Hi friends, happy Monday – I hope you’re all doing well! Today I’m going to be posting my review of Samantha Shannon’s novel The Priory of the Orange Tree.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by: Samantha Shannon: In order to rule the House of Berethnet, Queen Sabran must marry and conceive a daughter in order for there to be peace, but when things don’t quite take this turn, destruction starts banging at their door. Ead, Sabran’s lady-in-waiting, is keeping a close eye on her, secretly protecting her with her magic. Meanwhile, Tané a dragon rider must make choices she wasn’t prepared to make. The East and West are divided, but if they don’t parley, chaos may ensue. This novel was something else. The reader commends Shannon for writing a trilogy in one novel, that’s impressive. This was full of adventure, battles, betrayals, love affairs and of course dragons. The novel started off really slow; getting to know the world and the characters took time and this worried the reader because it was a little off-putting, but after the first hundred or so pages the story started to really open up and the reader really began to fall into the lush world that Shannon created. Not only did the plots soar and fall to create these rollercoaster emotions that the reader was never ready for, but the writing was also just so descriptive and so beautiful; everything flowed so nicely and even when the reader wanted to hate what was happening, it was written so poetically that they just couldn’t. The characters were all forces to be reckoned with; they were all so head strong and willing to fight for what they wanted and what they believed. It was also awesome to see so many women in power, fighting and defying how things should be done. The reader kinda wants more from this world, but as a whole this was a wonderful story with amazing storytelling and plots to keep you guessing.