The Eyes of God

by John Marco

Reviewed by Coral

Determined to end the war between their countries, Akeela, the newly crowned king of Liiria, pursues peace with long-time enemies Reec. As part of the peace treaty, Akeela marries Cassandra, the youngest daughter of the king of Reec.

Not everyone is happy with this peace treaty. Akeela now finds himself facing enemies both inside and outside of his country.

Once happy with the man who would be her husband, Cassandra soon finds him lacking and finds herself instead drawn to Lukien, her people's greatest enemy. But this is not the only secret she carries.

This book is 800 pages and I couldn't even make it through 200. I don't know how many times I have read, or watched this story: two men, brothers or as close as brothers (in this case, adopted brothers) torn apart by their love of the same women. And Cassandra and Lukien's love story was not even done in a way that I could find believable. One second she regards him as an enemy of her people because of his viciousness in battle and the next she is painting him from afar because he looked at her once? It doesn't make any sense. they hardly spend any time talking before they are in love with each other.

And Akeela's character suffers for it. He is introduced as an idealistic young king, determined to bring peace to his people. But then idealistic becomes foolish and young becomes rash and he is making a mess out of everything in a way that didn't feel organic to the character.

I want to grade it an F. Which is a shame, because there was a subplot not connected to the royal plot that seemed interesting, but I couldn't hang in there just for the plot. In the end, I guess because I didn't even make it halfway through, grading isn't really fair.

Grade: N/A