Reviews with content warning for Incest - The Priory of the Orange Tree

Content warnings first: the sapphic romance was touching in its buildup, culminating in a sex scene that was beautifully poetic and not graphic. However, sex and nudity scenes after that were very physically descriptive. The book had several f-bombs and a completely unnecessary c-word that jarred me out of the story. Miscarriage due to a violent (draconic) attack was graphic, as was the grief after the fact. And just in case you weren't convinced of a particular villain's villainy, it is revealed that they seduced their own adoptive child. Yuck.

On pacing: it was very slow to start, which is OK when weaving lots of storylines together. However, the story's first POV character actually gets the least amount of "screen" time - which in my opinion is a tragedy, because she and the Eastern dragons are the most interesting part of the story yet seem more like afterthoughts. Everything builds so slowly that when any action happens, it's over too fast and feels unfulfilling. The climax is awesome at least. I felt like it was paced just right, but there wasn't enough of it compared to the buildup.

I think this was a very well-conceived story, and it was woven together well in the amount of space it had. It lives up to the scale of epic fantasies. That said, I think it fell flat of its potential. Seriously, DRAGONS! Why have hundreds of pages of court intrigue on one side of the world when there are DRAGON RIDERS on the other side? And a convent of DRAGON SLAYERS down in the south? Flashbacks from Ead's childhood in the Priory would have added action to slower stretches and provided a much richer backdrop. And I really wish Tané had been given more time with her dragon. I would have loved to see them patrolling together instead of just talking, for instance. I would have loved to see the Sea Guard in action. So many things that could have been developed were overlooked in favor of court intrigue.

As a writer, I'm glad I read this book because I've learned a lot about my own preferences and style from it. However, I did not enjoy it enough to read it again.

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princessrory's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

“I would live alone for fifty years to have one day with you.”

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kiwij96's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was genuinely captivating in a lot of ways. The storytelling and worldbuilding were beautifully written. Yes, it can be a little heavy at times but it is so worth it. The characters are mostly well-developed throughout the story too and you begin to understand what makes them tick and feel their range of emotions through the events that take place. I loved the interconnectedness that slowly took place between each of the characters' individual stories and how their experiences made them grow as characters.

This said, my main criticisms would be that after many chapters of build-up to a conflict, the conflict is over in 2 pages. This happens often and it feels a bit lacklustre for a story of this scale. As a result of this, it oftentimes felt like it was trying to achieve too much and that the conflicts were quickly solved to move onto the next one. Another criticism is that the romance felt massively out of place in the story and wouldn't have changed the plot any if it wasn't there at all. Every other character was fleshed out effectively in the sense that they all had things that made them independent but work well as a part of a team when needed, they each had ambitions and they felt real. I couldn't get a feel for Ead because of this. Of all the characters she was the one with the least development, despite the story following her the most.

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vulturetime's review

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2.5

This is what the lads call a personal disappointment. There's a number of critiques I have of the book, which largely come down to personal preference. It's almost 2 am right now so this is really just going to be notes on different aspects of the books that I have critiques of.

The structure:
The pacing and the division of storylines was honestly not it. I personally try to go into stories knowing as little as possible, not because I think spoilers ruin a story but because I inevitably cook up a story I like more than the actual story which just leads to disappointment. So I knew very little of the plot going on.

As such, the division of POVs was honestly a bit annoying in that Tane's storyline received so little comparative attention. Ead's storyline received the most, and while Niclays and Loth didn't have too many chapters, the latter was largely connected to Ead's storyline and Niclays' often felt more self contained than Tane's.

This makes Tane's eventual role such like. bullshit to me, because we barely get to see her and now she's really important at the end and instead of feeling like she's a fleshed out character, it just felt rushed. The blurb focuses on Sabran, Ead and Tane so like. You'd think Tane would have had more of a prevalent role in the story consistently but noooo

.

This book is very long and because it is trying to be so expansive, at least for me, the emotion really suffered as a result. I couldn't really get into the characters' headspaces because the readers are often just dumped into moments with a recap of the past few days (that were covered offscreen), something that is meant to be thought-provoking or a motif, and then move on. There are cases where this kind of pacing does hit, but it doesn't happen consistently. I think this book should have been longer so that each character could have felt more like actual people.

The prose:
This relates to the last part of the structure critiques, which is that there's a lot of "telling" essentially. The most annoying example to me is that of the "ghost" metaphor with Tane. It just started being inserted into the text that Tane is "like a ghost" or "became a ghost" or the old her was dead and all that was left was "a ghost" and it's like bitch stfu already. All the pieces were there to make this a good haunting metaphor but the emotion just really wasn't there, for me.

Additionally, the story is in third-person limited, but highkey, if you removed all identifying details from the passages (names), I don't think I could immediately distinguish between the POVs. I do wish that the author had gotten into thought processes more.

The characters:
They basically all fell kinda flat for me. Niclays I did feel something for but everyone else I was like idgaf. I am the most mad about Tane because I feel like her storyline was just so much wasted potential.

Partially because I don't like the trope of "hidden magic bloodline" especially when a lot of a character's chip is the fact that they come from nowhere and nobody. Just feels like a cop out. But also her classmates only reappeared in the end of the story and it's just like. bruhhh she was so under utilized.

The worldbuilding: (I got the most gripes about this)

So why was there so little about dragons in here? Why didn't we get to see more about dragons? Yes we got some wyrm action but like, that was about it. If I didn't know the dragon characters were dragons I probably wouldn't have guessed they weren't human. Why are they so human like. Why is a god calling its rider "little sister" -- something like "child/hatchling/starling" would've been more appropriate if going along the kin route. These dragons had a lot of talk around them but really not a lot of action. Especially with what the deal was with the nameless one.
Speaking of the nameless one. So at first, I was like "this is stupid, we don't see anything of him like wtf." Then I tried to pacify myself and reminded myself that when only looking at the LOTR trilogy, we don't learn a whole lot about Sauron's motivations either (beyond what he wants). But then I remembered that you actually see Sauron's impact all over the world and you encounter his underlings directly AND the ring is an extension of him. The nameless one did not have that reach At All. He had Fyredel and wyrms were waking up but honestly? There was not a whole lot of dragon fighting. It just felt kind of stupid.
Part of this has to do with the fact that for such an expansive story, it still remains so self-contained. You barely get to see the actual destruction wrought by the wyrms or the lives lost or most of the consequences for people who aren't the main characters. Which is like. Not a sin for a book but it's boring to me to read.
What the fuck even is Virtudom. Since that is the government we see the most of I will complain the most about it: the kingdom of Inys was founded on the ideas of six "virtues" which includes things about purity. Now, here's the thing. Those are real standards held against women (like the idea of purity) and though there is some discussion of like,
how Sabran was almost molded into the obedient and completely virtuous queen with no personality or backbone,
it is solely in the context of that one character (and technically some of her predecessors). No talk as to the effects on society as a whole. There are a lot of similar gaps with the other nations and it just makes me baffled. You don't have to include every detail, but like, going back to LOTR, Tolkien was great at hinting at the larger story behind something while not giving it to you. This is probably because Tolkien actually knew the larger story. He knew his world incredibly well.
Along that point, the themes of kingdom/empire and the "feminism" just kinda ticked me off. Like I get that this book's goal is not to talk about imperialism but like. the fact that "virtudom" is led by what is probably fairly restrictive morals (and on the pain of death oftentimes) has got to have a strong effect on society that is overall negative! and it's just not talked about. everything even remotely concerning about these nations was just brushed off to the side to focus on the plot of stopping the nameless one, and yet, book was still rushed at the end. The "feminism" aspect remains because like. Yes there were a lot of female characters in this story and many of them had positions of power. The main female characters had pretty surface level flaws though (in that they barely affected the narrative). Let the female characters be fucked up. Let them be actually messy (and not that they'll talk about it --- show it. It was shown a bit for Ead and Sabran in the beginning but then both mellowed out). Also I feel like actually having a discussion about, say, Virtudom's values and the restrictions based on that, would have done more about the feminism topic then just having a majority female cast.

it is past 2 am at this point so i will just sleep. it's not a bad book, it was just disappointing for me personally because I expected more in terms of character, analysis of the social situations, and pacing. i know some people really appreciate this book for being a standalone but it should've been either a longer standalone or two books.

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shottel's review

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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acebooknerd_07's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Breaths in, there is so much to talk about this book so let's go...

WORLD BUILDING:
Okay the first thing I want to talk about is world building in this book. This was my very first high fantasy I have read till now and I still understood the world building well enough is a proof enough that it can be read by anyone. There is a significant amount of world building and I pretty much liked it.

PLOT:
This is one of the tastiest thing about this book there is so much intrigue, drama, politics, power struggle, thrill and adventure as well. Plot of the book took some time to grow on me but when it did, it became pretty hard for me to keep the book down. There were times when my jaw dropped on the floor because of some plot twists but there were also time when I was under whelmed as well because there were some points in the book where there was such a high build up but execution fell flat to me, but there is one thing about this books which was done exceptionally well was the romance between the two main main characters. It was so refreshing to see romance between two grown adult women who have their own fears, insecurities, principles. Best thing about the book was that romance didn’t overpower the plot rather it complemented it well and that was the best part about the book for me.

CHARACTERS:
This book is written in a multiple POV so there is more than one central character in the book which makes it even more interesting to see how these characters will come together and how they are all connected to one another. What I can say about the priory is that it’s heart lies with it’s characters, who are flawed, have their own insecurities and ambitions which makes them very much real and at times relatable as well. The only issue I had with this book was there were lots of characters in the book and not all of them got enough time for them to shine when book is already 800 pages long. My most favorite character from the book was hands down “Nayimathun” I love her so much and the dynamic between “ Tané and Nayimathun” was my favorite. After “Nayimathun” I loved “Eadaz uq-Nāra” for obvious reasons because she made me question whether I want to be her or be with her. I also liked the character development of “Sabran IX”. In starting of the book I didn’t fancy her much but by the end of the book I started liking her for more than one reasons. But the best written and most complex characters of this book were “Niclays Roos” and “Kalyba” they were the most interesting characters in the book. I could neither hate them nor love them, they were one of the best and most complex characters in the book and honestly they made the book so much interesting for me.

WILL I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK:
We already know the answer, but let’s put it out out there YES I will recommend this book because what’s there to not recommend? It has love, drama, politics, adventure, magic, dragons some good plot and interesting characters and their dynamic. This book is not perfect but it’s still worth giving a time in my humble opinion.

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greycastle's review

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adventurous challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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