The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Today is my review of the beautiful and highly anticipated The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, which is a chunky and fantastic fantasy novel with dragons!

Sorry I didn’t post this yesterday (I was meant to) but unfortunately being on a deadline for Uni took precedence! I’m here now! And as promised my review of The Priory of the Orange Tree is finally here for you to feast your eyes upon!

Aside from the beautiful cover with foil detail, and a bloody dragon I really enjoyed this book. Anything with dragons is pretty much going to go straight to the top of my tbr so this was obviously one of those cases!

• Title: The Priory of the Orange Tree
• Author: Samantha Shannon
• Hardcover: 848 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Circus (26 Feb. 2019)
• Genre: Fantasy
• ISBN-10: 1408883465
• ISBN-13: 978-1408883464
• My Rating:🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis – From Amazon

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 to be a dragonrider since she was a child, 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

My Review (non-spoiler)

There is a lot to say about this book, yet a lot to give away, and I really don’t want to spoil this for anyone, especially given that this is still a new release. The Priory of the Orange Tree is a chunky slab of a book, and damn I enjoyed every page of it.

One of the reasons I love fantasy in general is the split POV’s. I love flitting from one character to the next, and having that suspenseful wait in between. Samantha Shannon definitely delivers that within this book. We are introduced to the different perspective of characters, and interestingly they are in different locations of the world too. You may be wondering why I would find that so interesting, but Samantha Shannon has the ability to tell the story of two sides of the coin this way. A land that cherishes and worships dragons, and a land that hates them all.

The beauty of this book isn’t just the action, fierce characters, diverse relationships, and fantasy ridden world. It is also that within it all Samantha Shannon shows the coming together of two opposing religions, which I really adored. This book was full of things I loved; Fierce females, dragons, shocking turns, and the ability to leave you wondering what the hell was going to happen next.

Although this book is a chunky 848 pages long it definitely doesn’t feel like that reading it. Things progress quickly, and in my opinion that type of pacing works really well for a novel like this. Creating a stand alone fantasy of this size is a tough order to meet, but I think Samantha Shannon does it admirably.

Were there things I disliked? Not particularly, to begin with I did question if I would like it or not, but that was very early doors, and it quickly became addictive. The only thing I would say is that the resolve seemed too sweet to me, but that would be my only irk. Generally speaking it did not hinder my enjoyment, and therefore I saw no reason to reduce my rating because of it.

Overall, this book was a really great read, and considering I had built it up in my mind so much, I found that I was not disappointed (which can often be the case with me). It was fun, action packed, suspense filled, and addictive! It is definitely a recommended read for those who like dragons, and fantasy or even if you just like the sound of it!

Let me know if you have read this, and want someone to gush about it with. I would be more than happy to talk spoilers etc, but would rather not ruin anyone else’s reading experience so if you want spoilery talk then be sure to DM me on twitter or instagram. For non-spoiler talk, the comments below are absolutely fine.