~ BOOK REVIEW ~ The Blood King ~ by Liz Long
Title: The Blood King (Book 1 of the Brighton Duology)
Author: Liz Long
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Cover Designer: Molly Phipps of We Got You Covered Book Design
Publication Date: April 10th, 2018
Blurb:
In the kingdom of Brighton, a President-turned-King offers poor teens the chance to join KEY, the King’s Education for Youth. Seventeen-year-old Reina Torres jumps at the chance to be of service to her country, wanting to learn more about Brighton’s history and future through the Media industry.
The King himself takes an interest in Reina, offering private interviews; he soon commands her to marry his cruel son. Reina, however, cannot ignore her growing feelings for Iris, a fellow KEY student, despite knowing the laws. Reina discovers refusal means punishment much worse than death, and why King Magnus hasn’t aged in decades, thanks to his KEY program.
My Review:
4 out of 5 Stars
Long creates an interesting dysptopian world that also gives you a strong sense of similarity to our current climate – possibly hinting a worst case scenario of what our future could hold if our President were the extreme of all things bad that we hear about; even including how when the King started as President, he was a successful businessman and his sons took over his businesses, and at one point referring to “fake news” and including other similarities of things he has been accused of (as this is not a political view, I will leave my own opinions out of whether or not I agree with the things that are said, only pointing out that they’re said current day, and repeated in this book).
The King is very clearly a man who cares about his own power and nothing else. However, it is difficult for others to tell because those outside the city he lives in are practically sent to the dark ages with no current technology or schooling and are very poor. Even those that live and work in the city surrounding the tower he lives in know only what he allows them to know, as he controls all media. The younger generation is exceptionally vulnerable, as the King has wiped any ability to access any version of history, so they only believe what they are taught – one thing being how lucky any teen would be to get into the KEY program.
It is not until Reina is ecstatic that she has been accepted into the KEY program to make a better life for herself and her mother, and sees her mother’s devastation rather than excitement, that she knows something is very wrong. She tries to see only the positive from the beginning but continues to increasingly see red flags. If there were any things that bothered me about this book, it was that the majority of these red flags were pretty extreme and obvious that the King was a lunatic, but Reina continues to see everything as “an honor” – even when she’s carefully wording everything she says to not upset him. Also, it’s pretty clear if Reina’s grandmother was telling stories of the King, and most younger than her grandmother don’t know the history because of media control, the King HAS to be pretty old, yet it seems to take them way too long to figure out he’s younger than he should be. There were a few other things that came up (I don’t want to give spoilers) where as a reader, I knew things they were doing and/or saying would be found out, and it was pretty obvious why, yet the characters never seemed to figure it out until it was too late – and these were very intelligent teens that should have known pretty quickly.
Although some of the predictability was a bit disappointing, it still didn’t distract from the fact that this was a very good story, and kept me interested and engaged from the very beginning. It ended on a soft cliffhanger, like round 1 was wrapped up, and when we go on to book 2, we get to see what happens in round 2. I really liked the set up for the next book, and definitely look forward to seeing what happens next.
Liz Long is a proud graduate of Longwood University and author of ten novels. Her inspiration comes from action and thriller genres and she spends entirely too much time watching superhero movies. Her day job as Associate Editor includes writing for a magazine publisher in Roanoke, VA. She is also the director of the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference and the annual Roanoke Author Invasion.
Comic book readers and fans of CW Network smash hits Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Netflix’s Daredevil will root for Liz Long’s bestselling YA summer series as the HoA’s gifted teen superheroes attempt to save their city from its impending demise. The Donovan Circus series has best been described as "X-Men meets the circus." Adult horror story Witch Hearts tells the tale of a serial killer hunting witches for their powers. New Adult PNR A Reaper Made is about a teen Reaper who gets caught between falling in love or saving her sister's soul. All titles are available for paperback or ebook on Amazon.
To learn more about Liz (including more information on her books, plus writing, marketing, and social media tips), visit her website: http://lizclong.com.
Author Links:
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Buy Links:
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Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0798JJH35
ONE
My grandmother once told me our country used to be a democracy. Years ago, when she was a little girl, a man became president. He loved the power so much he kept it, killed his opponents and dared others to come forward. Those who did lost, and with it, our free will.
The man declared himself a King, vowing to take care of the people who best served him. And he did keep his word–those who were loyal to him stayed in their own places of power, content to take orders from a megalomaniac. There were parties and festivals, food and drink and no expense spared.
The King remained on his throne of gold, the years turning into a decade, then two and three and four. Eventually, the people in his new kingdom grew complacent, adapting to their circumstances. They couldn’t flee because these were their homes, they said, and fighting was out of the question. Families stayed together this way, they said, and they’d surely be rewarded for their loyalty. Many people in the kingdom died waiting.
My own father fought for King Magnus, gave his life to protect his country in the last war.
When rebels attacked Brighton a little over a decade ago, my father volunteered, rather than be drafted. I remember the morning he left, the proud look on his face as he kissed my mother and me goodbye. He’d known exactly what he was walking into and still he’d kept a brave face. I hadn’t realized it at five years old, but at seventeen, I knew he’d been willing to die for his country that had given him so much.
As soon as my mother received notice of my father’s death, she packed our things and we went all the way to the other side of what was left of the country. Mama said she couldn’t bear to be so close to the heart of the kingdom, but I knew there was something more. I had no idea what, of course, but I had been too devastated at the loss of my father to question it then and now it just seemed like a waste of time. Things were the way they were, and no amount of questioning or wondering would bring my dad back. I missed him everyday, as much as the day he’d left, but he was never coming back.
My mother was the rule follower, hated it when I bent them by breaking curfew or grumbled about the overbearing soldiers. I couldn’t stand her smothering. The King probably couldn’t even be bothered to reach us way out here, but she didn’t want to take any chances.
I don’t know why she bothered. Everyone out here was too busy working to worry about breaking the rules. It’s not like anyone had any real technology, anyways. We had the newspapers and TV, but no one had those fancy phones city people flaunted in those strange commercials we saw on a staticky TV. The wars had taken technology out in most of the rest of the world, leaving King Magnus once again ahead of the curve in luxury. In our tiny part of the world, most of us felt lucky to have what little we did, and dared not ask for anything more.
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