Title: Empire of Dust

Author: Eleanor Herman

Series: Blood of Gods and Royals # 2

Publication:  June 28th 2016 by Harlequin Teen

Pages: 432

Source: Netgalley

Summary from Goodreads:

In Macedon, war rises like smoke, forbidden romance blooms and ancient magic tempered with rage threatens to turn an empire to dust

After winning his first battle, Prince Alexander fights to become the ruler his kingdom demands—but the line between leader and tyrant blurs with each new threat.

Meanwhile, Hephaestion, cast aside by Alexander for killing the wrong man, must conceal the devastating secret of a divine prophecy from Katerina even as the two of them are thrust together on a dangerous mission to Egypt.

The warrior, Jacob, determined to forget his first love, vows to eradicate the ancient Blood Magics and believes that royal prisoner Cynane holds the key to Macedon’s undoing.

And in chains, the Persian princess Zofia still longs to find the Spirit Eaters, but first must grapple with the secrets of her handsome—and deadly—captor.

New York Times bestselling author Eleanor Herman entwines the real scandals of history with epic fantasy to reimagine the world’s most brilliant ruler, Alexander the Great, in the second book of the Blood of Gods and Royals series.

My Thoughts:

Well… bah humbug. That was really, really disappointing. Empire of Dust illustrates one of my biggest bookish pet peeves, hell, one of my biggest writing pet peeves: no growth. Empire of Dust is chalked full of the exact same problems I had with the first novel. Those being too many characters, not enough development, shoddy world building and descriptions, and just this overall bleh that keeps everything from improving along the way. It is simply ridiculous. I was not a big fan of Legacy of Kings , not in the slightest, so I really have no idea why I decided this was a good idea. Hope, maybe? Who knows.

Empire of Dust builds upon the mistakes of the first. There is action, sure, but it is minimal and very, very poorly written. It is a telling, not a showing sort of thing – which really doesn’t work in its favor. There were too many POV’s, as I have said. I looked forward to none of them, well, I did like Kat and Alex – but still. Small side note, no one in that time period would have had a nickname – especially if their real names were Katerina and Alexander, Kat and Alex are way, way too modern. Which leads into yet another issue I had – the complete and utter ridiculousness and an unbelievable plot.  For a historian, Herman does not know which way is up and down or left and right. There is a difference between taking creative liberties with history, and then pulling shit right out of your ass for plot – and one works waaayyy better than the other. Long story short, the historical inaccuracies are overwhelmingly awful.

I really have nothing good to say about this book. Maybe it makes me a horrible person, or maybe I’m completely wrong and full of shit – but, whatever. I can be mean sometimes, oopsie. Overall, Empire of Dust was exactly what the title promised: a crumbling empire leaving nothing but ash and dust in its wake. Hopefully, you’ll forget the atrocities committed and we can all move forward. If not, at least there is nothing worth looking at that was left behind.