Mini Review: The Priory Of The Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

A world divided.
A Queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens.

“The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—but assassins are getting closer to her door.
Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.
Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.”

I saw this book everywhere so I just had to order it but when it arrived I got such a fright at how big it was I thought I’d never have the time to get through it. Then I saw it on offer on kindle so I got it there as I thought it would be less daunting (plus you can never have too many copies of one book). Turns out this was a great plan as once I started reading I didn’t want to stop, the book is in six parts and the chapters aren’t too long with most chapters having breaks in them too so it was very easy to keep telling myself to just finish this chapter, then just one more chapter.. sure you might as well finish this part!

The world building was stunning, there are lots of names and places to remember and this book comes with a list of it all plus a full glossary but in the end it wasn’t needed as I was so taken in by the story that I slipped into this world of dragons and slayers, queens and rulers, good and evil. It definitely filled the epic fantasy hole in my heart that was left by Game Of Thrones and reminded me of when I first read Lord Of The Rings and it has reignited my love for epic fantasies in worlds where mythical creatures, magic, evil and goodness take place.

This was such a fantastic book I highly recommend everyone gives it a go.