The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

Okay, well this is a more difficult book to summarize. Um, it's about a boy, Hans, who is a peasant, of sorts. And he gets tangled up with some wizards and steals an amulet from them in hopes to sell it and get some money for his poor family. But the amulet is kinda important so he can't. There is also a girl, Raisa, no idea how to say that, who is the princess of a kingdom and she kinda doesn't like it. She's very rebellious to her proper mother who wants nothing more than for her daughter to be a true princess. Anyway, Raisa's mother has some plans for her that Raisa knows are not good for her personally or good for the whole kingdom. And, as one would expect, their paths cross which leads to this huge epic fantasy battle...eventually.

So, here's the thing about this book. It's slow. Painfully slow. I can see many people saying that it's boring and nothing happens. I understand that. It is very slow. Now, that's not a complete bad thing. It does mean that we get to see these characters establish their lives to us before all of the madness happens, which a greatly appreciate. I think I mention it a lot that I like to see people's "normal" lives as a reference point. It's like we get to see the before and after in terms of character development. That being said, it may have been a little too slow. If you like slower paced books or if you just are in the mood for one, you may really like this book, but if you want that fast paced action packed book, this is definitely not for you.

As far as characters go, Raisa is awesome. She's a rebellious princess that wants a life of action. She's kind and smart but is kept suppressed by her mother and identifies more with her father who is constantly being sent away. She's getting tangled up with court politics and wants nothing to do with it until she sees the reality of the world. I identify a lot with her so I kinda lover her. Hans is caught between wanting to be an honest man and wanting to provide for his mom and sister the only way he knows how - stealing. He just wants a simple life but then he realized he's special. These two are very interesting characters but they don't get much time together. They are brought together for a short bit in the middle of the book then are separated. I wished we got to see more interactions between these two. As for other characters, I mean, they're there. There was nothing wrong with them but I guess some of them played the typical villain roles or the pawn roles. And there is nothing wrong with that but just know that this a very by the numbers type of book in terms of characters.

The magic element of this book is super interesting but it's only touched on. The way it ended makes it seem as though the next book is going to pretty epic and I'm excited to read it, but it's probably going to be slow and I'm not sure if I'm in the mood for a slow book just yet. I really liked this book, the magic and the character interaction was very entertaining, even though it's not the most original I've read, but the pace is a bit too slow for my liking. That being said, the ending of this book is not necessarily a cliff hanger but it does set up the next book quite nicely. 4 out of 5 stars.