Rapunzel in a world made of darkness | Reign of Shadows

Reign of Shadows (Reign of Shadows #1) by Sophie Jordan

Published: February 9th 2016 by Harper Teen

Genre: Young Adult, High fantasy, Fairy Tales

Goodreads summary:  Seventeen years ago, an eclipse cloaked the kingdom of Relhok in perpetual darkness. In the chaos, an evil chancellor murdered the king and queen and seized their throne. Luna, Relhok’s lost princess, has been hiding in a tower ever since. Luna’s survival depends on the world believing she is dead.

But that doesn’t stop Luna from wanting more. When she meets Fowler, a mysterious archer braving the woods outside her tower, Luna is drawn to him despite the risk. When the tower is attacked, Luna and Fowler escape together. But this world of darkness is more treacherous than Luna ever realized.

With every threat stacked against them, Luna and Fowler find solace in each other. But with secrets still unspoken between them, falling in love might be their most dangerous journey yet.

With lush writing and a star–crossed romance, Reign of Shadowsis Sophie Jordan at her best.

REVIEW

I went into this with the lowest expectations and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Some people said this book didn't have a point, but I don't fully agree. The point of this book was to survive. To be safe. So of course, it wasn't possible considered what a brutal world it was set in, but that was the plot guys. I'm defending this book because it's so much better than Uninvited, the other book I read by this author. Nevertheless, I think it would have been better with a bigger goal, because I was skeptical to where the author was going with this.

Reign of Shadows is loosely based upon Rapunzel, I was happy about that, because the only retelling of that story that I read was Cress. Rapunzel isn't the most used fairy tales, when retellings are involved. The main character lives in a tower because she's the lost princess of Relhok and is in hiding because of the king found her, he would kill her on sight. There is other reasons for her to stay in the tower, it's actually a little twist to the original tale, it surprised me and made the book so much more interesting. This book didn't really followed the original tale, even though you could find some elements of it in a twisted way, it felt like Easter eggs I needed to retrieve. 

In the beginning, Luna's world is turned upside down when she saves two boys and a girl in the forest. First, she meets new people, when she only knew Sivio and Perla, who raised her. Obviously, she is compelled to the boy closer to her age, because she never met a boy and she's seventeen, it's to be expected. A little farther into the book, she has to run away from the life she always knew, with this mysterious and distant Fowler.

I really enjoyed the characters. Luna was a strong young woman and proved every time to Fowler that she was very capable and didn't need him. Sometimes, I even wondered how he had managed to survive for so long considering how much he came to need her. Fowler remained mysterious for the most part of the book, even though we got glimpses of his past. A few pages before the end, he revealed a lot more about himself and now... <b>I'm craving more backstory, okay?<b> Because we got both points of view, I'm really involved with these characters and I can't wait to read what happens next. I liked the romance between the characters, it was a "I'm pretending I don't want to get attached but it's not true" kind of thing, but Fowler actually had logical reasons, he wasn't just being a jerk. 

I will admit that I found this book to be a bit slow. It's only 304 pages long and Luna run away from the tower 35% in, it was definitely slow to start, but it allowed me to understand this world a little better. The pacing wasn't on point, because even though <b>I never got bored</b> (this book captured my attention all the way), there wasn't a lot happening and then the last pages were gripping and ended on a cliff-hanger. I think I got fascinated by the world all the way, like Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I was just reading as much as I could. Sophie Jordan managed to get me to be fully into the story. Even though it was slow, I didn't find the book was dragging, and it's a good thing considering the length, I would have been worried, ha-ha.

Some people said it focused a lot on the romance, it's not exactly. I'd like to remind (potential) readers that:

a) Fowler and Luna were alone most of the time so it's logical we're hearing about them and no one else, right? 

b) he was the first person Luna got a relation with, except for her foster parents, so it seemed logical? 

This book felt more like an <b>introduction</b> to this series, it totally felt like a first book, where everything was introduced.

The highlight of this book was the world. I found it fascinating, because it was totally in darkness, characters were desperate to survive and where ready to <b>anything</b> to have more rations and so on. We have hints of rape, sacrifices, what a time to rejoice, you guys. But I actually liked that it was brutal like that? At some point there was a guy walking around with a bag full of heads, OMG. 

What I first though of when the dwellers were introduced. *shivers*

Moreover, because Luna never got away from the forest around the tower, the reader is discovering the world at the same time as she does, it was enjoyable. However, I would have liked to know:

a) why the eclipse? 

b) how did the dwellers came to be? 

I think we'll have answers in the next book, but it confused me a little in this one.

Overall, I really enjoyed this world, but it was lacking a "big goal" in the beginning. The world and atmosphere were on point and frightening, but I loved reading about somewhere that was fully in the dark. This first book was more of a survival story and helped create the dynamics between the characters. The story wasn't particularly exciting, but we got revelations in the last few pages, as well as a cliff-hanger, so I can't wait to get my hands on the next one!

Do you know more Rapunzel retellings? Do you plan on reading this book? Do you love Disney's animated movie Tangled?