To Unite a Realm

Charity (My Brighter Books)

11 months ago

By: Mary Beesley

January 11, 2023

My Rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book is a hidden gem. A book, though with its flaws, was good and felt in my opinion was a great read.

The pacing of the book was amazing. There wasn’t a dull moment, and I really enjoyed the character development.

But with this book being short, I felt like there was so much missing in the terms of background story and plot.

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You truly don’t understand why the Gray’s are hated so much. Why was the red velvet plague so bad and how does it come around? Why was Vera’s family so important other than creating the vaccine? What exactly is this world that this world is set in?

The real big issue was the motives of every character. It didn’t make sense because nothing was really built on their why behind their motive. Vera only agreed to marry Angus Gray because she vowed that she would take them down even though there was a really good way out of it. How? She really never makes an effort throughout the whole book. So it felt like an empty threat. Just hated the guy, that’s all we know.

The bad guys in this book came out of left field. Even though it was a surprise, you just didn’t see it because it was not in the character development to do so.

The love triangle, not sure if this counts as one, was a little cringey. There was no relationship built between this character and Vera that I felt was totally unnecessary.

Warning: Spoiler!!

Having Kato’s motive to just wanting to kill the Grays and trying to wipe them out would have been enough reason for his decision to set fire to the building. Instead, it went into a crazy psycho lover spat that wasn’t believable.

One point in this book that was not certainly explained is the Eun’s or the birds that can talk and tell a lie from a truth. No explanation, just that they were there and later you find out that the Gray’s can breed them.

Now, I love this romance. I wish they spent more time together and saw more interaction with each other. But for once, here is a romance that was believable. She wasn’t instantly lusting after the guy like the many books I picked up. She learned trust because of the truth and his kindness, fell in love and felt the slow desire to be with him later. Normal stuff for someone who was kind of forced into the relationship. I felt it was beautiful and raw that I couldn’t put this book down because of it.

Content warnings: this has death and miscarriage in the story. Which can make this an emotional and raw read.

With this being a standalone, you have to read another book to get a continuation of the story.

Even though the details weren’t totally fleshed out, I enjoyed the events of what progressed and felt that this was a beautiful story. It was something new and fresh than what I have read in the past. Would recommend it for a quick, clean and romantic read.

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