Froi of the Exiles (The Lumatere Chronicles, #2)

by Melina Marchetta

[Angie]

After a slightly disappointing start to the series, Froi of the Exiles really picks up the pace! While I couldn’t care less about Finnikin and his problems, I adored Froi. I absolutely loved watching him grow and become a better man, both in the second half of Finnikin of the Rock and through the entirety of this book. It’s three years later and Froi has been continuing his education as well as physical training. Now he’s to enter Charyn, pretending to be there to meet Princess Quintana, but really he’s there to assassinate the king. Of course, nothing goes according to plan and Froi has his work cut out for him. He has his bond to his queen to keep to, but sometimes he has to make decisions for himself within the moment.

Froi of the Exiles is 200 pages longer than the previous book, but thankfully it wasn’t as slow and boring! There’s so much happening plot wise, and there’s a ton of action, so it almost always held my attention. In the beginning there is quite a bit more world building presented, mostly on how different regions differentiate between each other. We also learn a lot about Charyn since that’s where the majority of the plot takes place. New locations and groups of people are also introduced as the story movies forward, and it was interesting to see how different everyone is despite being in relatively close proximity. However, the third part of the book (those extra 200 pages!) felt like I was starting a new book. It was kind of strange, and the story did slow down a bit, so it took me a little while to get back into it.

My favorite part of Froi of the Exiles was probably Quintana. This author’s female characters certainly know how to steal the spotlight! Charyn is under a curse in which no one can reproduce. It is believed that the last born girl and boy will be the ones to successfully create new life and break the curse. Princess Quintana was the last girl born 18 years ago, and ever since she was able, men have taken their turn with her hoping to father the heir. Her life has been hell and I felt so awful for her. People in the kingdom ridicule her for being mad and refer to her as a whore. She does seem not quite sane, but is she actually mad? Or is she just committed to lifting the curse for her people? Or maybe she’s just desperate to survive by proving her usefulness? Whatever it is, I was rooting for her!

Froi of the Exiles is full of palace secrets, mistaken identities, and political turmoil. Froi’s mission to assassinate the king becomes more of a journey of redemption for him as he reflects on his past mistakes. It was at times heartbreaking to read about his troubles, as well as Quintana’s. These two broken people need each other, and that ending…dang. You’ll want to have Quintana of Charyn on hand after that.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.