Theft of Swords by Micheal J. Sullivan

THEY KILLED THE KING. THEY PINNED IT ON TWO MEN. THEY CHOSE POORLY.

There's no ancient evil to defeat or orphan destined for greatness, just unlikely heroes and classic adventure. Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, are two enterprising rogues who end up running for their lives when they're framed for the murder of the king. Trapped in a conspiracy that goes beyond the overthrow of a tiny kingdom, their only hope is unraveling an ancient mystery before it's too late. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

5 STARS 

The two books in this tome are AMAZEBALLS!





Book 1 - The Crown of Conspiracy

I fell in love with Hadrian Blackwater and Royce Melborn right off the bat. They are moseying along to get to their destination and they are over taken by a few bandits of sorts. And Hadrian and Royce have this conversation with themselves and with the bandits. Said bandits are a little confused at the relaxed manner of the Riyria men. But . . . once they find out who Hadrian and Royce are, they are beside themselves trying to get things cleared out for them to pass on their way with no trouble.

Oh, to have written that whole part of the book in my review of this first book. ☺

So this jerk sets up Hadrian and Royce into stealing a sword from the king. They said it was all easy since said jerk had already moved the sword to a hidden place. I mean come on, who would fall for that AND they didn't want to do something short notice. They like to plan for a bit, but they did it anyway and all hell breaks loose!

Anyhoo, so they scale the castle, get in and look for the sword and lo and behold, the king has been stabbed and the men are trapped and then of course framed.

Note: There is a little b•stard of a dwarf that needs to get his!

Moving on, so Royce and Hadrian are in the dungeons to be tortured and killed. fjsdgadoghadoigaoihgaiodfdioshgaiga <--- that was me cussing!

But the sweet princess, Arista saves them, sets them free and tells them they have to kidnap her brother, Alric, who put them in the dungeons to be killed to begin with. It's all cray but I love it.

So they drag Alric off and finally tell him all that is going on. Of course Alric is very angry thinking someone killed his father and wants to kill him and is worried for his sister. But Alric's sister wanted him to go to a secret prison and see a wizard there named Esrahaddon. But lets backtrack for a minute.

Along the way they stop at an abbey but they find out it has been burned to the ground and the monk, Myron is there all alone trying to rebuild the library by re-writing all of the books.

I fell right in love with Myron. He is sweet and funny and omg he has never left the abbey since he was four-years-old. He had never pet or ridden a horse, never seen a woman, never seen anything. Period. They talked Myron into going with them and the new king, Alric said he would give him a job. Poor Myron didn't want to go, he was scared but they finally talked him into it. And he was amazed at the world outside. It was so sweet.

Now back to the prison. Royce finally figures out how to get into the hidden prison, they meet Esrahaddon who is 900 ish years old. Against their better judgement they set him free. And now I wonder what he is going to end up doing to the world when we get back around to him.



After all of this, the gang head over to see Count Pickering and tell him what all happened. The count says he will side with the new king, Alric and starts gathering his forces. But they get word that Alric's sister is going to be put to death for treason and is being called a witch. I mean she did learn some stuff from Esrahaddon but so far she's a good person and it's the evil uncle that wants them all dead so he can rule. Jerk!

Count Pickering's peeps aren't all going to get there in time so Alric sends Royce and Hadrian ahead to save Arista (which they do) ha, it's so awesome and funny.

Let's just say some peeps are beheaded and things are set right (for now)

Oh and they leave a little message on the wall of a jerk that was going to side with the evil uncle.



Book 2 - Avempartha

Holy sh•t balls! I loved this freaking book!

Okay, so it's like a couple of years later . . . if I read that right.

Hadrian and Royce are out to seek revenge on the man that almost got them killed, but circumstances changed that and they end up following a girl (Thrace) back to her home in Dahlgren. She's afraid for her father because a creature - that turns out to be a Gilarabrywn - is killing everyone in their little town. Some of Thrace's other family members have been killed and she can't get her father to leave.

In this book we only have Alric in the beginning of the book when he makes Arista the Ambassador of Melengar. She has to go and deal with some jerks. And the old Bishop Saldur who is a snake and was for their uncle in the first story, is still in the second book being a jerk. Oh, I hope someday he gets his!

And, Magnus the dwarf that I thought very badly of in the first book, he made up for it in this second book. I fell in love with him. And I love the banter between him and Royce!

We find out some revelations about Royce! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! I knew it too! I'm not saying a word, just yeah, I'm looking forward to some cool things going on in the next books. And we find out a few more things about Hadrian. OMG, I love them both! I can't help it.

The wizard, Esrahaddon, who now goes by, Esra Haddon, is in the same little town. I actually like him a lot, unless he does something bad in the next books. I never did mention that he had his hands cut off a billion hundred years ago! He's still got some mojo though. And don't you love the play on his name :-D

At one point, Arista ends up at this little town too. They are all up in a castle above it and are having some games on who can defeat the Gilarabrywn. And of course there is some dumb set up with the evil peeps.

Oh and some of the Pickering boys are back and I just love them. Mauvin is my favorite. I keep hoping something will happen with him and Arista but she just sees him as a brother.

Royce, Esra, Hadrian and even ole Magnus are trying to get into the tower to get this sword because it's the only way to kill the Gilarabrywn. Well, all kinds of things go right and wrong there.

Some people die that I wish didn't die. I cried during some parts, for sadness and for the awesomeness.

And me thinks there be elves in those woods . . .

I love this book, Theft of Swords! I love the characters, even the evil ones are written perfectly. I love the world, I love every little thing!!!!! Accept I want Millie to come back, for those of you that know who Millie is. . .

I look forward to continuing on in this world. ♥



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GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1759192851

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

https://www.amazon.com/Theft-Swords-Vol-Riyria-Revelations/dp/0316187747/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474743852&sr=1-1&keywords=theft+of+swords