The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye (Epub)

Description

Perfect for fans of Shadow and Bone and Red Queen, The Crown’s Game is a thrilling and atmospheric historical fantasy set in Imperial Russia about two teenagers who must compete for the right to become the Imperial Enchanter—or die in the process—from debut author Evelyn Skye.

Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are enchanters—the only two in Russia—and with the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threatening, the tsar needs a powerful enchanter by his side.

And so he initiates the Crown’s Game, an ancient duel of magical skill—the greatest test an enchanter will ever know. The victor becomes the Imperial Enchanter and the tsar’s most respected adviser. The defeated is sentenced to death.

Raised on tiny Ovchinin Island her whole life, Vika is eager for the chance to show off her talent in the grand capital of Saint Petersburg. But can she kill another enchanter—even when his magic calls to her like nothing else ever has?

For Nikolai, an orphan, the Crown’s Game is the chance of a lifetime. But his deadly opponent is a force to be reckoned with—beautiful, whip smart, imaginative—and he can’t stop thinking about her.

And when Pasha, Nikolai’s best friend and heir to the throne, also starts to fall for the mysterious enchantress, Nikolai must defeat the girl they both love . . . or be killed himself.

As long-buried secrets emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes dangerously clear . . . the Crown’s Game is not one to lose.

User’s Reviews

From School Library Journal Gr 8 Up-In an alternate 19th-century Russia, the tsar can call upon the abilities of an enchanter. Normally, only one exists at a time. In the rare case that two are born, they must compete, because Russia’s inherent magic will allow only one to remain alive. Vika is an expert at controlling the elements and has been training her whole life to serve her country, unaware that another enchanter exists. Nikolai, best friend to the tsar’s son, Pasha, who does not know of Nikolai’s ability, has been training with his mentor explicitly for the Crown’s Game. When the game begins, Vika and Nikolai take turns showing off their magical prowess for the tsar, creating wonders that get more powerful with each turn. Friendships, budding romances, and betrayal among Nikolai, Vika, and Pasha make the stakes even higher in a Game that will cost Nikolai or Vika their life. The forefront of this speculative fiction title, the action-packed, magical duel, is set against the backdrop of a richly detailed world. It is not surprising that Pasha and Nikolai fall for Vika, though Vika’s pragmatism stops anything from developing. The book ends with one winner remaining, but the final sentence hints that the loser has not disappeared forever. Readers will eagerly await the next installment. VERDICT A blend of Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus (Doubleday, 2011) and Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone (Holt, 2012), this work will make a solid addition to young adult collections.-Marissa ­Lieberman, East Orange Public Library, NJα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. –This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ Disappointed is an understatement. Я хотела люивить эту книгу, но мне была так скучно! :(Let’s start with the good:WRITINGSolid. For the most part.WORLD/SETTINGNow, I am probably biased from my own studies in Russia, but this world is fantastic! The author definitely put to use her experiences and studies of Russian culture and history. Instantly, I felt like I was transported back in time to Imperial Russia and I loved it! She really knows how to capture the atmosphere of St. Petersburg. However, I feel like the world was wasted with such a plot.Which leads me to the bad:PLOTI was promised an “ancient duel of magical skill”. I was expecting magical duels. I wanted magical duels. So wtf? Where was my magical duel?????The magical aspect of this story was lacking so much that it hindered the plot. The majority of the magic used was little tricks the characters did to make their daily lives easier. For such a beautiful and enchanting place Russia is, there didn’t seem to be any magic in the air….ROMANCEBut, damn, there was so much ‘love’ in the air I was beginning to suffocate. It seems like the plot wanted to be all about a deadly, magical duel between two riveting and young enchanters. But, the plot changed its mind very quickly and turned into a story following two boring and dramatic enchanters who fell in love at first sight. Oh, but wait. This is YA, so there needs to be more tension….let’s throw in a love triangle! Don’t get me wrong, sometimes a love triangle works and adds depth to a story and characterization. This one was just unbelievable. Can we just clarify: because it’s YA, doesn’t mean it needs a bloody love triangle! There are far more ways to create tension.CHARACTERSI don’t have much to say. They all had potential in the beginning. Vika was strong willed and stubborn. Nikolai was mysterious and dark. Pasha was entertaining and charming. Then, they all got poked in the ass by the tip of the ‘love triangle syndrome’, and everything went downhill from there.One thing that I started to see towards the end was the portrayal of youth being forced. At many times, the characters didn’t seem like genuine teenagers, especially when it came to the feeling of love.I have to be honest and say I started skipping chunks of descriptions and scenes after I reached 70%. Around 80%, the plot actually started to get interesting (excluding all the stupid forced romance.) There were twists that I was not really surprised by but were still pleasing. The ending seemed a bit rushed, though. Also the story felt like it was trying to be very dramatic as people started dropping dead like flies. Some of the deaths would have moved me, if I actually cared. But, I didn’t. None of the characters made me care enough.Will I be reading the sequel? No.Have I given up on Evelyn Skye? Not yet.

⭐ The Crown’s Game is a beautiful story. But it is one that danger hovers over to the end.It reminds me very much of The Night Circus. Both books are tales of magical duels. They are meant to be duels to the death, and they are fueled by a rivalry between the mentors of the duelists. The magic in both is astoundingly lovely too, if always a bit scary. Or sometimes more than a bit.In The Crown’s Game, however, the duel is more serious. The prize for winning is to become the Imperial Enchanter for the Tsar of Russia. According to the explanation, the pool of magic in Russia has dwindled so badly that it will now only support one major enchanter. If one of the enchanter contestants does not manage to kill the other before the designated end of the contest, the magic itself will declare a winner, and kill the losing enchanter. It is rare for there to be two enchanters in the land at any one time, but when there are, the Game decides which one should serve the Empire.The two enchanters are sixteen-year-old Vika, who lives with Sergei, the man she believes to be her father on an island, and eighteen-year-old Nilokai, an orphan from the steppes. His mentor is Galina, a grand lady in St. Petersburg. It turns out that Sergei and Galina are brother and sister. Their rivalry lends a deeper twist to the Game.Once the Game has been started, Viika and Nikolai discover pretty quickly that they don’t want to kill each other that badly.In The Night Circus the two magic users finally managed to end their duel by walking out on it and agreeing to work together after that. Vika and Nikolai don’t have that option, however, although each of them tries to think how such a thing might be possible.And then there’s that ending…

⭐ This is a sort of historical fantasy novel. Much of the detail about Russia is historically correct, or correct enough to be fully believable. The magic, on the other hand is under-explained and I could not really understand how some the larger creations worked and yet minor things seemed beyond the two Enchanters. The characters are fairly complex but their magical parents are unexplained, even as to what they actually are meant to be.Not much real action in this one and the closest thing to a real fight is a couple of bumps in a bar. The magic itself is pretty weak as well in that it is all cosmetic rather than part of the actual story. There is meant to be angst between the main characters but it really only seems real in the lesser characters. The biggest issue I had was these powerful magicians were afraid of the Tsar for no apparent reason. The ending is weak though predictable and has been done better in other books.The writing itself is very “fairy story” like and the book would probably be a good bedtime story to read to your kids. If you have a strong issue in Russia you may find the book more enjoyable than I did. It seems a little Steampunky at first but that is just the time setting and the top hats. Can’t really recommend it other than as something to read to the kids.

⭐ I don’t even remember why I bought THE CROWN’S GAME, but I’m glad I did and I’m glad I started reading it, even though I was already reading three other books at the time.Vika and Nikolai are the only enchanters in Russia, and are competing to become the one Imperial Enchanter. This means one must die, but the repercussions of that rule are a big tangle, when the next in line for the crown falls for one of the players and doesn’t know the other is his longtime best friend.To call this a “romantic triangle book” isn’t enough at all. It’s about power, family, love, friendship, decisions. It has beautiful, fantastical magic, fully-formed people–not characters–who have commitments, longings, emotions, choices to make. You like them or you understand them or you at least get where they’re coming from, making it hard to decide who you want to win the Game–or succeed at whatever it is that particular character is trying to do. The story gets better and better the more pages you turn, and the very last page…let’s just say that I immediately bought the next book as soon as I finished it.

⭐ I’m very torn about this book. I vary between wanting to give it 3 or 4 stars. Ultimately I had to go with 3.Things I loved:*Imperial Russia*The impressive magic used during the book*Nikolai because of his overall story. I love his origin, once you get there. I love his casual friendship with Pasha. I love his conflicting emotions.*Cinderella Bakery.Things I did not love:*The “Love” triangle/s. It’s one thing to have a love triangle in a story and feel the connections as a reader, but I felt nothing. It was a stretch. And Renata should have been in the book more in some way. She was one of the more interesting, yet underdeveloped characters.*Vika. I tried to like her but there wasn’t a lot to really draw me in to her. I liked Sergei more than her and he’s hardly in the book.*The general lack of character development. I’ve read the book and I really don’t know much about the majority of characters.*The ending. I know things will work out in some form in the next book but just ugh. It’s frustrating and I’m kind of pissed.

⭐ I guess my biggest gripe about the story is the idea that to determine the best enchanter to protect Russia, they do mundane things like paint buildings and other festival like stuff (avoiding spoilers here). That aspect just felt way too ridiculous for the supposed goal. I was expecting to see more practical skills like doing damage on a large scale or enchanter ways to handle diplomacy or something actually related to the country’s defense. I could take one look at what each enchanter did during their training before the Game and make a split second choice as to who I’d pick to be at my side. That meant one character felt inadequate right off the bat and I was never convinced that person would make the better enchanter over the other. That’s the big reason why this isn’t five stars for me. It’s just too important a plot element to ignore completely.Ignoring that problem, I enjoyed the story, though I agree with other reviewers that there were a few too many love triangles going on with not enough interaction to warrant the love. But that is kind of typical where two characters feel instant attraction and mistake that for love. It’s annoying if you don’t like that trope. If you can get past it though, the eventual agonizing the characters go through because of their love and secrets being revealed will wrench your heart a bit. Though the ending was predictable, it happened in a sneaky way which I appreciated.I loved the premise which sucked me in even knowing that there would be sorrow. It’s a great story idea even if it didn’t always deliver for some people. I enjoyed the story and was cursing when I saw this is the only book by the author currently available. *grumbles* I will read other books by this author and hopefully her character development will improve. She certainly has great ideas and cool side characters. All they need is a bit of a nudge to give it that extra shine and polish.

⭐ This was one of my most anticipated books of the year, so it’s more than a little disappointing that I didn’t like this book more.The Crown’s Game follows multiple narrators, including Vika and Nikolai, the only two enchanters in all of Russia, Pasha, the crown prince, Yuliana, his sister, Galina and Sergei, Vika and Nikolai’s mentors, and Aizhana, a mysterious figure who seems to have risen from the dead. There is a competition between Vika and Nikolai- they must prove themselves and become the official enchanter of Russia. The catch, whoever fails dies.While I don’t dislike the idea of multiple narrators, it didn’t always work here. It took away from each character’s presence by shifting between them so frequently. Closer to the end this wasn’t as much of a problem, since all the stories intersected, but it made it harder for me to connect with the characters. My favorites were Vika, Nikolai, and Pasha. Particularly, I liked how Vika and Nikolai conformed to the opposite gender stereotypes (does that make sense?) similarly to how Emma and Julian do in Lady Midnight.As for the setting, which has been getting the most praise, I must agree it the most vivid part of the book. Imperial Russia has a particular taste and Evelyn Skye managed to capture it in this novel. As vivid as it was, I do wish she had spent even more time describing and exploring it.My biggest problem with the book lies in the magic system. There don’t seem to be any rules for how it works. There’s clearly a limit, since the book does eventually touch on the idea of using too much magic, but I wish it had been set up early on and that there were more defined rules to it. It felt sloppy for a long time, and when a cost was finally included, I just didn’t buy it as much.The ending was one of my favorite parts. I thought it was well done and a surprising twist to the whole thing. It certainly doesn’t end like many other books I’ve read. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in this duet (I think there are only two, but I could be wrong) even though I only gave it three stars. It is a debut and it really wasn’t that bad, so don’t let my star-count sway you completely.

⭐ I think Evelyn Skye has written a mystifying, exciting, knock-your-boots-off, and crazy-fantwesome debut novel! I loved every second of this book, and I need the sequel right now!The Crown’s Game has multiple character perspectives, which I enjoyed because it kept the plot moving at a fast pace. Vika, and Nikolai are the enchanters. They both use their magic in unique ways that it was hard to compare who had more power. Vika was much more attuned to nature, and Nikolai to metropolitan influences (clocks, buildings, etc.). Pasha is Nikolai’s best friend and also happens to be the crown prince of Russia. Pasha really cares for the people of Russia, but his father and Tsar, and his sister, Yuliana, think he’s too soft. There are several other interesting characters that I liked too- here’s a link to Evelyn Skye’s Characters Page ([…]) to learn more about her characters. I did wish that we had a couple more chapters from Yuliana’s perspective, only because I really liked her manipulative personality.I love the magic and the “Crown’s Game”. I don’t think I have ever seen this type of magic in any book that I have read, which is why I loved this book so much! The different moves that both Nikolai and Vika make during the Game are so inspiring and pretty much struck awe in everyone’s heart, including the reader’s.This book kept me on my toes, but there were some times that I did semi-predict what would happen in the plot. However, I am glad to say that I was surprised at how the book ended. (ALL THE FEELS PEOPLE…all the feels.)Evelyn has created an innovative world with magic, and it all takes place in Russia! With incredible enchanters, and an adorable prince, you don’t want to miss out on this book! So go get it! Seriously though, it’s one of the best books of 2016! (as you can tell with all of my exclamation points… :P)

⭐ The concept of a wizarding duel is what hooked me on the book. Well, that and the amazing cover. That said though, I felt like the book didn’t quite live up to the expectations set.The book started out slow. The first half was filled with introducing characters etc, and I nearly put it down. But with the promise built up for the book, and the fact that it’s traditionally published, I hung in there.I enjoyed the three main characters: Vika, Nikolai and Pasha. Vika and Nikolai are enchanters while Pasha is heir to the throne of Russia. The three end up in a love triangle, which I didn’t mind, but my problem is I don’t feel like I got t o know the characters well enough to cheer for any of them. Things happen, but I’m left feeling incomplete. I wanted more depth.As for the plot, this, too, disappointed. I was never clear why either character chose to do what he/she did each turn. Short of one-ups-man-ship, I found what they did creative, but lacking context other than, do the next move bigger.Then there was the ending. I was hoping neither protagonist had to really die, that their magic would save the day somehow. I was disappointed.This is the debut of YA author Evelyn Skye so I will give her that, yet with it being traditionally published, I’d hope for more.

⭐ The Crown’s Game takes place in an alternate 19th Century Russia. I immediately fell in love with this book for that specific reason. It gave me Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo feels. I’ve become accustomed to falling head first into the wonderful and beautifully descriptive writing of Russia’s landscape. And Evelyn Skye did not disappoint.Vika and Nikolai are enchanters. Both wield powerful magic and can manipulate things very differently. While Vika’s magic is tied to manipulating natural elements like water, wind, fire, and air, Nikolai can manipulate objects and bring them to life. There’s only supposed to be one enchanter, and he/she is supposed to protect the Tsar and Tsarina, Russia’s King and Queen and the rest of the empire. However, every few generations, the well of magic splits into two, creating two enchanters. When this happens, they must participate in an ancient event called The Crown’s Game. Each competitor gets 5 moves each to showcase their powers. They can be aggressive moves, or less harmful moves. At the end of the game, the Tsar must choose, and when he does, the loser immediately dies. It is in that moment, the remaining enchanter will have the full well of power.Vika and Nikolai were destined to be doomed lovers. This kind of “star-crossed” love never gets old. Vika is a natural spitfire, both in beauty and her personality. She is intelligent and is a fierce fighter. While Nikolai is more reserved and more observant. Their magic and personalities compliment each other. I fell in love with the grand creations they made with their magic. It drew me in like a moth to a flame, and I was deeply captivated by the descriptive writing of each creation.Plot wise, there were some curveballs, especially the one at the end. I do admit that I did feel like the plot could have been turned up a few notches. I never got the proper duel between the two enchanters, like I was hoping for. Nonetheless, it was the character development of Vika and Nikolai that kept me reading.We also get introduced to Pasha, the heir to the throne. He becomes smitten over Vika from the moment he laid eyes on her. He’s also Nikolai’s best friend. You can imagine, the love triangle drama that ensues from this trio. Pasha is also ignorant of enchanters and the ancient game both Vika and Nikolai are playing. However, he isn’t dumb. He knows something is going on and he eventually finds out everything. Which of course, this winds up having dire consequences. I’ll just say this. The blow up is real. And it had me at the edge of my seat about to combust like one of our main characters if they were to lose the crown’s game.The Crown’s Game is said to be a cross between the Night Circus and the Grisha Trilogy, as I mentioned the latter above. The books strong point is the apparent research that went into creating this 1825 alternate version of Russia. A reader can easily lose themselves in the Russian culture and all that it has to offer. I recommend anyone to pick this up and give it a shot.

Keywords

Free Download The Crown’s Game in Epub format
The Crown’s Game Epub Free Download
Download The Crown’s Game 2016 Epub Free
The Crown’s Game 2016 Epub Free Download
Download The Crown’s Game Epub
Free Download Ebook The Crown’s Game