BOOK REVIEW : HIDDEN KNIGHTS (KNIGHTS OF THE REALM #3) BY JENNIFER ANNE DAVIS

TITLE : Hidden Knights (Knights of The Realm #3)

AUTHOR : Jennifer Anne Davis

GENRE : YA, Fantasy

FBRC RATING : 4.5 – 5 Stars

EXPECTED PUBLICATION : 10th March 2020

BLURB :

With Prince Henrick dead, a foreign army in league with the king, and the palace taken, Reid must find a way to right the wrongs for the people of Marsden.

Reid never expected to find love, friendship, or her mother in the kingdom of Axian. She also never expected to become a leader for her people. With the king threatening to overthrow the dukes and take complete control of the kingdom, Reid realizes she may be the only one in a position to stop him. With the ring her father gave her, the commanders of the army at her side, and a master schemer in league with her, Reid just might be able to pull off the greatest upset in Marsden history—all she has to do in step into the role she was born for.

To protect her kingdom, Reid must outsmart them all. Luckily, she’s spent the last eighteen year learning the art of manipulation, and she isn’t above putting those skills to the test.

FBRC REVIEW :

DISCLAIMER : I received an ARC of this book from Reign Publishing and Author Jennifer Anne Davis in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Reign Publishing and Jennifer Anne Davis for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I was so happy when I received a message from Reign Publishing asking if I would love to get an ARC of Hidden Knights. I literally squealed when I received the message and I just couldn’t contain my excitement. I started reading it the next day and finished it in 2 days. I would have read it in a day if my schedule permitted me, unfortunately I had some other things I needed to do. Anyway, I am so happy I got the chance to read this series and all thanks to Reign Publishing for making it possible. I am happy about the way the story ended and I believe it was a great conclusion to the series. It also leaves the readers wondering about the future of some of the characters.  Overall an engaging, entertaining and quick read. If you are in the mood for a shorter fantasy series, then this would be the perfect set to pick up to binge-read in one go.

Let’s get into the book, shall we? We pick up where book 2 ended. Reid is struggling to come to terms with the fact that Anna is her mother and she doesn’t know what to believe anymore. Her whole world is upside down. She feels betrayed by her father and Dexter steps in as a support system during the time. They are getting closer, their attraction is the main driving force, but at the same time, Dexter is the kind of guy to support and empower her. He is kind, compassionate, considerate of her. He also challenges her to be stronger and better. Overall their match seems to be a good one. They are accepting it and want to make the best of it working hard to open up to one another. While they are trying to get to know one another during the chaos surrounding them, they are often bombarded with one event after the other. The enemies are still not clear. They don’t know who they can trust and everything they believed to be true is unraveling before their eyes. The King is plotting their demise, there are unseen forces that are apart from the King who is playing in between. They don’t know who they should be fighting against. At every step of the way, they are thwarted from their plans, where the unseen enemy pulls at their strings and making them the unwilling pawns of an unknown game. Will Reid be able to hold up her oath to the Knights? Will she be able to rescue her Kingdom from war and power-hungry King?

Reid is trying to figure out who is whom in this grand scheme of the game that she was unsuspectingly dragged to. She makes some not so intelligent moves and ends up paying for it, but at the same time she doesn’t come off as the all-knowing, highly capable heroine either. She has a good balance and does her best to solve the problems and help out her Kingdom. 

Ackley is seen more in this book. He is his usual casual fun self. He is riling Dexter up at every chance he gets. He is also coming to realize some important things toward the end of the book which prompts him to make new changes in the direction of his life. He is protective of his family. Some of his decisions and interactions does raise a few questions as to his thought process at those times. Getting a POV for him would have made it clearer as to what he was thinking when he did certain things.

Leah and Nara and Henrick leave a lot of questions and I would love to see what the author had in mind with them and their story. There were moments with Leah that made wonder what she was thinking and how she felt. I would love to see and learn more about Harlow and Anna’s story. I think it will add more depth to their characters and provide us with their motivations for their actions. Adding their POVs would be in my opinion a wonderful way to add to the story and actually get to know the characters better.

Why did all men seem to be enraptured and enamored with Reid? I did see a lot of instances where we saw comments and dialogues that hint at some of the men being drawn to her. I guess there is a mystery surrounding her and she is also quite different from what they have normally encountered. I found some of it to be unnecessary on the whole. 

There was a new character that got introduced and I am thinking there could be a possible story or even a series for that character. I am seeing a lot of potential for it and I hope Jennifer gives us a new series with some of the characters from here as well.

As I said earlier, I love this series, loved the characters in it and my only complaint when it comes to this series is that it’s too short. I would love to see more of the characters and their stories being explored. The character and relationship development will be better explored if we get the chance to know them better. They were very interesting and fun to read about. We get to see the story from only Reid’s perspective and so because the book is quite short I felt that we were missing out on some background info for some of our other supporting characters. In Hidden Knights, I think I would love to personally see more of Harlow, Anna, Leah, Ackley, Henrick, Eldon and also Nara. I wanted to see their experiences and their story from their perspective. It would add a lot more depth to their characters. Without the in-depth character study also the story very well holds up for fantasy. If you are someone new to fantasy and would love to check out something in the genre I would highly recommend checking this one out for a starting point. It is easy and accessible. The world-building is good and well-rounded, the characters are fun and intriguing to keep us going. The storyline progresses quickly keeping you engaged and riveted. The ending of the first two books will keep you hanging with the major cliff-hanger. There is some light and flirty, bantery romance that will appeal to romance readers. Great banter, political machinations, spying, secret organizations all keep the story entertaining and moving forward. 

My rating is somewhat confusing. I loved it and was engaged with the story. So for that part, it’s 5 stars. However, for the story depth and development, I feel its 4.5-ish. Which is why the rating for Hidden Knights will be 4.5-5 stars.

If you are interested in reading new fantasy series, then definitely pick this series up and binge-read. You will absolutely enjoy it. Hidden Knights will be published on March 10th of 2020. Grab this series quickly!! Happy Reading!!