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Series Review: The Brothers Sinister by Courtney Milan

Greetings and welcome to Reviews That Burn: Series Reviews, part of Books That Burn. Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. This review is for The Brothers Sinister by Courtney Milan. Full Audio Here   The Governess Affair Miss Serena Barton intends to hold the petty, selfish duke who had her sacked responsible for his crimes. But the man who handles all the duke's dirty business has been ordered to get rid of her by fair means or foul. She’ll have to prove more than his match… The Duchess War The last time Minerva Lane was the center of attention, it ended badly—so badly that she changed her name to escape her scandalous past. So when a handsome duke comes to town, the last thing she wants is his attention. But that is precisely what she gets... A Kiss for Midwinter Miss Lydia Charingford does her best to forget the dark secret that nearly ruined her life, hiding it beneath her smi...

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons (A Chorus of Dragons, #1)

Kihrin is a bastard orphan who grew up on storybook tales of long-lost princes and grand quests. When he is claimed against his will as the long-lost son of a treasonous prince, Kihrin finds that being a long-lost prince isn't what the storybooks promised.

Far from living the dream, Kihrin finds himself practically a prisoner, at the mercy of his new family's power plays and ambitions. He also discovers that the storybooks have lied about a lot of other things things, too: dragons, demons, gods, prophecies, true love, and how the hero always wins.

Then again, maybe he’s not the hero, for Kihrin isn’t destined to save the empire.

He’s destined to destroy it . . .

TITLE: The Ruin of Kings
AUTHOR: Jenn Lyons
PUBLISHER: Tor Books
YEAR: 2019
LENGTH: 560 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: N/A

Queer Rep Summary: Not far enough to assess, the book is shelved as LQBTQ+.

*I received a review copy as part of the 2021 Hugo voters packet. 

DNF 12%.

I was having trouble following the story across points in time, as the narrators didn't feel different enough to be distinctive. The perspectives are labeled at the start of each chapter, but I felt adrift, bored, and uninterested. I did not like whatever character is writing the footnotes, I know the point is that the main narrator had different information from whoever is providing the commentary, but it felt like I was being jerked around since the main narrator would say one piece of information then the footnote narrator would immediately contradict them with yet more worldbuilding I didn't yet have the context to care about.

CW for slavery, body horror, blood, sexual assault (not depicted), gore (graphic), torture, death (graphic).

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