Book Review: The Reluctant King by Rachel Higginson

Published: December 6th, 2012
Publisher: self-published
Read from March 4th to 14th, 2013
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Avalon St. Andrews has endured Hell and war in an attempt to secure freedom and immortality for his people. Raised and conditioned to be both warrior and leader, he now sits on a throne with his sister Eden, governing the Kingdom in peace. While his people enjoy the benefits of his struggle and loss, he is restless, bored and alone.
Avalon is summoned to fight to save his people once more as the Kingdom is threatened by a brand new evil. In addition to reigning in a kingship he doesn’t want, he is fighting against the very people he has fought so hard to protect. They are determined to throw away their newfound freedom and their newfound leaders.
In this war and in this kingship he feels alone. And for the first time he feels hollow. That is until Amelia Cartier shows up, invading his every thought and shaking up his carefully controlled world.
Now he faces yet another battle—making Amelia his queen.

Review:

I've gone on and on before about how in love I am with the Star-Crossed series.  This is the fifth book in that series, and the main character is now Avalon (the twin brother of Eden, the main character of the first four books).  This was still definitely a Star-Crossed book, but having Avalon as a main character made it a bit different as well.  I absolutely loved it.

I'm not going to lie, I kind of missed having Eden as a main character because I absolutely love her, but I also love Avalon and loved having him more focused on as well.  I had never thought about Avalon and Amelia becoming a couple in the first four books, but I was surprised at how well that works.  They were amazing together.  I love how the romance in this book is so much different than the romance in the first four books, but it's just as amazing.

The conflict in this book also seemed more intense to me than the conflict with Lucan in the first four books.  I think it has something to do with the main characters being the people being attacked as opposed to the people attacking.  It just feels like they're in more danger.

It was amazing to hear more about all of the characters that I fell in love with in earlier books, and also get a different perspective on that world from Avalon.  The book was absolutely amazing, and I cannot wait for more.