Review: Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland

 

Reading this right after The Assassin's Blade kept me in the fantasy mood. There were so many comparisons and I thought at first that I would get things confused and mix to two books and that is not the case. There may be similarities but this book holds it own. I gave this 5 stars because I love Asian fantasy. They always have myth and lore involved and it just keeps me engaged to entire time.

This book has 6 main characters, so 6 POV's. I thought I was going to be so confused, but there was only a couple time where I had to flip back to the chapter heading to remember who was talking. 

The first chapter we meet Royo. He is a strongman and he is just coming off a job. He goes into a tavern and he is told by the bar keep a beautiful woman is looking for him. He then finds a calling card in his pocket and he gets spooked because someone got close to him without knowing. 

The second chapter we meet Euyn who is living in poverty and in hiding. It turns out he is an exiled prince with a bounty on his head. His former lover who is also the royal spymaster finds him and tells him that his sister Queen Quilimar wants to reunite with him. Mikhail the spymaster is another main character and throughout the book, he was just a bland character who didn't make much difference until he does. He stays under the radar. 

The third chapter we meet Sora. She is a poison maiden who is a royal courtesan. She and her sister Daysum were sold to the count who ran an illegal poison school where out of 20 girls, only three survived. She is told that there is a plot to kill King Joon who is known throughout the country as a God King because he cannot die. She is being sent with the counts son Tiyung to see that the mission is a success and grant her her freedom by burning her indenture. Little does she know that Tiyung recieved different orders, but he refuses because he has been in love with Sora since she was purchased by the count. 

The 6th POV is Aeri, the beautiful woman who was looking for Royo. She hires Royo to be a guard for her and keep her safe because she has been tasked by Mikhail to help assassinate King Joon. She is known as a thief and pickpocket, but nobody can see her do it because she is that fast.

The quest for these three pairings were so engaging and page turning. There was times where each character felt distrustful of the others and they eventually decided to overcome their doubts to work as a team to try to assassinte the king. 

I need to pick up the second book soon and the third book comes out next month.