BOOK REVIEW | The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima

Loved this book!

I rated it a 5 out of 5 on Goodreads!
Before getting into the blog, make sure to be on the look out on my channel for the July Wrap Up of books, and later my July Favorites because this book will be featured in both videos!

I thought it was a great beginning to a fantasy series, it did a wonderful job of setting up the world that hides within our world without a lot of exposition, instead you learn as the main character, Jack, learns about his new place in society. 

            A lot of people have complained about how slow going a lot of this book is since there’s so much you have to learn in order to set up the world, but I feel that in comparison to a lot of first in a series fantasy books, the learning curve and parts that describe the new world we are setting foot into, were fascinating, and made me want to learn more and therefore read faster.  They do a good job of giving you enough at that moment to know what’s going on but not bogging down on the details until you need them.  I think what made this easier was that we were learning as Jack learned about things that aren’t here in the real world.

I fell in love with Jack’s friends Will and Fitch.  They were great individuals; I thought they had so much “character” (don’t mind the pun) within each of them, that I could’ve been reading about each of their lives and I would have been just as happy as I was reading about Jack’s fantasy one.

I also really loved Beth, Jack’s mom.  The first time she’s described, I was just like HELL YEAH STRONG WOMEN!  I ended up being a little disappointed, because since Beth is “anaweir” or non-magic folk, she gets ignored and entranced and just completely forgotten about through out a lot of the book, even though Jack and Jack’s aunt really love Beth, she’s not a part of the action or anything having to do with the fantasy part of what they’re going through.  Even though Will and Fitch are, which I thought was weird… If they can be involved, why keep this awesome adult woman out of the loop?

SPOILER ALERT

… doo doo doo go away if you haven’t read the book yet! Doo doo doo…

I SAW IT COMING THAT ELLEN WAS GOING TO BE THE OTHER WARRIOR.  I was so proud of myself!  There’s a moment in the book where Jack says something to her and she suddenly mentions that she might not be coming back to school next year, after we already know that the tournament has been called for Jack to fight in.  In that moment I was like holy shit if there is another warrior and nobody is lying and there’s going to be a fight in this book, then it’s going to be her! HOW DOES HE NOT SEE IT!?

That’s what roamed through my head in that part of the book.  I just knew. 

What did you think about Ellen being the other warrior?  Did you see it coming?

Don’t forget to tune into the conversation about the book on Goodreads here! All the information about the live video about the book is listed in the same place!