Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman

Legacy of Kings (Blood of Gods and Royals, #1)

by Eleanor Herman


Weaving the fantasy appeal of Game of Thrones with the shocking details of real history, New York Times bestselling author of Sex with Kings Eleanor Herman reimagines the greatest emperor the world has ever known, Alexander the Great, in book one of the Blood of Gods and Royals series.

Imagine a time when the gods turn a blind eye to the agony of men, when the last of the hellions roam the plains and evil stirs beyond the edges of the map. A time when cities burn and, in their ashes, empires rise.

Alexander, Macedon's sixteen-year-old heir, is on the brink of discovering his fated role in conquering the known world, but finds himself drawn to a newcomer…

Katerina must navigate the dark secrets of court life while keeping her own mission hidden: kill the queen. But she doesn't account for her first love…

Jacob will go to unthinkable lengths to win Katerina, even if it means competing with Hephaestion, a murderer sheltered by the prince. And far across the sea, Zofia, a Persian princess and Alexander's unmet fiancée, wants to alter her destiny by seeking the famed and deadly Spirit Eaters.

Reviewed by Joséphine on

4 of 5 stars

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Audiobook rating: 4 stars
Book rating: 3.5 stars

Initial thoughts: My favourite part is the setting of Ancient Greece. Set in Macedon and to some extent Persia, Legacy of Kings brought a whole lot of grandeur. Mixing magic with the Greek gods and royalty of ancient time could only lead to most epic work of fantasy. In many aspects, it lived up to the name of the genre, epic fantasy.

However, there were too many main characters, a couple of whom didn't carry much significance. This was especially true for Zophia. Her travails were certainly gripping but they didn't add to the main plot in any way at all. There were faint shadows of how these characters will all come to together at some point or other but perhaps Zophia should've been introduced at that point. Adding her in book #1 for the purposes of book #2 caused Legacy of Kings to have a much weaker focus. Jacob started off as a strong character but then faded into the background. It would've made more sense for him to be a secondary character right from the start.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 21 December, 2015: Finished reading
  • 21 December, 2015: Reviewed