
I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

TITLE: Echoes and Empires
AUTHOR: Morgan Rhodes
Publisher: Penguin
PUBLICATION DATE: January 4, 2022
Source: NetGalley
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RATING:

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Falling Kingdoms series comes the first book in a brand-new duology about forbidden magic and dangerous secrets, for readers of Victoria Aveyard and Margaret Rogerson.
Josslyn Drake knows only three things about magic: itās rare, illegal, and always deadly.
So when sheās caught up in a robbery gone wrong at the Queenās Gala and infected by a dangerous piece of magicāone that allows her to step into the memories of an infamously evil warlockāshe finds herself living her worst nightmare. Joss needs the magic removed before it corrupts her soul and kills her. But in Ironport, the cost of doing magic is death, and seeking help might mean scheduling her own execution. Thereās nobody she can trust.
Nobody, that is, except wanted criminal Jericho Nox, who offers her a deal: his help extracting the magic in exchange for the magic itself. And though sheās not thrilled to be working with a thief, especially one as infuriating (and infuriatingly handsome) as Jericho, Joss is desperate enough to accept.
But Jericho is nothing like Joss expects. The closer she grows to Jericho and the more she sees of the world outside her pampered life in the city, the more Joss begins to question the beliefs sheās always taken for grantedābeliefs about right and wrong, about power and magic, and even about herself.
In an empire built on lies, the truth may be her greatest weapon.
Setting the Scene
Review in 10 Words (or Less)
Alright.
Mood Before Reading
Reading slump š
Dates Read
December 31, 2021 to January 2, 2022
Review
Echoes & Empires is about Josslyn, the daughter of the former prime minister, who lives in a world where magic is strictly forbidden. She gets caught up in a theft gone sideways and the book is mostly about how she copes with what happens afterward.
I have mixed feelings about this book; I honestly think it was just an okay read. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing special, either.
Sorry, itās not you, itās me
To be fair, a lot of my issues with this novel start with me. Usually, I’d just dump this extra info under my “Setting the Scene” section, but there’s a lot this time and I think it deserves a proper explanation.
Iām a mood reader that was going through yet another reading slump in December when I started reading Echoes & Empires. And because this was set to be published in early January, I forced myself to read it before my NetGalley ARC expired. Did I mention Iām a mood reader? Yeah, thatās an automatic barrier this book had to clear and it didnāt do the best job of it.
I wasnāt in the mood to read it and the storyline and characters didnāt help. I thought of DNFing it because I had such a difficult time getting through the first few chapters. Thankfully, the novel did pick up a little after the halfway mark, but not before I may or may not have already desperately peaked at the ending. Which was, of course, a mistake. It ruined one of the major plot twists of the book and didnāt really help encourage me to continue reading.
It wasnāt just my mood that affected my reading experience of Echoes & Empires – my expectations certainly didnāt help. Letās just say I made some assumptions about the story based on the synopsis and none of those assumptions turned out to be true. Needless to say, there is a direct correlation between my disappointment with this book and how its synopsis sells it.
And finally, Iāve been enjoying more upper YA and NA books lately – Iāve just been having a harder time connecting with and enjoying stories about younger characters. Echoes & Empires kind of skews younger YA to me. Both the writing and the maturity of the main character feel slightly more simplified and immature. Which is interesting given the ages of the characters – Iām pretty sure our female main character and her male love interest are around sixteen and nineteen, respectively.
If you plan to read Echoes & Empires, I strongly advise that you both A) donāt read the synopsis (or base your expectations on it) and B) donāt skip to the end. Learn from my mistakes.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled review
My weird personal issues aside, there are still some elements of Echoes & Empires I enjoyed and disliked that are more related to the book itself and not me, as a reader. Starting with our main character.
I think the main reason why I feel āmehā about the book as a whole is because thatās exactly how I feel about Joss. I donāt hate her, but I definitely donāt like her either. I enjoyed watching her grow a bit through the novel, but thatās about all I liked about her. Sheās kind of shallow in both personality and how sheās written. To be fair, if I remember correctly, sheās sixteen, but I just wish she didnāt make being self-absorbed her main personality trait.
The world-building didnāt help either. There wasnāt a lot of it and when it was discussed, it was mainly your typical āmagic is evilā speech. The magic wasn’t too magical, especially when itās responsible for a lot of info-dumping about the kingdom. There just wasnāt really anything about it to make it stand out from all the other magical YA worlds where magic was banned, except for Jericho, the male love interest, and his relation to magic.
Now that, that, I can get behind. Not so much Jericho, because like with Joss, I donāt have any particular feelings about him. But how he got involved with magic is so fascinating and part of an overarching mystery I want to solve. I wish that was explored more instead of kept kind of on the back burner. Then again, looking back, Echoes & Empires kind of just feels like a long setup for its sequel, which will hopefully spend more time focusing on that topic.
I canāt believe Iām saying this after the rocky start I had, but Iām kind of excited to read the sequel. The second half was more interesting and I had a nice time seeing all the pieces of the slow beginning fall into place. And the cliffhanger at the end (which I spoiled for myself) was an interesting conclusion. Despite the fact that I didnāt particularly enjoy Echoes & Empires, it definitely makes me curious about whatās going to happen next. I may or may not read the sequel if I remember it.
In conclusion…
Echoes & Empires is a nice quick read but nothing too special, except for the mystery surrounding Jericho, the main love interest, and his magic.
Rating
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Overall: | 3.1 |

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