The Crown's Game

Disappointed is an understatement. Я хотела люивить эту книгу, но мне была так скучно! :(Let's start with the good:WRITINGSolid. For the most part.WORLD/SETTINGNow, I am probably biased from my own studies in Russia, but this world is fantastic! The author definitely put to use her experiences and studies of Russian culture and history. Instantly, I felt like I was transported back in time to Imperial Russia and I loved it! She really knows how to capture the atmosphere of St. Petersburg. However, I feel like the world was wasted with such a plot.Which leads me to the bad:PLOTI was promised an "ancient duel of magical skill". I was expecting magical duels. I wanted magical duels. So wtf? Where was my magical duel?????The magical aspect of this story was lacking so much that it hindered the plot. The majority of the magic used was little tricks the characters did to make their daily lives easier. For such a beautiful and enchanting place Russia is, there didn't seem to be any magic in the air....ROMANCEBut, damn, there was so much 'love' in the air I was beginning to suffocate. It seems like the plot wanted to be all about a deadly, magical duel between two riveting and young enchanters. But, the plot changed its mind very quickly and turned into a story following two boring and dramatic enchanters who fell in love at first sight. Oh, but wait. This is YA, so there needs to be more tension....let's throw in a love triangle! Don't get me wrong, sometimes a love triangle works and adds depth to a story and characterization. This one was just unbelievable. Can we just clarify: because it's YA, doesn't mean it needs a bloody love triangle! There are far more ways to create tension.CHARACTERSI don't have much to say. They all had potential in the beginning. Vika was strong willed and stubborn. Nikolai was mysterious and dark. Pasha was entertaining and charming. Then, they all got poked in the ass by the tip of the 'love triangle syndrome', and everything went downhill from there.One thing that I started to see towards the end was the portrayal of youth being forced. At many times, the characters didn't seem like genuine teenagers, especially when it came to the feeling of love.I have to be honest and say I started skipping chunks of descriptions and scenes after I reached 70%. Around 80%, the plot actually started to get interesting (excluding all the stupid forced romance.) There were twists that I was not really surprised by but were still pleasing. The ending seemed a bit rushed, though. Also the story felt like it was trying to be very dramatic as people started dropping dead like flies. Some of the deaths would have moved me, if I actually cared. But, I didn't. None of the characters made me care enough.Will I be reading the sequel? No.Have I given up on Evelyn Skye? Not yet.

I'm very torn about this book. I vary between wanting to give it 3 or 4 stars. Ultimately I had to go with 3.Things I loved:*Imperial Russia*The impressive magic used during the book*Nikolai because of his overall story. I love his origin, once you get there. I love his casual friendship with Pasha. I love his conflicting emotions.*Cinderella Bakery.Things I did not love:*The "Love" triangle/s. It's one thing to have a love triangle in a story and feel the connections as a reader, but I felt nothing. It was a stretch. And Renata should have been in the book more in some way. She was one of the more interesting, yet underdeveloped characters.*Vika. I tried to like her but there wasn't a lot to really draw me in to her. I liked Sergei more than her and he's hardly in the book.*The general lack of character development. I've read the book and I really don't know much about the majority of characters.*The ending. I know things will work out in some form in the next book but just ugh. It's frustrating and I'm kind of pissed.

This is a sort of historical fantasy novel. Much of the detail about Russia is historically correct, or correct enough to be fully believable. The magic, on the other hand is under-explained and I could not really understand how some the larger creations worked and yet minor things seemed beyond the two Enchanters. The characters are fairly complex but their magical parents are unexplained, even as to what they actually are meant to be.Not much real action in this one and the closest thing to a real fight is a couple of bumps in a bar. The magic itself is pretty weak as well in that it is all cosmetic rather than part of the actual story. There is meant to be angst between the main characters but it really only seems real in the lesser characters. The biggest issue I had was these powerful magicians were afraid of the Tsar for no apparent reason. The ending is weak though predictable and has been done better in other books.The writing itself is very "fairy story" like and the book would probably be a good bedtime story to read to your kids. If you have a strong issue in Russia you may find the book more enjoyable than I did. It seems a little Steampunky at first but that is just the time setting and the top hats. Can't really recommend it other than as something to read to the kids.

I don't even remember why I bought THE CROWN'S GAME, but I'm glad I did and I'm glad I started reading it, even though I was already reading three other books at the time.Vika and Nikolai are the only enchanters in Russia, and are competing to become the one Imperial Enchanter. This means one must die, but the repercussions of that rule are a big tangle, when the next in line for the crown falls for one of the players and doesn't know the other is his longtime best friend.To call this a "romantic triangle book" isn't enough at all. It's about power, family, love, friendship, decisions. It has beautiful, fantastical magic, fully-formed people--not characters--who have commitments, longings, emotions, choices to make. You like them or you understand them or you at least get where they're coming from, making it hard to decide who you want to win the Game--or succeed at whatever it is that particular character is trying to do. The story gets better and better the more pages you turn, and the very last page...let's just say that I immediately bought the next book as soon as I finished it.

"Do you believe in what you cannot see?"* * * *4 / 5With The Crown's Game, I did something unusually out of character for me: I eagerly picked up a book that I knew, for a fact, had a love triangle in it. I knew this because it says it on the back. I did this because The Crown's Game promised magic, a game to the death, folklore, and a killer setting, and boy did it deliver on most of these points."Imagine and it shall be. There are no limits"Vika Andreyeva is the daughter of a baron, living out her life on Ovchinin Island, in seclusion from mainland Russia. Her father is raising her to be the Imperial Enchanter, to protect the Tsar, and her powers are primarily elemental: she is a summoner of storms, a ravager of fire. Vika is a dangerous and fiery woman and her to-be-opponent, Nikolai Karimov, is almost exactly her opposite. An orphan, Nikolai was bought on the Steppes by a woman with a little skill in sorcery who brings him to St. Petersburg where he becomes the friend of the Tsesarevich, heir presumptive to the Russian Empire, Pasha Romanov. His magic is more imaginative: he turns walls transparent, crafts exquisite clothing, and has a particular interest in bridge-building.The youngest daughter of the Tsar, Yuliana Romanov, is cunning child. She sees weakness in Russia and urges her father to choose an Imperial Enchanter in a time where magic is forgotten by the common people; but when a land has two enchanters, one must die in a competition called The Crown's Game. When the game is instigated Vika and Nikolai are branded with magic, each given five "turns" to display their magic and their suitability to advise the Tsar. In keeping with the book's focus on romance rather than swords, Vika and Nikolai's turns are beautiful and extravagant. Vika enchants waterways and fountains, turning the waters rainbow-hued whilst Nikolai creates an enchanted wardrobe for the ladies of the realm. The game is, obviously, quite a key part of the novel but around it is threaded not only the romance, which I shall get to in a moment, but Vika's relationship with her father and Nikolai's unknown mother (this part of the story is wildly unbelievable and a little bit nuts), and Pasha's grappling with his royal duties."If I think highly of myself, it is because it is well deserved"The characters are a massive focal point of the book. I adored Vika, though she had her moments where I thought "what the heck is this girl doing", and thought her brave and admirable. I liked Nikolai a little less, he's a more stereotypical boy dragged up from poverty who doesn't quite feel at home among nobility story, but he has his charming moments. I absolutely loved Pasha, who is also a touch predictable in his boy who is prince but doesn't want to be arc, and his sister Yuliana, who I wish there was more of. The other distinctive bit of the book is the nineteenth century Russian setting; I have no historical or current knowledge of Russia, so I cannot comment on Skye's authenticity, but I can say that I enjoyed it."She wanted again to hold on to him, and have him hold on to her, so they could whirl together through the cosmos like galaxies that could not - and would not - be confined"Finally, the romance. It does dominate the plot but it does suit the tone and style of the book; Skye's writing is pretty magical, smooth and soft and enveloping, and whilst it isn't quite as amazing as The Night Circus or Strange the Dreamer, it's pretty good. Vika and Nikolai don't instantly fall in love, but it's close. I did enjoy the romance and I did think it added tension to the overall "one of you must die" plot, but I wasn't sure that Pasha's infatuation with Vika was necessary. Fascination, yes, he just saw the girl set a forest on fire, but love? I do think that there is a lot here for the romance-genre reader to enjoy!The ending was a touch disappointing and also cruel at the same time; I definitely guessed where it was going and thought the final scene was a bit of a cop-out, but I'm looking forward to seeing where the sequel takes us.

Am I mad? Is it possible that I have lost my mental faculties or is this possibly a quite closely kept rip-off of The Night Circus. the main facets of the plot are almost identical and the characters remain fairly similar. I would suggest, if you want to read this book, perhaps instead looking to Avery Morgenstern's The Night Circus, as it remains a better written version of this book.However, that being said, Skye does craft a beautiful picture of Russia in the 1820s. The culture that is depicted and the glorious city of Saint Petersburg where it is mainly set, are simply enchanting and the author manages to bring the setting to life. The magic is well-written and the reader really manages to understand and become part of the wonder of the Crown's Game. That being said, this is rather let down by Character development.The love triangle seems forced and uneasy, not meshing well with the main characters and underscored by two dimensional background characters. The prince is poorly written if I'm being kind, if I'm not, he is almost unnecessary to the plot with an awkward character arc that does not flow into the story well. I do enjoy many aspects of the novel but found it difficult to enjoy as a whole.Overall, I believe this is a good, well-written novel, but it lacks development and reads as rather forced at many points, the characters just don't develop naturally. Some of the self-sacrifice is honestly irritating in its pointlessness, especially her father's sacrifice, which did not add or enhance to the plot remotely and caused Vika to become fairly whiny and unlikeable. I would recommend The Night Circus to anyone reading this book simply because this book is so well ripped off from that.

Thoroughly enjoyable tale of magic, romance and history. Expertly crafted and executed. I enjoyed all three main characters and found myself routing for all three knowing that they can't all won, certainly not in book one!

Loved this story, different looking forward to next book

I thought it was a bit boring towards the end. It felt like reading sloppy fanfiction at the end there.