Ah I absolutely love when a book completely wrecks my heart and soul, that’s what I look for whenever a pick up a new book.

The absolute hold that this book had over me, especially the last half, it felt impossible to put down. I had to know what was going to happen next, I was constantly left on the edge of my seat, well bed since that’s where I read. I spent a lot of time physically talking to this book, a lot of “no please” or “your lying, tell me your lying” “no not him why, why would you do this to me” and my favorite ” I swear Mr Swan I will be very angry with you if you kill him”. Which of course promptly left me a crying mess, because Mr Swan said “haha screw you Alyssa I will destroy your heart” He has since told me that The Tyranny of Faith, book 2, will “wreck my ass” so I am looking forward to that. Now I do have to say not all the moments I was crying where tears of sadness, there was a moment of pure happy tears, Swan got me good, and I have never been so happy, though I do fear for the direction of this characters story, I hadn’t realized how much they meant to me.

This is one of the few books where I genuinely loved every character (well not Claver, or Westenholtz screw them guys) but the main cast, Helena, Vonvalt, Bressinger, gah I just love them all for so many reasons. I loved the father like vibes both Vonvalt and Bressinger had with Helena, but then there was also the mentor/apprentice vibes they had with her too. But then Vonvalt was also Helena’s boss so there was that dynamic, and Bressinger had that co-worker vibe with Helena since he too was employed by Vonvalt. So many different kinds of dynamics was displayed between these three and it really helped bring them to life. The three of them just worked so well with each other. Even though the story is a recounting from Helena’s own mouth Swan managed to give depth to the other characters through Helena’s recounting. I even enjoyed how Swan touched on Helena being confused about whether she was attracted to Vonvalt, and even possibly jealous at times. I felt he did a really good job with portraying Helena and her feelings. This book also has one of the few instances of “insta-love” where I didn’t get angry, because of how Helena herself presented it. (Also in case you care there is a jab at the “one bed trope” and I thought it was hilarious, because I hate that trope lol)

Helena was a great narrator for this story, she managed to give life to everyone around her. She also had moments of reminding us she was recounting the events that she was involved in. I loved how she would would take moments to speak directly to us and she even let us know the outcome of a certain character, which I’m grateful for not having to wait multiple books to know the final outcome of said character, although it did break my heart leave me a crying mess. She breathed life into the events and the world around her, while also expressing how depressing this world honestly sounds. It’s a struggle between a religious order and the Emperor’s order. One kind of religious construct was pushed out and another put in its place that not surprisingly sounds an awful lot like the one that was removed. I love plot lines that have a religious man that is definitely a fanatic and goes to insane lengths to get what he wants. Do I like them burning an entire town to the ground after they have been rightfully judged, no, but I have this desire to see Claver become more crazy and unhinged in his quest, I want and hope that he will, I love seeing people who think they are right just completely lose themselves. Just like how I’m getting to see Vonvalt’s descent into anger I want to see Claver’s descent into chaos and madness.

The Magic was one of my favorite elements. The minute Vonvalt used the Emperor’s Voice I was like “more, yes more please”. The way Swan described how the magic of the Emperor’s Voice worked made it truly horrifying if you were on the receiving end. But it was also how Vonvalt chose to utilize it, he didn’t rely on it and used it only when necessary (or when he was livid) and it made the feel of it more frightening, while also making you yearn for it more, he didn’t just sling it around like so many other books with magic. And the same can be said for his necromancy magic, the less the magic was used the more I yearned for it. The information we got on how the magic is dealt out to each Justice was intriguing and I hope we get to see more Justices in later installments who have a wide range of magic, I’m interested to see what Swan comes up with.

The Justice of Kings was a book that by 12% I knew was going to be a 5 star read for me, and I have this feeling the trilogy is going to be a favorite of mine once it’s complete. When I think about it, I have zero negative thoughts about this book, it was absolutely amazing from start to finish. I am looking forward to seeing where the story goes next.

Thank you Netgalley and Orbit for providing me with an arc, all opinions are my own.

Justice of Kings follows the path of famed Imperial Justice, Sir Konrad Vonvalt, as he attempts to bring the common law to all corners of the Empire. Written from the viewpoint of his young law clerk, Helena, and also accompanied by the swordsman Bressinger, they are drawn into a murder investigation in a merchant town far from the capital. What begins as a simple investigation starts to unravel as they discover a conspiracy that threatens the imperial law they are sworn to uphold.

Justice of Kings takes its time revealing the grim world of the Empire of the Wolf as Helena, Vonvalt and Bressinger conduct their investigation and the world has a very historical, lived-in feel that reminded me a bit of Robin Hobb combined with The Witcher. The atmosphere and tension is built slowly but deliberately to a tense, action-packed finish. I'm impressed that this was a debut as Swan does an excellent job in orchestrating that tension and exploring themes of justice and law in what felt like an organic way rather than just dumping exposition at every opportunity. The prose is uncomplicated but compelling and kept me intrigued.

There are however, a few gripes that keep this from being a full five-star glowing review for me. First, the story is written as a memoir but the commentary from older Helena looking back on it felt awkward in places and there's an unfortunate tendency to disrupt suspense with comments about how it all went to shit before the reader actually sees it go badly. As it gets closer to the ramping up of events, this seemed to occur even more often.

Second, I had some frustrations with some of the characters. Helena is believable as a teenager, but occasionally it gets almost maudlin and I started losing patience with her POV. I also had a bit of a hard time towards the end with Vonvalt's character arc. While I liked the theme of what it takes to make a man lose faith in his beliefs and turn from justice to vengeance, the transition felt too fast towards the end. I'm curious to see if Swan will sell this more in the next entry in the series though and I'm excited to see more of Helena as she gets older.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Justice of Kings. I felt so immersed in this grim world, (sometimes to the point that I needed a more cheerful book afterwards) and I loved the thematic exploration throughout the story. This is well worth picking up if you don't mind a fantasy story that starts a bit slow and feels nearly like historical fiction with fairly low levels of magic and supernatural elements. I will certainly be picking up the next book in the series and honestly, would probably pick up anything Swan writes in the future.

CAWPILE Rating
-----------------
Characters: 9/10
Atmosphere: 10/10
Writing: 8/10
Plot: 8/10
Intrigue: 8/10
Logic: 9/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Overall: 8.6/10 = 4.5 stars (rounded down to 4 for GR)

If you're a fan of murder mysteries, but in a fantasy medevial setting, you may enjoy The justice of kings.

The story follows Sir Konrad Vonvalt, who is a Justice, as he investigates the murder of a nobelwoman, through the point of view of Helena, his clerk.

I'll start off by saying that this is not a character driven story, but rather a plot driven one which had failed to keep my interest. I was quite bored. Had there been more compelling characters, I probably would have enjoyed this more, however they weren't memorable and pretty generic. I particularly disliked the "historically accurate" sexism and sexual assault, and Helena's instalove which added absolutely nothing to the story (nor was the romance enjoyable). The pacing was too slow and in addition to nothing interesting happening, I struggled to finish this book.

Arc provided by publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.