A review by indianoceanwalkman
Empire of Exiles by Erin M. Evans

2.5

A scribe, a mage, an archivist, and an investigator. Four unlikely heroes. A secret threatening an empire... That was way too exciting of a setup. It's not that exciting. This was just so disappointing. The characters, their conversations, were just unnatural. They didn't feel like real people or have anything relatable or endearing. I never connected with literally any of them them. Made the emotional moments weird cause the author clearly thinks I should care about them. IDK it felt very obvious someone was writing about the emotions, not feeling them. The plot points were dumb and didn't make sense; imperial masks anyone? The plot twists were easy to guess a la The Shrike. The constant changeling reveals was a little too much. It felt like Battlestar Galactica. The teasing of old memories but avoidance of the character to try to remember was so annoying. And the ending! Of course she didn't do the very simple test to find out about herself! The romances. No. Amadea and the Prince? I don't care! Move on! Ick. Quill and yinii? Too... Easy? But doing nothing. Everyone else just saying it's abvious