Review: The Priory of the Orange Tree

Posted 23rd May 2020 by Emma in Reviews / 0 Comments

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The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Published by Audible Studios on 26th February 2019
Genres: Fantasy, Magic, Supernatural, YA Fantasy, Young Adult
Length: 25 hours and 52 minutes
Format: Audible
Source: I bought it
Goodreads
Amazon Kindle, Audible

A world divided A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—but assassins are getting closer to her door.
Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragon rider but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.
Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

I had seen this book on Instagram for many months and had it on my TBR pile for a little while. I saw Samantha interview Jay Kristoff last year and I knew I had to bump it up.

There are two things you should know about this book. The first is that it is a very large book and the second is it has a lot of world-building. I find big books quite intimidating. I’d much rather read a long series of shorter books than one big one. I enjoyed the book but it did take me a long time to read it. There were times when I thought I would never end. I think this book could have really benefited from being a series or duology to reduce the size of the book. So much happens in this book that I feel like I definitely missed something. I think I would need a re-read to really get everything but the book is so long that I just don’t know if have the time for that.

There are 4 POV in this book all at different places in the world. There are lots of side characters too. The world is very intriguing but I felt like I struggled to connect with the characters. I want to try again because I wonder if it was just the timing for me (I read this at the beginning of lockdown and work was crazy). I was reading in snatched moments and short bursts which made the story very broken too.

I’m sorry that this is not a very helpful review but I hope you take something away from it.

About Samantha Shannon

Samantha Shannon studied English Language and Literature at St. Anne’s College, Oxford. The Bone Season, the first in a seven-book series, was a New York Times bestseller and the inaugural Today Book Club selection.

Her next novel, The Priory of the Orange Tree, was published in February 2019 and became a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller. Her work has been translated into twenty-six languages. She lives in London.