By iamsandykay on September 26, 2026 ( Leave a comment )

Book Review – Reign

Reign
by Bethan Croome

Book Description:

The Kingdom of Lyonesse is absent of magic but not of rain.

In the rain-soaked Kingdom of Lyonesse, magic is outlawed–punishable by death.

So when Niamh’s forbidden witchcraft is exposed, she flees her rainy village disguised as a man.

She never meant to end up on a battlefield.

Mistakenly conscripted into a brutal war engineered by a paranoid king against a vengeful sorceress determined to reclaim the throne, Niamh now hides another secret–her womanhood. Between fighting terrifying beasts and confronting arcane powers she once believed were merely folklore, Niamh is thrust into a world where survival relies on more than luck–it demands alliances.

In battle, Niamh must obey Prince Fitzroy, the king’s infuriatingly handsome illegitimate son and sharp-tongued commander tasked with eradicating magic. He is everything she despises…and everything she struggles to resist. Back at camp, she forges a complicated friendship with Bash, a fellow soldier who sees her like no one else does and stirs forbidden feelings that could shatter her disguise.

As war tightens its grip on the kingdom, Niamh is forced to choose: obey the prince who could expose her, trust the soldier who could love her, or embrace the forbidden magic that could save them all.

But war is merciless, and not everyone will live to see which side prevails.

Note: I was provided a copy of this book free from NetGalley and Cosmo Reads in exchange for a review.
All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Note 2: Links in this post go to Bookshop.org where I earn a small commission at no cost to you.
Bookshop.com supports local independent books store across the United States.

My Take:

Struggle of a read because plot devices were forgotten or abandoned.

While reading this book, several times I felt like the author forgot her own plot devices. The main character is supposed to be in hiding, pretending to be a man. So. Many. Times. I said to myself, “A man wouldn’t say/do that! They would KNOW she’s not who she says she is.” Another sticking point for me was that the weather is supposed to be a character in the book. But it wasn’t. Then near the end, the weather gets mentioned by the villain and I realized we had never even talked about the weather impacting things significantly in nearly the whole story.

I did not actually care about a single character.

Not one character held my interest. That is mostly because they never felt like real people. For instance, Prince Fitzroy is meant to be this complex character that causes the main character to struggle with her own decisions and with who to trust. The description of the Prince may have done that, but the character himself was never that interesting. He had scenes where he ranged from charming and fun to tactically brilliant to inept and a coward. While these can all be real human characteristics, in this book, it felt like the disparate scenes were written because the author wanted to include them, not because the character would actually act in any of those ways. In the end the Prince himself was confused on what the next steps were and how they were going to mount a rebellion (not really a spoiler, it’s the overarching theme of the plot).

The Final Verdict

My rating: 3 stars

Would I recommend? Maybe

This story was a huge letdown.