Rise of Empire - Michael J. Sullivan

Rise of Empire ( Riyria Revelations #3-4) – Michael J. Sullivan (2011)

(5 / 5)

I love this series. Royce and Hadrian are among my favourite characters of any books! What an awesome duo they make. The banter between them is hilarious and the story itself is exciting and so much fun! This is a great fantasy series.

Royce and Hadrian are back in books 3 and 4 of the Riyria Revelations. They need to escort Arista away from Melengar to try to save the nation, go on an epic boat trip and fight some kick ass magical creatures. Meanwhile the new Nyphron Empress is not going so well, and Arista becomes a pivotal character in her quest to save everyone and find the heir of Novron.

Arista is the biggest surprise of the story for me. What an amazing, powerful and kick-ass character she has become! I can’t wait to see what she gets up to in the next one!

I was complaining about the lack of romance in the last book, this one was a massive improvement for me. Of course Arista was going to have something happening, I really enjoyed the love story between her and the bodyguard. However I am looking forward to what I am hoping will be the main romance of the series (other than Royce and Gwen of course), which is being constantly hinted at, but of course two people actually have to be together for a romance to bloom, and Royce and Hadrian have been away for the majority of this one.

I loved the twists and turns but the writing and dialogue of the characters is what I adore about this series. Its just so readable, or easy to listen to in my case. Love Tim Gerald Reynolds narration. Some of my favourite audio books have had him narrating. He is like an old friend now, I have probably spent weeks listening to him in total!