical in certain aspects but there were also some things that I really couldn’t stand.

This is a long book and I don’t mean its 800+ pages. It drags sometimes and it was a slog to read through certain chapters.

The good:

It’s a standalone book.
Decent story and world building with a wonderfully twisty history. The pieces of the puzzle come together nicely with a few revelations that I absolutely loved. The POV protagonists Ead, Loth and Tanè were likeable and heroic. The magic system was well done.
Sentient Dragons and other magical beasts are always a big plus.

The bad:

The pacing was uneven.
There was a lot of boring politics and social backstabbing – the first 40% or so of the book was especially difficult to get through due to this.
Most characters were exceedingly unlikeable and religiously fanatic. The world felt a bit too grimdark and unforgiving. There was a lot angst and not enough fun to counter it.

The Ugly:

Reading about women in court making beds for the queen, helping her bathe, squabbling about clothes, proper manners and being vapid and vain in general almost pushed me to tears.
The idea about the queen needing to marry and get pregnant as early as possible was annoying. I get why it was the case, it is an important part of the world building but it still sticks out like a sore thumb
The whole ‘I’m the queen, I have responsibilities so I must be live a boring existence, live for others, sacrifice my needs and be a emo, mean psycho with bouts of depressions’ got old really fast.

Thankfully the queen grows up and becomes a more likeable character as the book progresses. The last half of the book moves at a breakneck pace and has enough action, adventure and mystery to make up for the boring bits.
I only wish that the first half wasn’t such a slog at times.

I also think that this book is mistagged. The LGBTQ and feminist aspects of the book are overrated. There are women in positions of power but most of them are hardly fit to wield it.
The slow burn queer romance is good but not groundbreaking.

I suppose I would have enjoyed it more if I had tempered my expectations but it is still an excellent book.