This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is here.
Happy release day to the first volume in the Maggie the Undying trilogy!
Here are some of the retailer links for your convenience. This Kingdom is available in ebook, audiobook and hardback formats. The UK release will be on the 2nd of April.
A Letter from House Andrews
Dear BDH,
This Kingdom is finally here.
You know we don’t do feelings, because we are professionals and all that, but this release is unlike any other we’ve had. So much time has passed between the first clumsy idea of Maggie and today, filled with work, pressure, and sheer effort.
It doesn’t seem real.
Any time you do something different as a writer, you take a risk. And this one is different. It’s an entirely new world, completely unlike our own reality. We filled it with fantastic creatures, strange magic, and archetypes: the Golden Knight, the Noble Assassin, the Fire Mage, the Mad King. The side characters are heroes of their own stories. We wanted to condense the essence of what makes fantasy books… well, fantasy.
We hope you’ll enjoy a plunge into the world of Rellas. It is our sincerest hope that it reminds you of why you love fantastic worlds and the strange people who inhabit them.
And now House Andrews has made us all emotional compromised… release day without treats? Not on my watch.
The unbelievably talented Helena Elias has another character reveal for us.
You’ve probably met him already in the Garden of Soft Blossoms…
Now that the book is out in the world, this is the place to talk about his secrets and everything else in Kair Toren. Reactions, theories, favorite moments, things you need to scream about, whether you’ve just started reading or already devoured the book – we’re here for all of it.
I’ll also be collecting your questions for House Andrews, who will answer them on the blog or in the Zoom release Q&A we’re planning in April.
This is your official This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me discussion thread.
Attention!
There are spoilers in the comments below.
There is one specific plot twist in Chapter 23 we’re asking you not to discuss just yet until everyone catches up. Thank you for your cooperation.
New Here?
If you’ve just discovered Ilona Andrews through this release and you want more, welcome! You’re surrounded by people who understand exactly how you feel.
There’s a Start Here button now on the homepage just for you.
Reading guides, series breakdowns, freebies, quizzes, and so many wonderful adventures await you.
See you in the comments.
Happy Book Birthday!!
Happiest of book birthdays!!
Thank you House Andrews for giving us another incredible world to enjoy.
Maggie is delightful beyond words and I may have read it 5 times in the past 5 months. It’s that good.
Happy book birthday! Started reading last night!🎉🍾💕😀
I stayed up too late reading once it showed up on my kindle at midnight! Now work is getting in the way of continuing my adventure ☹️. Wish I’d taken today off!
I made it easy, I got myself laid off today so I can go read without any work issues. Woot!
Good job finding the silver lining!! Good luck with your job search … once you finish reading. 🙂
Just saw this – good luck to you and wish you both happy reading and productive job-hunting!
I had shoulder surgery to make sure I had time to read. may we both recover soon!
Heyyyyy, I just lost my job too. Silver linings 🥲
Blessings for job and surgery recovery for all in need. (I’m sure you have all finished your first reads.)
Happy Book Birthday to Ilona and Gordon! I have already started on the book, and it is gripping from the very first page!
Did I see a version of Scarlet Star during the mage battle??
+1
Happy Birthday Maggie!! We are so glad you are with us!! One of us!
Congratulations to House Andrews! You guys continue to amaze. Thank you so much for everything you do.
back to devouring….
+1
Books 2&3 can’t come too soon!
💯
I love it so much but a cliffhanger?? I count on House Andrews to not have cliff hangers, the pattern is finish the books story but not the series arc. Then we the BDH are totally 100% chalant until the next book.😂 A true cliffhanger should be a crime. Alas, I may never trust again 😭 😭
In all seriousness, how is it so good? 1000/10, magnificent ❤️❤️
+1!
❤️
I am with you, cliffhangers are trust breakers.
Double plus 1, and yes that ending is true cliff hanger ROFL and I will never trust my authors to not get jiggy with ending again…suspense yes, cliff hanger usually not..
Yes, the cliffhanger is a big bummer BUT now, if Maggie killed Silveren, yet we see him alive on the cliffhanger….we now have 2 undying characters….right? That will brings a bucketload of questions.
I wonder if Silveren was the author in Maggie’s world and has been able to go back and forth himself?
oh that is a thought …
that was my thought!
Me too!!! He shows up too coincidentally!
My thought as well- you know the author is going to be someone!
I thought the same thing!!
I am glad others have twisted minds, because that’s where my mind wandered…
The last chapters made me question it though.
I am upset about the cliffhanger. I like a book ending with an OK, for now. Not – Gee, you now have to wait until we write the next installment, have it go through the editorial and publishing process, and then perhaps wait on yet another cliffhanger.
I can only reread it so many times. Hee.
yes, the fact that he can’t die is an indicator that he is LaTour. But I don’t think he can go back, that’s why there’s been no Book 3.
agreed, I’ve been thinking this for a while especially wasn’t it him who said that things don’t happen the way they’re supposed to when she’s around and he asked where she was really from.
This is a great point. I was thinking this was another reader at first, but the fact that he was an actual character from the book threw that theory out. I like the theory that it’s the author to a point, at the same time all that pain that Silveren felt from his mother and fathers death was so raw…. Not sure!
Has someone confirmed that as a fact? That th author is a character in the book?
Ok, yes, but: Silveren was pulling Hreban’s strings, to get him to do the dirty work so Silveren could have his revenge and Maggie keeps interfering with that.
I think he tried to use the “voice” on her when they met in the garden the very first time and she is immune. I think that is why he’s so intrigued by her.
That does seem likely but I thought he (Silveren) was surprised (so maybe not many people resist or he hadn’t tried it around Maggie before) when Lute broke out of the trance when Maggie called him- so did Maggie’s “sharp” voice break the spell, is the spell generally sensitive to interference or does Lute himself have partial resistance? Hmm, this became a long sentence, sorry 🙂
I thought this from their first meeting in the Garden…!
I was wondering if the author was going to show up. If Rellas is a real place, then how did the author know enough about it? But on the other hand, the author gets into everyone’s head, so hmmm….
Yes! Well reasoned!
I’ve been waiting for Adrian Latour to show up somewhere…
I didn’t really take it as a “cliffhanger” since we know Maggie will survive and we already know Silveren has an agenda. I saw it as a tasty plot tidbit to give me something else to think about while we wait. Also, if he came back in book 2, I don’t think it would have the same impact as it does here.
+1
+1
I was trying to make Maggie last more than a single day. I just finished the book. The scream that I let out disturbed my husband. 🤣
+1
I was thinking that he might be the author. But then Maggie isn’t a character in the book, she’s herself.
Even if he’s undying it doesn’t entirely make sense for the author to be Mirabor. Unless he’s parading himself as Mirabor to keep the timeline flowing?
Also any theories on how Maggie came to be in Kair Toren?
He could be the author, and the first 2 books were his playbook. Third book never released because Maggie disrupted the plot?
I’m rereading, now, to catch all the hints for the plot twists! So good!
Yes this is exactly what I was wondering!
I never thought of this. Very thought provoking!
I concur. It’s a hook, since the main quest of the first book is resolved.
A cliffie is when it’s not resolved at all and you’re left hanging high and dry.
This said, I might have yelled a loud NOOOOOOOOOOOOO when I arrived at the end.
Everard is going to lose his mind and go full on scorched earth when he finds out she was kidnapped. Bellen/Arvel might even team up with him to get her back safely.
As for LaTour, I keep thinking that he is the person who got Silveren out of the burned house’s rubble. Who would be there looking for him DAYS later? Only someone who knew he’d be there. That person could have easily taught Silveren what was going to happen and then shaped his grief into the burn down the kingdom revenge madness. I think LaTour originated in Rellas (where he was in love with Silveren’s mother), woke up in Maggie’s world, wrote the books (to get $$ to live), and then was returned to Rellas.
Just a few ideas.
Last, but not least, does anyone else feel like there should be a character list and a glossary? My first experience was with the audiobook, and there are so many similar “S” names, I had to write them down to keep track of who was who! Perhaps it’s just my AuDHD brain.
My love for the book was not impacted in any way, though!
I also struggled to keep the characters straight. I kept consulting the blog.
I had the exact same experience with the audio book. I couldn’t keep track of who was who with the S names. It made some of the reveals less impactful. plan is to relisten when book 2 comes out.
It was more of a dursan-hanger…
I second the idea that Silveren is somehow connected to the author. That was my first theory about the Man from the Garden before he was identified.
If he is connected to the author, does he recognize the hair ornament?
I loved the book. The humor was great. Both potential love interests were jaw dropping. The stelka and the fish made me laugh.
But that cliffhanger ending was so “scream inducing”. I turned the last page and went oh no, it ended there. NOOOOOOOOO…..
Happy book birthday! Devoured it as usual (the cliffhanger ending!!!) and rereading it now. The intrigue is so spicyyy
The w*it begins for the sequel
I love the Selka too. More to read.
+1
I did not want to rush-read it. Knowing we would have to w*it for the next book.
I told myself to take the time to read it slowly and nourish it. Silly me.
I’ll be starting the second read tonight. Give my heart a chance to play catch up
How amazing is jt though? And how the heck is he not dead??? How?
PS love the Selka
ch 25. hafia blooms. “They’re medicinal in nature. They help to stem the blood flow from open wounds.”
This is what I thought, they have things to stop the bleeding and they have healers. The bonus scene with Sol putting a dagger into the guy’s liver and it said if he found a healer quickly enough he would live.
Chekhov’s hafia blooms, you know they’re mentioned for a reason;P
I said the same thing at the end! NOOOOOOO…
+1!!!!!
Yes! Scream inducing, is a polite way to put it.
Definitely screaming induced
+100 that wasn’t a cliffleaner, that was a big cliffhanger and I did scream. So sequel sequel sequel!
I LOVED this book, I love all your books, and I read obsessively until I finished it. You guys are incredible writers. I was lost is this world and its characters in the best way. You have a knack for making everything feel so real and so layered. Just brilliant… thank you for continuing to work so hard to bring us such joy!!
Maggie was amazing!! I screeched so many times while reading it. Congratulations to our authorlords on a successful release! I am definitely looking forward to the next book! <3
Is the Man from the Garden the author of the Book? Or did he also drop into the book and know the plot? Decided to become the kingmaker? The first meeting in the Garden was very interesting…
Also, great job House Andrews on the plot twist on who the main love interest is, I almost fell out of my chair when it happened!
I called that ship so early I was so excited when it set sail!!!!
You were right!
That was a great early scene when she met him in the Garden!
Same! My friend and i were reading together and she was ahead and said about a plot twist halfway in she didn’t see coming (I was only couple chapters in) but I messaged her and said “is the plot twist that it’s Sleepless Duke?” And she said “do you want me to spoil it?” I said “nope, I just want paper trail”
😂😂😂 Love this!
I also had that thought. I think he might have been the man chasing her into the Garden. I’m also wondering if Maggie is the only undying person??
I do wonder who was chasing her and why! Very spooky.
Too many hot guys to count in the entire book!
My thoughts exactly about Maggie not being the only undying character.
And do you think the author never had a chance to write book 3, because he’s right there with Maggie in Kair Toren? If so, have we met him yet?
Same! Latour was sucked into the multiverse
I think the guy chasing her to the garden is a possibility for the author too. I’m curious about Maggie’s magic and the undying thing. Is it a new power/family type in the world? Or was the author of the same family?
I don’t think so – the identity of the man in the garden is revealed. But I think the author (LaTour) is in Rellas too, or maybe in the Crimson kingdom – that is why there was never a third book in Maggie’s home world.
Agree, is the author a side character we’ve seen, or one yet to see?
are we living through book three right now as it might be an other POV book but from a completely diff character. this was so good.
Yes, maybe the Crimson Kingdom kidnapped the author, and that is why he can’t finish! Poor author, captivated by his narrative.
Seriously, I could see the third novel needing to expand into the enemy kingdom and him getting stuck doing research. Ha!
I though man from Garden was Silversten the son ?? of a noble house or even King’s house who watch Mother be executed… and he controls the dragons with his beautiful siren like voice…
That plot twist! I literally jumped out of my chair and did a fist pump! Now I have to reread the book and see what other clues I missed 🙂
I was thinking these exact same things!
It was so funny because I just wasn’t feeling it (their relationship) when it was supposed to be what’s-his-name, and then once we realized it was the Sleepless Duke and he stopped trying to be someone else… that’s when I felt their relationship actually clicked!
+100
They definitely foreshadowed Maggie’s attraction to the real man. They even had a name for it: “The demon from the basement.” His ruthless, scheming, deadly side is written as a turn-on for her, before she actually understands what it means.
It’s why they are well matched. They both have those sides to their character, albeit his is a bit more obvious at the start. Its that balance of compassion, courage, heroism with those darker traits that make them well suited.
Is this going to be 2 or 3 books? I read elsewhere 3 but I swear the blog said 2.
Second sentence of the post, emphasis mine 🙂:
“Happy release day to the first volume in the Maggie the Undying trilogy!”
THANKS!
First, happy release day, and congratulations to HA. I truly hope your effort and talent is rewarded with the best reception and sales for this book/trilogy.
Second, I’m piggy-packing on Rosemarie’s question above to ask a related question for the Q&A session.
I remember that, when HA first announced this project, they said they had originally envisioned Maggie’s story mainly as a duology. And shortly after signing a 3-book contract with Tor, they weren’t yet sure if they’d expand Maggie’s story to a trilogy or leave it as a duology + spin-off.
So all these years later, I’d very much want to know how HA have evolved the initial plot to fit it to a trilogy. Did book 3 of the trilogy result from altering or expanding or shifting the events originally envisioned for book 2 of the duology, or is it a continuation beyond the originally planned endpoint of the duology?
And an alternate question: The pivotal moment when Maggie presumably decides whether she wants to stay in Rellas or return to our world will happen in book 2 or in book 3 of the trilogy?
Also, will Maggie use her modern-day knowledge to make other things in the future (like the soap)?
Thank you. Looking forward to the Q&A session.
Will it be a trilogy? After that cliffhanger ending, maybe they are planning on only writing two of the books, and then just nothing…
just like the story itself!!!!
also with the easy it ends, there could even be a redemption arch added in. I mean that achieved it with Hugh, so….
I am worried like Adrian, there will be only 2 books! (But a complete story). I know they wouldn’t do this to us but foreshadowing!
Flew all day and read the book on the long flight to Asia. Loved it!
I’m going to be on pins and needles over these books
A trilogy!! Please don’t be messing with us, because Maggie’s Latour book series supposed to be a trilogy, but only 2 books were published – just sayin’
I loved it can’t w*it for the next one, I’m going to re-read now….
I’d like to get a special edition, are the US ones out?
You can look at the announced special editions here https://ilona-andrews.com/maggie-the-undying-2/#special 🙂
Just a trilogy? Because I am sure I could read 10 of these.
It was supposed to b 2 books. Now it’s a trilogy. But HA has a significant chance of finding more to write about in this world, so by the time they finish the 3rd book, it seems likely there will b more. I like our chances!
Do we know if they were able to finish the initial draft of Maggie2?
It wasn’t supposed to be 2 books – this is a pervasive Facts Be Damned rumour heh. What House Andrews said from the beginning when the manuscript for book 1 first sold was:
“We have sold 3 books to Tor. We don’t know yet if it will be 3 Maggies or 2 Maggies and something else.”
That “yet” [bold, underscore] is because a long period of edits with the publisher editorial team was starting and the drafts for the sequels work had not yet begun.
But at no point did they hard specify a duology and now breaking that limit 🙂
We need to convince them to start a couple of short stories in the world, then we’ll get more novels
Sounds like a solid plan to me! One problem: the only possible answer to any question of which character would the BDH like to see featured in a ‘short story’ is: ALL OF THEM! We want more about anything at all from this new world. Everything!
Omg, I was literally thinking just that, that maybe one day ten years from now, long after the original trilogy is finished, they’ll decide to write a quick short story set in Rellas and we’ll get a new trilogy 😀😀
asking the
This is what happens when you wake up in a new time zone. Congrats on the book. It’s absolutely fantastic and I can’t wait for the event in St. Paul!
I never read books in one go. And now I’m on a second read!
Happy book birthday and welcome Maggie!
Truly the BDH is so loved!!!
I too stayed up for the midnight drop. I’ve never been more glad to be on Spring Break.
(blearily going back for a second read)
Same – hahahah.
We broke kindle, again!
Last night midnight came and went on the east coast, no Maggie, I w*itied with a bit of chalant.
Central time flew past the same way, chalant went with it, checked my preorder, was informed there was a problem with my down load or purchase!
Hit repurchase, was informed I had already purchased, (of course I had!) and download was pending, and pending…
I have it now, food at the ready, clear path to the bathroom-no tripping hazards.
Will surface around 4pm to go see HA.
Had the same problem, finally got it between 3-4am. What with life, I’ve just finished my first read. So, so good!! And watching me read it has convinced my husband that he should read it! The winning point was that Maggie is set in an entirely new world. (Happycatdance) I can’t wait to discuss it with him!
Happy Book Birthday!! I was hoping to spend the day in Rellas but life has intervened, as usual. 😄
Looking forward to celebrating 2 more, hopefully not tooo far in the future! 😉
Happy book birthday!!
I’m so glad I ordered it in hardback as it arrived yesterday & I could start reading it early, I devoured it as that’s what we do here &
It was amazing, just like all your books are!! I’m just about to start my 2nd read through & I’m eagerly awaiting for the audiobook to release on Thursday.
Omg I have been WAITING for this thread! I received the book early from Waterstones and have had no one to discuss it with. Spoilers incoming.
I wonder what path the romance is going to take with Arvel. Seems like she’s already pretty established with the main romance and so I doubt Arvel will have the slightest chance.
Do we think Silveren is redeemable? I do feel for him, his father and mother were both murdered unjustly and I understand why he holds a grudge. He’s just taking it too far with wanting everyone to burn for it and not just those who caused him pain.
It’s also a bit of a shitshow in terms of who can take the throne. There are no decent candidates from what I can see, unless the second son is putting on an act just for survival.
I cannot waitttt for Maggie to grow into her power. We need a mage training her, preferably Isadau (I think that’s how the name was spelled). Can’t wait to see her flying around on a drezmur as well! So much potential for growth.
I found the Duke YUM from the very first scene when he rode in on Villain. Like, what kind of name is that for a horse? I love it. I love that we know he actually likes her but she’s not convinced.
I want extremeeeeee yearning in book 2 (which will happen cause of lack of proximity but I wonder if it can happen when they’re around each other considering the romance seems pretty established now).
Absolutely loved the book, always love anything IA and can’t wait to see some thoughts from everyone else!
P.S. I didn’t see any of the plot twists coming, call me a dumb diddy!
Umm, I don’t think there is the slightest possibility of a relationship with Arvel? Maggie has zero interest in him. I thought him funny and endearing when we thought he was Bellen but turns out he’s just a bellend 😒😅
Yeah no chance there.
And loooool absolutely such a bellend. It put me off when he came to the office when she was being interrogated and kept bellowing. I can’t stand a man who shouts.
I’ve not read a proper love triangle in ages and I usually hate them but I guess a tinyyyy triangle is what I was hoping for. I know it’s not a trope IA loves though so makes sense.
Yeah, I don’t see him having a chance. I do wonder though if Maggie’s suspicions about the motivations of another character aren’t actually more accurately attributed to Arvel’s motivations. *If* he is sincere in his expressed motivations, then I will just have to hope he can find his own Maggie in time, because I don’t see him winning this fight.
It may be Arland all over again.
Agreed! He’s everything she thinks the **** is. I wonder how her relationship is going to pan out with him (the MC) in the next book.
Also enjoyed how the romance wasn’t a massive part of the book and the rest of the plot was more important.
Or Roman/Andrea/Raphael…though they shut that down a LOT faster.
I’m pretty certain Arvel set up the interrogation by the City Watch so he could have a reason to “rescue”/kidnap her. I’m surprised she didn’t call him on it.
Looking forward to starting the reread knowing he was playing the bodyguard the first time they met.
No chance for Arvel. Does anybody else think that Sol by bringing her into the family played a bit into the Dukes hands? Seemed to me that their talk alluded to this making her respectable enough to pursue. Sol seemed a bit peeved even though he got what he wanted
YESS that’s what I was thinking too!! I was like… this is going right over Maggie’s head, but it sounds like he intends to lock this down?? 🤭😂 love a man that knows what he wants lol
Same here! Also gives her more even footing which she is sorely missing given the unbalance of the world! Also I love that we’ve made Sol into a clear platonic friend, he is fascinating but a different ship has sailed for me. (lets be real, I believe in all ships). Also Sol was so focused on his family he missed where this could play into the Duke’s plans too.
Any one else think perhaps Duke was applying pressure to help make it easier for her to justify Sol’s plan too? Like he knows at that point that she is interested but something big is holding her back. He was too pushy in that scene when he has been so respectful of small boundaries everywhere else.
That was a great scene. It seemed very clear to me what the conversational subtext was
💯
lol agree with the closing comment 😂
Okay first of all I shipped the Duke SO HARD when we got the pre-release because I thought how cool would be be for Mr Mcbroody pants who secretly has a heart of gold to be the main squeeze and *eeee* my ship sailed!
So I’m team Green all the way. Arvel is way too pushy. He sees Maggie as this woman who can understand his position and isn’t cowed by him or his rank and it drives him nuts. I don’t think he actually cares about her.
Silveren might be redeemable but I’m not sure they’re going to take it that way or not. He still doesn’t know Maggie’s true power yet and honestly the next two books are going to be quite interesting since she’s thrown the timeline of events completely off.
I don’t know about the succession or anything yet. I think Sauven is good where he’s at for now. One of the sons may yet prove their worth or may marry someone capable who knows?
I want a more detailed map of the larger realm on the next one. We got a great one of the city but with potentially moving further afield and all the duchies and areas they mentioned I’d like to know more.
I wonder if Silveren will even get a chance to get away with Maggie or is you know who on a drezmur will ride after them? Eeee I can’t wait! I’m so glad they’re already working on book 2!!!
Good call on the maps! Give me maps and maps and maps I can explore while waiting for book 2…
+100 on more maps!
Maggie just needs to jump off once Clover is safe. Since her superpower is not dying. She has already been tortured to death once, don’t want to see that again.
Tactically true, unless he suspects she can return to life like he did.
I think Everard will become king, cause he’s a good leader 🙂 and I think we’re going to find out that Solentine is Everard’s bestie. AND totally think Maggie will somehow get closure for her family in the non-book world. HA isn’t mean enough to leave her hanging indefinitely. Also I LOVE the selka and Maggie’s patience with the fish fairy.
Agree! I do hope her non-book world family is okay. And the selka is so friggin cute. I really enjoyed the fish fairy! Gotta have some small levels of chaos from the small critter in your household~!
I wonder if she is gone-gone from her world or just in a coma.
I’m thinking maybe no time passes at all in her world?
That was my original thought too, unless her family is in on the whole “Rellas” thing…
I’m leaning towards that, because the happiest of endings is for her family to join her in Rellas. It is obvious to me that Maggie belong Rellas, not Earth. Outside of her immediate family she doesn’t have anything keeping her their. In Rellas not only does she have many friends and (found) family members, but the Kingdom itself needs her. It would also be hard to return to after all the trauma she’d endured which no one in that world could understand. My theory is she is Silveren’s sister, sent to the other world as a baby with retainers of the family who raised her. The undying gift and the universal translator may be powers from their maternal line.
Oh, I love this theory! It would resolve everything!
I actually think the stelka might be Adrian LaTour. What a twist to make him female and an animal. That stelka sure does stick close to Maggie?
This is a very compelling idea. Why did the stelka show up everywhere Maggie went initially? The authors have even given us character descriptions from Sushi’s point of view too. Definitely food for thought.
Stelkas are attracted to magic and Maggie has a lot of that- other magical beasties are attracted to her too:)
I propose a full family meet-up at Dina’s Inn. Sleepless Duke/Arland/Sean/Maggie’s brother fight it out until Maude kicks all their butts.
Not the king’s second son? I figured the mildly incompetent womanizer/drinker would be even more of a protective role than the book implied (and it already said it was a bit) to keep the king from seeing him as a threat to the awful first-born, and he’ll end up being really competent and at least reasonably non-tyrannical. Then they can put him on the throne and Everhardt and Maggie can go to Silvas, and maybe fix all the problems in the neighboring empire. 😆. Unless Silveren does turn out to be redeemable.
Fish fairy! Great one! 🤣🤣🤣
I see Arvel becoming a sort-of villain. He’s the guy who doesn’t care about his live interest’s boundaries, which is so scary.
100%! And he dumped her into the deep end of politics without truly verifying she could make the leap.
Yep, that was shitty and inconsiderate, but Arvel is the golden boy of the kingdom. He believes he can do anything, including protecting Maggie from any and all consequence of her taking center stage. The man has never failed, and the idea he could is inconceivable. In his mind this is a big romantic Cinderella moment. What woman wouldn’t want to be the belle of the ball, the envy of all? It’s definitely emphasizing he doesn’t understand her, but its not maliciously intended.
I doubt he’ll be a villain. He’s Arland with Dina. He met an impressive, kind, and mysterious woman, and become infatuated with the idea of her. His position is isolated by virtue of his status and he’s lonely. Is he arrogant? Yes. Is he being particularly considerate of her wishes? No. As far as boundaries goes, he’s definitely pushing the envelope using social rules to hard sell, but he hasn’t actually refused to release her, stormed her residence, or refused to leave when asked. The main love interest is the one who pushes himself into her carriage kisses her, and then tries to put her on house arrest. I predict Arland will get into a pissing contest with the main love interest, before getting his ass humbled by Isadau who will blow him away. He’ll remain an ally to Maggie, and eventually a grudging respect and friendship with his former rival.
I totally had Arland’s GA voice in my head when I read it!
I also had total images of Arland.
I like this idea of Isaiah and Arvel.
Now I wonder if we will hear more about Tillmar and the Redeemers
I mean blonde chivalrous golden boy knight sought after by many looking for a woman outside his default dating pool, courting a an impressive, kind mysterious woman more into another guy. He suddenly meets pretty powerful red-head who was rescued by and is loyal to the woman he was originally courting and has a loser man in her past that has hurt her and left her with trust issues.
Inhan and Galiene I’m less sure is an an endgame situation, but I am very interested in finding out about their dynamic. Also I think there is a line about Galiene ruling over the Garden like a queen, and I wasn’t sure if that was some foreshadowing…
*Gasp* I remember that line! Now I can’t wait to meet the second son!
Oh, oh, any chance the beautiful musician from that first night in the garden might be Inhan? He could be pretending to be a wastrel spending all his time in the garden while in reality he’s practicing his talents.
Oooo, good catch! Queen Galiene does have a nice ring to it. And while she accepted Inhan mainly to protect her daughter and herself, one certainly hopes she will come to b genuinely fond of him. The current King and Crown Prince r pretty terrible for the kingdom. Inhan is the only reasonable option that we know of, without jumping to a different family.
Ofc Arvel thinks he’s first in line, but I’d argue that the Sleepless Duke is the most powerful. Although it is unclear if Ramond would even remotely want to take on more crap to deal with. And I do doubt Maggie wants to b Queen.
I like this theory.
Also does Arvel’s family seat have a port? Olyemda or whatever her name is needs a convenient husband/port combo.
I was thinking that maybe our cunning Duke can make other arrangements, like a trade deal with the Gorynians before the port is destroyed, so he won’t have to marry her, but sure, I won’t stand in the way of any princess’ s romance ^^
Yes, I’d like a bigger picture of the continent. The city may was good, but there’s more territory to cover.
As far as Silveren I think he is tragic, but I don’t think he can be saved. I do wonder about his miraculous recovery and its potential connection to Maggie. Also the fact that Maggie can disrupt his magic. Since we are clearly dealing with travel through space and time, my pet theory is Maggie was born in Rellas to the Sauvics, hence her abilities, and brought to Earth in the past with the author (Matheo) through the magic of an ascended Isadau.
I think Inhan is going to be the choice. He’s pretended to be less than he is to survive. Arvel is also possible, but since he is giving Arland vibes, I think he’s ending up with Isadau, and I’m pretty sure she’d hate being queen.
oooooh Matheo as the author? hmmmm didn’t go there I thought of Silveren as the author. thanks for the alternate perspective.
Same here but I think Matheo makes more sense now!
Also I don’t think a monarch is the next steps for Rellas, I think they are at a point where they could move to a democracy or something more similar. Because that would be messier and aligns with disrupting the current system that is set up to be abused.
I like it! Once Maggie deals with her current situation, inciting democracy would b a fun pastime. And, hey, she DID study political science.
Matheo is an excellent candidate for our mysterious author. But I wonder if his power lets his watch a scene like we watch TV or if he watches by riding along in someone’s head and hearing their thoughts?
Good question. Something about the way he talks about his gift showing him Hreban, then changing over to Maggie reminded of how Maggie describes the writing style of the author. Also knowing what Hreban is thinking/knows about Maggie. Other pieces of information might be overheard, but Hreban discussing his theories and thoughts out loud? I’m not sure I can picture that. My guess was that even if it starts as present remote viewing as the ability develops so eventually he can sees into heads and is able to even remote view the past, like a certain boy with a dog.
I like this theory too, but another question that bothers me is how would he know the how events happen without Maggie there (as she is not in the books)? If it is a fabrication with some deliberate mistakes (such as a certain somone getting killed by falling of his horse and no longer around) it would be really difficult to do it accurately with all the bloody gory war-y details of Rellas falling apart… on the other hand, it would go together with ‘the timeline trying to reassert itself’
My theory is that we are dealing with time travel. The author recorded what happened the first time around without their intervention. I think an archmage has to be involved because of those two theoretical level mages. My guess is time and space. Some one is helping change the past. Someone who perhaps can see not only what has happened, but all that could have happened. The kingdom is saved because they make two changes. First they convince Reynald to reach to his old friend, setting him on a course that kills him and brings Everard to the capital. Second, they bring Maggie to Rellas. Everything falls into place because of their alliance. I have this idea of an older Matheo traveling back to speak to his father. Telling him if he goes to Everard, his son will thrive, the kingdom will right itself, but he will not live to see it. I see Reynald agreeing to that in a hearbeat.
Time travel is also an option. I wonder if we’re going to find out why Maggie was ‘chosen’
Time travel is not an option 🙂
Isekai is not the most strictly defined genre out there, granted, but a sine qua non is that the character actually travels to *another* world, not ours in a different time period.
It’s the nature of the portal 🙂
Outlander- not isekai. Narnia, Alice in Wonderland – isekai.
Mod R–I’ve read multiple isekais where the MC turns out to actually be originally from the world she is transported to. Sometimes she lived there in a past life. Sometimes she fell unconscious, lived a life on Earth, then woke up in her original body. Sometimes her life on Earth was actually a dream or vision, and reading the story there was her subconscious or a deity preparing her to come back. One time in a BL, the hero was so traumatized by his first life, he created an imaginary world without magic (Earth) and escaped there before being forced back. There are so many awesome variants of this.
Isekai literally means “another world”. There are many works of speculative fiction involving time travel or reincarnation. But the isekai genre very basic definition involves a different world travel, not simply time and space – or works where the hero is not from Earth and then we are the “other world” for them compared to their origin one, which seems to be what you’re referring to 🙂
I think Maggie is the author. Its one of those timeywiney things. She reads books 1-2, gets obsessed with world. She is “undying” because is literally in her own creation. She knows the languages because she created them. She remembers everything because she wrote it, in another timeline.
Thats why book three isnt written yet she had to go there, experience it then write it.
I know there are holes in my theory, but it kinda tracks
that’s a cool theory
For now, Maggie being the author in a wibbly wobbly timey whimey, causal loop, “Blink” sort of way, is my theory as well.
Adrian Latour (Adrian the Tower) is obviously a pen name. Just because the first name of the alias is Adrian, doesn’t mean the author is male.
Also Maggie being able to write out whole chapters of the book, suggests she could be the original author.
I won’t be heartbroken if Maggie is not Latour.
I would feel a bit cheated if whoever turns out to be Latour has never been to Kair Toren.
Maybe Arvel is the author, and he chose Maggie as his love interest, and she’s not cooperating because real people aren’t archetypes. And the rest of the characters aren’t cooperating because every character is the MC of their own life.
Such a cool concept.
That might work if she’s the only “undying”, but not if the antagonist also resurrects. I do enjoy throwing theories around:)
Hmm, I think it is a fact that Maggie can resist at least some of his magic, because he wasn’t expecting Lute’s blade- if he had, he would have turned to face Lute. However, I’m not sure that resisting specific magic means you have the same magic.
I guess Maggie might have been adopted in her old life as well, so might have been sent from Rellas as a baby; maybe to keep her safe until her magic developed. I’m still rather attached to the “mage as the author” theory, but let’s discuss more. People (Ramond and others) say they’ve never heard of anyone coming back from the dead, so it would be odd if two people (even blood relatives) displayed this magic at the same time. It would also be odd if this were a talent running in the royal family but none of the power obsessed Machiavellian members of the eight families had ever heard a hint of it. If Ralimbor didn’t have it but his wife did, then why wouldn’t she raise her son herself since both of them were presumed dead?
So I’m also still rather attached to the theory of resurrection as a gift from the portal (or the mage that sent her through it), which would mean that no one else has it or the people (like the hidden sort-of-prince) who have it have also been through a portal.
Is anyone else wondering if Kaiden was supposed to/is going to become the thief River Fog? His backstory matches…
Good catch Marni! I say he definitely fits and is thus a possibility .
Absolutely loving it so far!!! Since I’m not an Authorlord, I get to have all of the feelings. Congratulations on the release, and thank you for an amazing story!
I had the Arc since December. Devoured it. Didnt see any of the plot twists. Felt like I need a dictionary and flow chart. I waited for the release and now Im listening to audiobook. I do wish we could get audiobook not from audible but apparently if you use the credit for presale and then cancel audible you still get the book. So Im very excited for the reread and relisten. Anytime that someone mentions that House Andrews doesnt do cliffhanger I cackle. I loved it and I look forward to diving into the muddy waters again.
You can get the audio book from other retailers. The book is available on Libro.fm
Ditto!
I’m waiting for Graphic Audio.
yes please.
we need to start bombarding (I mean multiple polite written requests each week) graphic audio to get them on board
+100!
Yes, I too DESPARATELY want a graphic audio version! The single narrator does a good job, but I greatly prefer their be at minimum one female and one male voice actor. Full cast is with the sound effects is top tier!
Yay and Happy Birthday 🎈 I tried to wait until midnight but unloaded a truck full of hay bales and my eyes and body said no way! So I ordered the audiobook ages ago and in a few hours am off to the bookstore to pick up my hardback! Thank You House Andrew’s and the BLH!
Congratulations!
Happy Book Birthday! I am telling everyone to read this Kingdom. my bus driver, nurses etc. Congrats House Andrews.
Happy release day! At the same time it seems like it was a long time ago, but also somehow yesterday, that you guys started talking about Maggie and how you would try to sell it to a trad pub first, then self publish if that didn’t happen. And now look how far you’ve come. I’m so happy for House Andrews, and proud, and I can’t wait for more people to discover you guys through this book. You deserve all the (more) success coming your way
And it was snapped up in a matter of hours after it went on the market, with 3 major publishers entering a bidding war over it instantly!
Hehe, if it doesn’t sell indeed 😀
+1
Love your new avatar, Mod R!!
Congratulations to HA and happy birthday, Maggie! So excited to dive into the Kindle version while I save up to select my favorite pretty one. <3
I’m with you, Genevieve. Kindle it is until I can decide which book I love best.
I can’t believe we’re here already! I know we’ve been w*iting for quite a while. But at the same time, it feels like it went by in a flash. Here’s to hoping the w*it for Book 2 goes by just as quickly. Congratulations, House Andrews!
Amazing world. Amazing story. Can wait to reread many times. But what the heck is up with that absolute cliffhanger?
*Can’t* wait. I haven’t slept much since 2 am, when the book appeared in my library.
Ilona has been ebiiiiil reacting up and down the Facebook fan group on all the posts mentioning how HA don’t do cliffhangers for weeks!
And no one knew! And I couldn’t say anything! Won’t somebody think of the poor Mod R who had to keep this spoilers for years 😛
I knew since December and I was cackling so much when I was seeing those posts
The kingdom won’t kill me, but the cliffhanger is giving it a darn good try. So much for even trying to patiently wait. 😉
+1
This!! Need your quote on a t-shirt, along with “we ride at lunch break” 😀
I know the Horde is loved. I just read a massive (!!) book showing how much we are loved, after a generous sample (avec map!) released early, and so much art and even a bonus scene. But I’m still ~emotionally compromised~ and unreasonable. Don’t mind me, I stayed up too late reading… And I’m going to reread, shortly…
Good job Mod. R!
I would go with: ‘We read at midnight!’
But then Amazon was 3 1/2 hours late. So I guess it should b : ‘We read at midnight. Or whenever Amazon gets their stuff together. Ugh!’
lol definitely with you there
I feel betrayed, and since its by traditional publisher the wait to the 2nd will be ridiculous. I will try to reread without epilogue in a few weeks.
Still love the authors and understand they chose to innovate after lots of books (took never say never to heart), but feels, the feeeeeeeels
Your are heroic and character. I said very little about the book itself on this post because I hate being a spoiler. I inadvertently did so once on a TV series and felt SO BAD. It’s a total Roland move so many many thanks for your discretion.
What does ebiiiiil mean? Google won’t bring up anything. (I’m a 20th century reader, my niece is out of town, so can’t ask her)
And Congrats to House Andrews on the book. I have not laughed out loud so many times reading a book since Terry Pratchett. I saw somewhere there was cliffhanger ending, so was ok with that.
evil 😈
Evil in a cutesy, cringy way
In Iowa (central time) got the book at 11 pm and just started to read. You know, just a bit. Before bed. Got thunderstorms and massive shivering dog on my lap so enjoyed it until 3:30… until dogs demanded breakfast at 6am. Blearily reading as more storms roll in… more tea. Need campfire tea. Or Otrokar tea.
We are the Horde!
WE ARE HORDE!
+1
Huzzah!!! The Dedication made me tear up a bit. We are very aptly named. This book was breakfast, brunch, lunch, supper and dinner! Going in for a re-read in a bit.
First of all Happy book birthday !
I was lucky enough to receive the physical book in advance so I sat on my questions and had to contain my happiness but NO MORE !
I’ll try to not reveal any spoiler but here are my questions:
Is Latour a threat to BDH if we don’t behave ? 😉
I also wanted to know if you had always planned Reynald story as is ?
I shuddered at the thought of no third book
Ik! Horrible!! HA did say this was darker than their usual. I’m sure that was what they meant.📕📗🪓
oh man the beautiful art. I need all the art!!
I know! I wish more of it was in the ebook even though the eink won’t do it total justice
So goood! Thank you to local bookstores for handing out a weeee bit early. Finished at midnight and wanted to start right back from the beginning. As a fantasy reader and a devoted IA fan, this was the most perfect book.
I loved how we started with Maggie having to rely only on her knowledge and wits, no special powers for this portal fantasy, and then how they started dropping hints that she must have her own magic after all.
I’ll hold off on talking about the other plot twists but they were just … *chefs kiss*
Also… the w*it for the first one may not have killed us, but the w*it for the second one sure will. EVIL!!!!
YES! I mean I reread all the IA books but daaaang HA that is a long wait. sigh…
Maybe the w*it did kill us and we just came back to life!
Image in my head now: new HA book published(clock ticks over) and BDH respawns, wherever they may b. Because we r Maggie!
Awesome!
Happy book birthday and thank you for a very enjoyable first read of many!!
What shall I say except I love it 🙂
Thank you House Andrews for creating another story and to all the team around you for making this amazing fan space around all stories and connecting us.
wohoooo… happy book birthday. I’m reserving the long weekend for this 😉
Happy book birthday!! I was away on a trip so am picking up my copy I ordered at my local bookstore today! So looking forward to diving in.
What an accomplishment House Andrews!
Following up : I may have jumped up and down when I picked up my book and swag at Copperdog books in Beverly. I am normally quite reserved, lol. (Disclaimer: No 17 year old daughters who were standing by were harmed during this uncharacteristic display of parental emotion in a public place)
My book came with art and an adorable sparkly keychain. Also — the bookstore said they got a lot of orders!!
Your daughters were probably thinking possible two things. “I don’t know this crazy lady” or “We’re with you mom!” 😂😂😂😂😂
Happy Book Birthday! 🥳🎉🎉🎉
I knew this book was dedicated to the BDH ever since this was first posted in the blog, but I have to be honest: I teared up all over again when I actually saw that in print. We are a very blessed horde, for sure!!!!!! 🥹💕💕💕💕💕
Same! That’s always a little heart cuddle.
The dedication also made me cry. We are beloved 💜
We are so spoiled. That dedication…no words can really describe what I felt when I saw the post. Then to see it in print for all the world to see…sigh. It made me feel like I’m in front of the fire drinking the Khanum’s tea and sighing every few minutes. 📖🥰🫖🍵
I totally cried. Twice.
+1!
I was surprised at how happy seeing the dedication made me. The I told my husband that the book was dedicated to me. OK, and the entire BDH, of which I am one. (I have the t-shirts. And mug. And ripper cushions cushions…) And then brought my iPad over to show him. And now he’s decided to read it as soon as he finished the last bit of his current rather blah book(not HA).
I think this is completely valid.
I, too, am “I HAVE A BOOK DEDICATED TO MEEEEE”
mumble “and several thousand other people” mumble
I can only say, per directive of Mod R…
Chapter 23 – OMG!
Wheeeee! What a ride so far 🙂
Started reading at 11p (CST), finally called it at 4:30ish this morning.
*Blinks slowly* Slept for 3 hours and then…
Coffee – Barsa – Coffee – Barsa, Barsa, Barrrrsa!!
Getting ready to start Chapter 34, House Andrews is the most awesome writers ever!!!
Might I have some more please?????
Happy Book Birthday! and Arrgh! I forgot today was the day and just happened to see it in my kindle… now do I ignore the meetings I have this afternoon and read or try to hold off until after work and call in tomorrow? Decisions decisions!!
Maggie is just so beautiful in so many ways!
The imagery, for example,
“The shading canvas stirred in the wind, as if the teahouse were a ship and these were its emerald sails.”
A perfect, complete, vivid picture.
HA for the absolute win!
Finally! I gobbled it up, it is probably my favorite book yet and I would not have believed this to be possible. The cliffhanger! *cries* Now I have to re-read it…
This makes me so happy to hear 💛
Not about the cliffhanger tears hehe, but it does genuinely feel like House Andrews have levelled up with this book, right? Not just me? And I had no idea it was possible either.
This is going to be very high on my list of fantasy reads, definitely a favorite. And House Andrews have absolutely leveled up with this one.
But is it ok to say that hope they still get time to do smaller worlds and cozier books? Not that any of their worlds felt small to me before this. But HA’s other content are my absolute comfort reads. I go back to the audiobooks I have of theirs when my ADHD brain needs stimulation while I do some other task, or when I’m stressing over some life thing and just need something comforting to get all the worry in my brain to shut up.
I love TKWNKM, but the world is so big and the drama so huge, I don’t know if it will ever be familiar enough to be that kind of a read for me. Even if I read it 20 times – which I might very well do while waiting for the next one.
The other series have not been abandoned :), House Andrews understand how much everyone loves those stories and there will be updates soon.
Right now the focus is on This Kingdom, and supporting it helps make future projects possible. Let’s keep this thread on Maggie so everyone can enjoy the release 😊
Apologies, didn’t even think to consider it that way.
Absolutely, This Kingdom deserves all the attention and praise.
Said it elsewhere in another post, but I devoured this one as quickly as I could today, it was so good!
The thing is, I really, really liked the book until Chapter 23. After that I could no longer put the book down. And then Chapter 40 happened. I mean, this makes so much sense for Maggie, who has read the book but has not been given fotos. And the predictable becomes unpredictable again. I am so, so, so invested. I may or may not have printed the artwork, put it on the wall and gazed at it longingly. Cough.
I actually suspected the character twist in ch 40. He was just too good looking for a regular guy when she first met him. After the twist in ch 23 every person we met was suspect, lol!
Ditto… because of the art that had been posted. I kept wondering where Reynald’s was…
And then I put the pieces together before Chapter 40… so that was less of a surprise.
Same, I kept waiting for Reynald’s potrait!!
And I guess I was one of the very few to actually enjoy the cliffhanger. Made the ending very satisfying and thrilling for me!! So much to look forward to in the next book.
Yes, Mod R, House Andrews definitely levelled up their writing with This Kingdom.
But I’ve noticed that with many of their books. All the Maggie suggestions on the Start Here page were level uppers, and a bunch more qualify as well. Just like they follow their characters’ growth over the course of each series, so too do their skills and insights into their characters and their readers visibly improve from book to book. But then, the BDH is startlingly full of readers with serious professional and personal skills, a group perhaps more able than most to recognize the subtleties of the feasts set before them. I learn something new almost every time I read the comments for a new blog post here — I can see that I’m a better reader for it. <3
Love love love! I agree, i didn’t think it was possible to level up, but the author lords did. and there are so many Eastern eggs – it needs all the rereads.
And so much wit and humour when the story is grim and intense so much of the time. I laughed when I read “my mouth was a poem in enamel to Crest 3D White”. How are they so good? Fangirling hard here (like Maggie when she thinks the knight was scared she would fangirl rush Arvel)
Can’t w*it – have to reread until then.
my greatest act of self control in decades… I made myself w*it until Friday to start so I wouldn’t have to worry about sleep.
Worth It. love this book.
No screaming with the cliff hanger. just a single, forceful curse word.
in regards to Latour, I’m leaning towards Inhan, or even Sauven during his more lucid periods. mostly because while there are other towers, Eagles roost seems to be THE Tower and Demaes is too caught up in his own power to worry about the Kingdom.
I’ll be starting 2nd read through shortly
Thank you HA for another wonderful world of characters.
The story is SO good. Finished my first read, about to start the second.
I realise it may not be a HA decision but can I please suggest/request a This Kingdom notebook for merch. Something hardcover that has the maps, character list, art and space for me to keep track of all my theories and details on who everyone is.
I have the ebook, will get the audio to catch all the things my excited read missed. And will buy a hardback but am already planning to add post its to make notes.
A matching notebook for this purpose would be amazing.
Congratulations on a fantastic new story and world. We are The Horde of the Kingdom.
Funny you should say this, because Ilona and I were oooh-ing and aaaah-ing over this gorgeous This Kingdom-themed scrapbooking post last night https://www.instagram.com/p/DWh1L9QEsjz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D
Wouldn’t that be just perfect in a Maggie notebook! Definitely adding this to the merch suggestions, thank you :*
Absolutely yes to the scrapbook please!
Best idea ever. A central place for art, character listings. A place to write out theories and “What Do I Know”. And art and where did I read that? it would be great fun.
Ooo hehe I have my notebook open in front of me, (preliminary scribbles, not pretty ones like the above) and I had just written down “Can we have a coloring book?” Depending on who the art belongs/is licensed to, this could be tricky, but a coloring book of the characters, the map, the architecture, the fantastical creatures (Honey, the stelkas, lorsse, dursan, etc)! I really want to see fan art of all the creatures.
Aside from physical media, a cast list/glossary or fan wiki or something would be really useful keeping characters and titles straight, especially for a sequel!
I absolutely second a cast list! I was occasionally lost on who’s who and even a Kindle “search this book” stopped being helpful. Is there a wiki?
wow this is so cool. my handwriting isn’t lovely enough to practice marginalia. hopefully any new merch (as well as old merch) can be shipped to the UK. re the ongoing VAT issues 😭
I think the guy chasing her to the garden is a possibility for the author too. I’m curious about Maggie’s magic and the undying thing. Is it a new power/family type in the world? Or was the author of the same family? dont think Maggie was the author, she would not have been surprised by Arval.
First – thank you. Second, OK – Questions:
1. Did the Duke know that he had been responsible for the lucky coin? Seems like a no.
2. That first chase to the Garden – also random? I am thinking yes.
3. Do we ever get to meet the author? Have we met the author?
1. Yes, because of her saying the thing about having met the Sleepless Duke, and then connecting with her story about the coins. She didn’t get a good look at him, but he saw her, looking like crap, but it hadn’t been that long, so with those two pieces of information he knew. Also she knows he knows, because when he offers it back its meant to be a slap that she doesn’t want it anymore.
2. Yes, random I think
3. I think, given the POV nature of the book it has to be Matheo, with the far-seeing. I know he died in the books, but perhaps he nearly dies instead and lies in the book. I think an ascended Isadau has to be responsible for sending him, and possibly baby Maggie back though time and space.
I think Silveren is the one chasing Maggie to the Garden. When he meets her in the market, he says she looks like a beggar and then a servant, but when they have their first conversation in the garden she’s already had her bath. It’s possible that he just saw her when the butterflies swarmed, but to me it makes more sense that he was the one chasing her through the alley. It would also explain why he says that they are both pretending to be someone they’re not.
If it’s not him, I think it’s got to be someone meaningful–maybe Matheo maybe our mysterious author–based upon Chekhov’s gun.
Oh, that’s a good catch about his comment of seeing her line a beggar 🫡
I think it said she didn’t like the look on her pursuer’s face, so I don’t think it was Silveren, since she would have recognized him later. I think the butterfly thing makes more sense, meaning he was already in the Garden. A beggar arriving is weird enough. A beggar arriving with enough magic to cause the butterflies to react like that…super intriguing.
Yes, this makes sense to me too🧐
The first chase to the Garden, possibly the Butcher spotting a target of opportunity? Given the eventual backstory, he does act on implulse at times.
that was fantastic!
I never thought I’d disagree with Mod R but this is definitely more cliff hanger than cliff leaner.
Bring on Maggie 2!
This is absolutely a big walloping clifhanger! 😀
It’s so funny cause I saw the cliff hanger comments and was all about to say HA doesn’t do that. I’m sure it’s just a little open ended to get us invested in the next book… but! Plot twist is on us! IRL, in a portal book, our dear authors flipped their own script. 😂
Happy book birthday!
It showed up from Bookshop.org a day early on my actual birthday and I may have stayed up a wee bit too late to finish it, but no regrets! I had tea, candles, fantasy mood music, and windows open on a lovely thunderstorm. Best b-day ever!
Side note to Mod R: I don’t know if spoilers are ok for the announcement post above, but if not you may want to update the file name for the amazing artwork for the Man from the Garden as it shows his name which is one of the later big reveals.
Loved it, love the art work, looking forward to more at HA’s own sanity-preserving pace! (Also/however if book 3 is a lie like the missing in-universe series book 3, I may lose my Team Facts Are King chill. I will repeat to myself: The Authorlords are kind, they have reasons for what they do, I will be chalant, April Fool’s Day isn’t until tomorrow and surely by now we all know better than to tempt THAT fate…)
HA knows what happens when they decide to do an April Fool’s joke on the BDH. It becomes a book. Looking at you, Hugh. 🤣🤣🤣😎
Holy holy! I was so wrapped up in 3/31 being The Date I didn’t even think about what comes after – duh! OK, this being a trilogy might be a really good April Fool’s joke…..especially since then the BDH can make it so!! Bwahhhhaaa!
Happy book birthday.
Just 2 more nights, only 1 if I manage to stay away on Wednesday, until the international release.
Usually the books become available at midnight local time.
I felt every. day. of this past month, between the sample and the publication. I literally threw my phone across the room and screamed when the sample cut off. Good job.
IA is always an auto-buy for me, so there was no question I was going to get the book. Woke up at 3am, and it was downloaded onto my kindle, lucky me. I tried to read slowly, but have just finished the book (1pm), and now I need the second one. On publication day, I need the next book. My husband is laughing at me.
OH MY GOD…. what if they do the same thing the book author did and just NEVER PUBLISH A THIRD BOOK????? On the one hand, that would be an *amazing* mirror, and on the other, they just might kill me.
I’m going back to read TKWNKM (that’s awkward) again. It won’t be the last time.
The possibility they stop at 2 is haunting me. They would never do that to us… right?!?! Too meta.
House Andrews have never not delivered on a contract in 2 decades of publishing 🙂
But the w*it, Mod R, the W*IT!
Bought the audio book at 7 AM this morning. Want it to last longer so I figured I’d try audio. Looking forward to it!
I can’t believe I’ve been up for 4 hours and just remembered it was release day. In fact, I can’t believe I didn’t set an alarm for midnight so I could buy it then. But I have it now!
I blame the horde of ants I found in my cats food yesterday morning. Instead of the many other things I had planned on doing yesterday, I spent the evening crawling around the baseboards sealing potential entry points. Welcome to spring.
I know when is book is good when I am so completely engrossed, I lose track of time. I received this book last night and although I was so sleepy, I wanted to get started. 2.5 hours later….I could not wait to get up early so I could get a few more pages in before work. This book is a work-buster.
Happy Book Birthday, House Andrews!
What colour are Maggie’s eyes? I didn’t catch it in the book.
I loved this so much.
But no, just no, don’t tell me the third book won’t be until more than 10 years than the second one. No no no.
I won’t tell you that!
Will there be a compilation of Helena’s art in a separate post?
It’s a very popular ask 🙂 We’ll see…once they’re all done! #moretocome
👏👏👏🫡 thank you!!!!
Mod R, do you know if there’s going to be Clover, Kaiden and/or Magnars art?
I guess you’ll have to come back to the blog during the release period and see 👀 (yes)
I must be patient. I must be very, very patient. *chanting*
Omg yes please!!
Do I have 3 editions of this book?
Yes.
Do I want a few more?
Also yes.
Happy reading everyone! What a terrific book!
I am so glad spring break lined up with the book release. I just sat here and read all morning.
The twists! The reveals! The drama!
And then, the end. Already can’t wait for book 2.
I am literally reading no comments because I don’t want spoilers. I am here because… to pay what I deeply hope Ilona and Gordon will take as the high praise I mean it to be.
This doesn’t feel like an Ilona Andrews book.
I have read every word they’ve written that I have read before it got archived or is still here or in print. I have saved snippets from here in case they someday get archived. I LOVE their books or I wouldn’t be here on the blog.
I also can list more than one instance when humor has been repeated across series, and since I love their books, and have reread and reread, I do notice. Despite Hidden Legacy, Kate Daniels, Innkeeper, Edge being radically different worlds, the voice has always been the same. A beloved voice. But the same beloved voice.
This is fabulous. I decided to read Chapters 1-8 again and not skip straight to Chapter 9, and I had a ton of appointments today, so I’m only on page 98. And if the authors’ names weren’t on the front, I’d think I was reading someone new. There have been a couple places (that I couldn’t name right now) where the “classic” IA voice comes through in a turn of phrase, but otherwise I truly would not think this was an IA book.
Ilona & Gordon were already on my “trusted author” list for the comfort and familiarity of their voice that still manages to surprise. A trusted author is one I will read even if the “back-of-the-book-blurb”+ sounds truly terrible because I know it doesn’t represent the book.
Now they are on my trusted author list because they’re capable of giving us something completely different and *still excellent*. I am blown away.
___
+in quotes because in the age of e-books, it’s not exactly on the back of my Kindle.
I feel this so much. I loved this book with my whole heart, but it did have a different voice. A gloriously new voice. One I adore every bit as much as their previous work.
I can’t wait to see what the new members of the Horde think as they read the back catalog.
I feel the same. This story is , as advertised, and step away from the usual. It is still a great and beautiful example oh what a powerhouse like House Andrew’s can accomplish.
plus the notes of themselves peeking out.
1. Unusual “pet”
2. Exceptional bossy quirky sidekick. Really, Clover is the best lady’s maid ever, and I also read Regency Romance.
3. Your welcome is withdrawn. It’s like Star wars “I got a bad feeling about this.” I just know at some point it will show up.
‘Your welcome is withdrawn.’ Made me think of various vampire-related stories. And love Sushi(need stuffed animal version!) , but the bad-tempered tracking bird was amusing, too.
I swear Sushi is half cat. We had a cat who tried to bring a fresh-caught mouse in the house when my dad was really sick. Such a dirty look when I refused to allow it inside! But then the cat went and found his toy mouse and jumped up to lay it on the bed at my dad’s feet. Extra dirty look for me at this point. I could almost hear him saying, ‘You’re terrible hunters, so I caught u fresh meat, but this one(glares) wouldn’t let me bring it to u.’
+1
I agree completely! There were times where I was shouting out laughter that was “hey, I recognize that humor, that’s HA right there!.” Like when Lute says “Hey, Maggie? Survive, get paid.” Such a guild thing right there.
And then there was Maggie’s own distinct personality. I did NOT feel like I was hearing Kate or Nevada or Dina in my head. But boyo, do I love her as much!! Have since Day 1 ….how many years ago was that original snippet, anyone remember?!?!?
I am so amazed at how HA has expanded our world with this book. I knew if was gonna be big, and they did not disappoint on any page!
+💯🎯
Happy Book Birthday!!! 🥳📘🎉
It is amazing! 🤩 Now that I know ALL the plot twists, I have to read it again (after I get some sleep 😴)
The plot twist in Chapter 23 was definitely OMG!!!, but so was the plot twist in Chapter 40!! 😱 I burst out incredulously laughing as I read it.😅
This world is HUGE, thank you for creating it and sharing it with us. Can’t wait for the sequel! 😆⏳️📚 💜
Happy Book Birthday! I can’t wait to pick up my copy from my local bookstore after work today and start devouring it!
I did not see chapter 23 coming
Neither did Maggie 🤫
I literally had to put the book down and walk around the house for a bit to wrap my head around it. Without spoiling it for my husband, whom I have successfully convinced to read this next. Once I could make actual words, I went with: holy ‘cats! I did not see that coming!
Happy Book birthday!
I had the day off and I couldn’t have spend it better 🙂
This book hit all the right button.
While the chapter 23 twist was wholly unexpected, I was relatively certain of the reveal in chapter 40, from the first time we saw the character’s face.
I have a question but it is very spoilery:
In the final scene before the epilogue, am I correct in my interpretation that the two minutes were not over yet? And he still saw Maggie as herself?
I have heart eyes as a reader but honestly think Maggie’s attitude is very healthy in analyzing his motivation!
Ooooh, that’s a great question! On the list for House Andrews it goes 🙂
I haven’t gotten to Chapter 23. Can I guess at the plot twist?
No, we’re only human 😅. That would be way too tempting to answer and nudge.
Whelp. I was wrong about the plot twist. Totally thought guy in garden unmasked as the writer.
Not even close
15 minutes into the audiobook and I already see myself… “but that very first series is my special treasure…I have been reading those books for the last 10 years… a favorite character of mine was left standing on a box with a noose around his neck for a decade…” #KD #teammetalrose #HLArabellatears #Hugh
All kidding aside, I’m looking forward to this ride. Thank IA and Happy Birthday Maggie! Always fun to go on an adventure with the ever so Chalant and Fluffy Horde, and Steve.
Happy happy book birthday to HA!
Haven’t gotten very far as yet, but oh, how I’m enjoying the journey. It’s so much damn fun! The new art is sooo good! Thanks for sharing!
Happy book birthday! I will now abandon this post until my special edition arrives, so more waiting for me I’m afraid…
Hey ModR – Do you have an estimated date for that last US special edition? This may not be the usual approach, but I’m waiting to purchase until all of the Special Editions are posted. Thanks!
I have not been given the go ahead, so I know nothing, saw nothing, saying nothing.
Sorry, I can understand how frustrating it is when you’re waiting to make a decisions, but I have signed NDAs!
There’s a distressing lack of kittens!
Yes!!! This!
YES! I laughed so hard at this one
Someone needs to do fan art thirst traps of the characters posing with cute kittens. Extra points if it gets published as an actual calendar.
The navy blue truck just delivered THE BOOK! I had to treat myself to the beautiful hard copy. Just had to share my excitement with the hoard before diving in! Not sure when I will be back in this world! Later!
I’m not reading the comments right now but need to post this. Is anyone else scared to start because they know it will end? I want to be soaked in the story and live there forever. I’ve never felt this way about a book before. After reading the free snippet (can it even be called that? So large for a snippet), I’ve realized this is something to savor as the first read only comes once.
You’re not alone! Been there, stared at the new much anticipated book while making up excuses to d*lay starting it. But I couldn’t w*it any longer for Maggie. I think reading the huge sample, followed by Reactor’s chapters 9, then 10(while w*iting for Amazon to come thru) actually helped push thru the reluctance to start.
If it helps, there r a couple points during the first read where I deeply wanted the second read to start so I could see how certain things looked now that I knew things like chapter 23.
OMG so much this!!!
+1000
I postponed reading the extended preview, then got sucked in. Then I tried to hold off after release day to save the book for vacation in a few weeks. I read the Clover and Shana bonus and gave in.
Just finished today and OMG!
Thank you HA for another fantastic ride!!
+1000
I too was holding off until a future vacation, but the Clover and Shana bonus won me over.
And the bonus of buddy with golden-haired advisor: super!
Please, may we have some more? 🙂
I too was completely surprised by all twists and identity reveals, even though I have read everything IA ever published on blog and books.
Wonderful laughs and dialogue! Super plots and character development!
Oh, the stories!
So much joy and comfort reads. Thank you ever so much, Ilona and Gordon!
Please keep writing: we adore your work!
Plus I agree with everything Jen posted about Doran: very insightful.
He is like Arland. Probably will end up as a friend.
Not mean, just shaped by context.
If the male MC became unavailable — like if the port-army thing became unavoidable,
then I think she could also become very happy with Mr. Archery.
I do not attribute badness to him:
I think his heart was truly won on the day she spoke of her father’s experiences.
(So insightful and compassionate. I love love the way IA humanize and advocates for veterans. Thank you.)
FYI, I still cheer for the male MC — the hair clip made me smile and sigh so sweetly!
I just see Mr. Archery as having good qualities too.
I hope he finds his sunshine and safe harbour.
(Hearts and hugs)
Happy bookday birthday. I bought both the ebook and the audio book so I could read or listen to it throughout the day (even at work). Yes I know, but it’s Maggie and I have been waiting for her since that very first snippet.
Thank you for this treat.
One thing that I really noticed was the anti-climax of the soap. Maggoe spends so much time making soap, and as far as I can tell sells exactly one basket’s worth the whole novel. Somehow Robert Burns’ most famous line comes to mind….
I mean, she has been there for 2/3 months, not much time to establish a business, especially considering everything else going on (that is more urgent) and that she has to get a permit/etc… That said, she definetely got the first steps going and she has already signed a contract with the Garden, selling her soap (something that will help a lot in making her soap be known by nobles and, given that they will have already tried it there, make them want to acquire some for their own household given the much better quality of her soap)
actually this bothered me too. I wanted to see her get a license for it at least! if it falls to the wayside in your trilogy I’ll be disappointed.
I don’t think it will vanish. I just think that at first, she needed a new identity for the license, then it probably was better for her to wait for Solentine to return to help out in getting a licence/etc (I would expect it to be easier/faster with him around)… At that point, waiting 3 weeks wouldn’t make that much of a difference. Besides, her not getting a license was somewhat relevant for the plot and she really had so much else going on and that she was worrying about.
But I think next book she will fi ally get a license and actively start her business soap. Book 1 was her trying to make soap, experiment and start to settle on a recipe, making samples as well as start selling it. But Book 1 is just 2 months,really not that much time to set ut a business from the ground up (from deciding the product, test it, etc…).
Second Book will probably focus a bit more on her finally starting to sell her soap as well as starting to establish her business. But I doubt it’s going to be ignored. How much “space” it gets in the story will probably depend on how much it affects the plot, but I do think it will still go forward and have it’s own space in the story. That said, the Demarr are said to need money, and her new mother will have already tried her soap samples by now and realized how good they are, so they are probably going to help and support Maggie’s business when they realize how much profit it can make (given that it is cheaper to make than standard soap and that it has better quality).
Aye, salt, soap, and matches. Necessities of life. 🙂
Is anyone else excited for her to meet Mom Demarr??
Yes, me 😀
The Demarrs are my favourites, Rumian of the Perfect Timing is my favourite, I want more badasses who immediately have her back for found family!
Yes☺️. I also wish she might travel and see the family estates, not to mention Selva😀.
I haven’t finished reading it yet, so I will not read the comments, but I just wanted to say this book is amazing! I am having so much fun with it. Thank you, House Andrews!
(Also, I love the UK covers and pretty page art. And the Helena Elias illustrations are terrific. Mod R, any word on the mystery upcoming US Special Edition?)
Wordless for now, sorry!
Held out for 5 days and then devoured. The first plot twist shocked and disappointed me, because I REALLY liked that person. After that I read warier, so was not so surprised by the like turns. There’s so many threads to pull in this world! Amazed that so much revolves around the king that we don’t even meet. Thank you HA for another book that takes me out of this world so thoroughly.
Happy book birthday!! Squeeeeee…. My signed edition of the book from Waterstones arrived today and it’s utterly gorgeous!
I stayed up way too late reading in bed on my phone while giggling in excitement. I made myself put the book down at the 50% mark. Oh what a place to stop. Couldn’t fall asleep for a while from the adrenaline! I love love love it and I would like the second book now. That ending was a barbed hook to the heart. I need more please!
Been there, may your adrenaline fade and your sleep be filled with awesome book adventures
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE!
I opened my Kindle* library on my phone, looking for something to read at lunch, and there it was! I’ve been ever so chalantly waiting, refusing to read the preview or track the exact release date, all for a lovely surprise on a spring day. I got to read the first chapter before I had to go back to work; sigh. I will be savoring this book. Worth it!
* Kindle device, but I bought the DRM-free book from Bookshop, not Bezos (and will keep a copy on a device that can’t be digitally robbed). Pretty painless overall.
I took today off and plowed on through it, about 12 hours ish.
Amazeballs!!!
Now I can’t wait to read through it again and really pay attention now that I know the plot twists!
Everytime I came to a scene that had been released previously I felt that warm fuzzy feeling from a well loved millionth re-read. it was really cool to have that feeling alongside the bright shiny newness!
Today’s release really helped me. Today is the first anniversary of my father’s passing. He loved books so much.
That’s such a special feeling to share with him. I’m so glad you enjoyed the book and it made you think of those you love 🥰
I could not take any days off this week due to the Texas Library Association and some others taking days off. but it is a long weekend and I have time off at the end of April.
My condolences on your father’s passing. I understand wanting to bury yourself in a really, really good book (like this one). My mom loved books too. When she passed, all I wanted to do was read.
My condolences to you both. Glad that you too found these to be comfort reads.
Me too, for similar reasons.
Indeed, reading is a joy passed through generations, along with the wisdom we accumulate thus.
Thank you again to Ilona and Gordon, who have given us so many insights, and helped us to understand and treat others more compassionately (especially veterans).
I am 1000 percent in support of “hire veteran” policies and programs:
I always was, and even more so after reading IA books.
We should have these in more countries.
Take care of the people who gave so much to serve and protect.
America is a leading light in this, as in many great things.
Thank you.
((Hugs))
I am a fluffy member of the BDH and just finished my first read of TKWNKM.
Just one word: Sqeeeeequel please!!!!!!
Happy book birthday to HA! I have immersed myself in the book today as much as was possible during month-end (need to work to buy books), have just finished and will start a reread soon – new world and new names have to be worked into my menopausal brain by repeat exposure (do all the flying creatures names start with D? or am I just confused?).
I will be waiting patiently for the go ahead to talk about that plot twist in chapter 23…anyone else getting a sense we may bump into Latour (mysterious author of Rellas) in Rellas?
Throughout the book I wondered if we would meet them, and if the reason why there’s no 3rd book is because they got pulled back into Rellas.
That is one of my theories as well (that Latour went back).
Another one is that the 3rd book was not meant to happen, as in – give the fandom sth to obsess about, then choose a suitable hero among the ones that are still obessed 10yrs later, so they are well motivated to rescue the kingdom.
And a third one is that the time is not quite paralell between the 2 worlds and Maggie going to Rellas messes the time-space continuum and disappears the author before the 3rd book is written.
I had/have the same thought. Maybe in the next book ….
I think we’re going to see the author in the world at some point and/or that Maggie’s actions are rewriting the books, and if Maggie is able to slide between worlds via the High Mage or the Lady Mage, she’s going to be the one to write/deliver #3 and then settle into her HEA. Or that she herself is the author via Timey Wimey magic and is actively rewriting the story to make it better to her instead of catering to the Evil Editors.
Part of me wonders if the thing in the river or Sushi are the transformed author.
The mad King or an advisor of his that we don’t know about yet being the author could also explain some of the paranoia and madness.
The High Mage would also be a good candidate for hidden author.
I did originally assume that it was the Man from the Garden, but since THAT reveal, he’s off my list.
I look forward to my first reread once this week’s work is done in order to look for more clues so I can go back to my home camp of “Facts are King” instead of wandering around in the camp of the “Damned”. ; D
I NOMINATE SUSHI FOR AUTHOR.
If it was Sushi, there would b much more fish.
My theory is that we have already met him… I will not say who I think it is yet.
My theory is we already met him! Quite strange that Silveren had such a complete personality change that people keep commenting on it and his resurrection at the end sure sounds like Maggie’s undying power in Rellas
I don’t think he had apersonality change though: he was simply hiding from Sauren and keeping a low profile. But he was already in charge, Ramond saw him manipulate generals to decide on a battle plan and make it seem it wasn’t his idea. He also made sure to speak little so his honey voice would not be noticed.
I just saw that my Library has the e-book version of this book and already has 87 holds on 5 copies on the e-book and 74 holds on5 copies for the e-audio. No physical copies yet.
Somehow I got lucky enough to be first in line at my library (!!). I don’t remember what the line was when I returned it, but the current waitlists, 10 days after release:
ebook: 42 holds on 4 copies
audiobook: 30 holds on 5 copies
physical book: 11 holds on 5 copies
I think the local chapter of the Horde is alive and well, hehe. I’ve put it on hold again because I want to reread, but I did return it asap, because fluffiness. This is on par with really popular novels at my library that get a boost from a TV show. Very exciting!
This was so satisfying. Like, when you pat your tummy after a rich, delicious meal. I could feel the book-nutrients nourish my soul. Thanks, House Andrews, for gifting us a whole new world to get lost in.
But the cliffhanger! Mod R, you deceived us.How may I trust you ever again? ‚Mod R the Deceiver‘ shall be your name henthforth.
That “cliff-leaner” was really cruel, wasn’t it?
I shall do it again 😈
Yes! Incredibly cruel!
Day One of the release and already on Amazon:
#8 in Romantic Fantasy (Books)
#31 in Epic Fantasy (Books)
#77 in Epic Fantasy (Audible Books & Originals)
#473 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
I posted in the morning and now this evening, see how quickly the stats change.
#2 in Romantic Fantasy (Books)
#11 in Epic Fantasy (Books)
#39 in Epic Fantasy (Audible Books & Originals)
#184 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
April 1 – one day after release: Amazing.
#1 in Romantic Fantasy (Books)
#6 in Epic Fantasy (Books)
#29 in Epic Fantasy (Audible Books & Originals)
#121 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
Congratulations and Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah! For Maggie’s book birthday!
Thank you, Ilona and Gordon, for delving into this genre and delivering a grand slam home run!
Thank you to, ModR, for continuing to shepherd/corral/wrangle the rambunctious Horde!
The page with all the series synopses is primo! They made me laugh and are spot on! (If, somehow, in my inattentiveness, have missed that page previously – I apologize.)
Thank you to the Horde for always holding space!
Welcome to the new Hordelings joining!
The artwork is amazing!
May we all find peace, health and safety in this moment!
aaaaaahhhhhh!! kindle release is the 2nd April!?!?!?!! I’ve pre-ordered it and still have to w*it 😭
For the UK edition, the book release is the 2nd of April for all formats 🙂
Happy book birthday! 🎉
That cliff is a killer! Give us the next one! (had to be true to the BDH anthem)
Did I stay up to an ungodly hour to read this?
yes yes I did
Do I usually tend to be very hit and miss on high fantasy books but this one sucked me in?
Also yes.
Am I gonna reread it shortly and look for all the clues that hint at aforementioned plot twist in chapter 23 that shall not be spoiled and kick myself for not noticing?
very much so.
but is the salt fresh 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I think that needs to be on a mug. lol!
All of us prone to Salt would enjoy it! I love that! Or a sticker!
A line from a certain TV show that might have set the isekai trope on its course comes to mind: “to put right what once went wrong”.
I do love this book.
Still reading comments on April 2… So much fun.
Thanks for the reference. I love that show.
Not reading the comments yet because I’m still reading (damn life getting in the way) but sooo good so far! Just wanted to say Happy Book Birthday! Congratulations!! Mod R, love your avatar!!
I saw the dedication to the BDH, and had to take a moment. Thanks, House Andrews!
I WAS RIIIIIGHT. I read all the signs and almost gaslit myself into thinking I was making things up, but I was RIGHT 💃🏻🎶 called it in the preview I feel so validated rn 😎
Just got past 50% and I’m still kicking and screaming in excitement.
What were you right about? Now you’ve got me dying of curiosity 🤣
keep reading my friend, you’ll get there! 🤭
I came, I saw, I devoured. it’s almost 3am now but I had to finish, this book had me in a choke hold.
This book has catapulted itself to top shelf. I’m not sure it can top Kate, but it’s damn close!
I was the same! Could not put it down. Had to finish it.
happy book birthday
I just have one question
now that I am done reading this
what am I supposed to do with myself
*leading BDH choir*
reread REREAD re-reaaaaaad 🎶
I’ve never had the urgent to instant reread immediately after finishing the book. But I am with this one! SO MANY details and Easter eggs to enjoy!
I was cackling at “I need a knight. Six Five, blue eyes… Trust fund” reference.
Omg I caught that too and I was like, is that a TT trend reference?!?!
Yes, ofc hehehe 😀
I also privately spammed them with Shoes, Private Yachts, Caviar (Nicola Coughlan) last summer lol, I think I even got away with pasting it as the background song on a post on the Ilona Andrews Instagram.
🤣🤣🤣 I laughed at that line too and then I promptly played the song on Spotify!
The cliffhanger! Why?! I need book 2 now!
(Loved the book, love the characters, Solentine is the best, but not as cute as Sushi, and I really want to find out what happened to Latour, because something had to have happened to the guy, right? Right?!)
Just finished. So great. I’m trying really hard not to do a swear!!! I think I’ll eat and start my first reread. Praying for p*tience. Lordy!!!!
Whoa! Those eyes made my old lady parts stand up and notice! I know…TMI. Sorry, not sorry…
Also, I can now use my favorite quote…We come at night and stab you.
Happy Book Birthday!
I haven’t finished it yet, finished part three just before this. I’ve been reading in sections, the taking breaks to be responsible and take care of IRL things.
Is responsible on the list of Horde curse words with w@it and P@tience? It really should be, keeping be from spending all morning inhaling this shiny new book.
To those like me who haven’t finished yet, the w@it won’t kill us (we hope). To those lucky ones who’ve had time to fully devour, I say Barsa Barsa Barsa.
Holy crap. Chapter 29 hit hard. Not going to give any details, even though it’s not one of the plot twist chapters. Just, Wow.
I tried to come and comment right when I finished the chapter, but the website had crashed. Hope it didn’t cause HA too many headaches when they are busy with the book tour.
Ilona and Gordon are at the Austin signing 🙂
I sent them an email that we are all good and restored now. Thank you for your patience.
also *then not the, and *me not be.
I finished it. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Read the whole book. This is officially my favorite Ilona Andrews book. Best plot, best FMC and MMC. Possibly also best villain. Can’t w*it for the sequel.
I’m not going to spoil anything, but can I just say….. that ending? RUDE.
I read it once and now have to read it again. I feel like now that I know what when where how and who. I have to re read to better see interactions!
Me too!
Not sure if this question has been asked. I will make it as non-spoilery as possible:
In the epilogue there is this line:
If you break my hold on her, like you’ve done with your guard…
Is the guard he’s referring to Lute?
And the website was down briefly just a little while ago. Did we as BDH accidentally break the site?
Thanks!!
I blame Steve.
The lovely people at WP Engine were very prompt and helpful and got in back in less than 20 minutes 🙂
They sound great!
And thank you for everything that you do for us. You are incredibly amazing!!! 🤩💜🙏
I was also wondering about that line! Like who is he referring to?!? It’s such a good mystery and makes me think she has more unexplored magic.
I think so too! There’s some hints in the book that she has a lot of magic.
I loved this line, plus some other little snippets we see that show she’s very powerful magically, can’t wait for her to explore that more in book 2
Yeah, I think he is referring to Lute.
I think *he* is referring to the moment after she visited clan Harzi.
(I won’t specify because I’m not sure how spoilery we can get)
Yes, Silveren puts the voodoo on Lute, which Maggie breaks by calling out in alarm. Her ability to do so could point to a weakness in the magic, (real loyalty trumps commands by the Call) or Maggie could have Sauvic-like power.
Which would mean she’s a possibility for the Rellasian throne!
I have just reached halfwayish through the book. I dropped my Kindle, said “you mfers” out loud to House Andrews, texted half a dozen “I cannot even” gifs to my reading buddy, then went and folded laundry until my heart rate started calming down. I’m starting the book again from page 15. I have to try to wrap my brain around this before I finish the book. I still. Cannot. Even.
As a longstanding member of the BDH I w*ited! I was p*tient! I tried to be chalant!! Then I stayed up all last night reading TKWNKM and absolutely LOVED it. Am at the propping-my-eyes-open-with-matchsticks stage at this point but wanted to congratulate HA on managing to make such a big world feel so accessible, all the characters fairly leapt off the page. Stelka = Fish = Sushi was too adorable. GRRM eat your heart out, and here’s hoping we don’t have to w*it 10 years for Book 2 😉
PS Thanks for always being awesome Mod R but particularly during release week, I spit-take’d several times your 4 Sleeps ’till Maggie post. More like Nav did us, indeed.
They dedicated the book to us!!!! 😭😭😭💚💚💚 Happy book birthday HA and Mod R!
The CLIFFHANGER!! WWWWWHHHHHYYYYYY!!!! I loved the book! The rich world building, the details of the dress, the description of the dursan, the new brother, Maggie’s loyal people, the audacity of Arvel, the hairpin gesture, sushi!! All of the love and fun this book brought to my day. I can’t thank you all enough! And that’s just my first read through. I shall return again after a more attentive study to converse!!
Best book
Birthday!!
Friends, I am SHOOKETH.
Just finished the book, tomorrow on to the audiobook.
SHOOKETH.
Just finished it. Just wow. Reading about Maggie and the world of Rellas was amazing. It is such a textured and brilliantly complex story. The world building, the amazing plot twists and surprising end( satisfying but made me crazy) was great. Ilona Andrews is truly a master story teller. Thank you so much. Now to read it again…
I’m only on page 24 but couldn’t help but wonder where the writer of the story has disappeared to! I haven’t had the chance to read comments because I’m working a lot of nights with work. I’ll finish when I do so I don’t want to read any comments. Thanks Ilona Andrews for another story. So excited!!
I’m busy until tonight at which point I’m sure I will not sleep at all!!!! so exciting!!!
Happy Book Birthday 📖 📚 🎂 🎉 I loved it!!!
Oh wow. The only good thing about having Covid this week is that I’ve been home to devour this book in a day and a half!
(It’s 12.05pm April 1st here)
I see what you did there..😉 Hope you feel better soon!
Happy book birthday! House Andrews absolutely knocked it out of the park! The characters! The drama! The plot twists! That ending… I’m off to start my first re-read while I practice my chalantness…
So sad. No Hugh. No Derek & Julie. No Conan, no Wilmington. Great storytelling to get me invested in Maggie, and now a cliffhanger. Why? I feel like I’m being toyed with…😞
Conlan, not Conan. Damn autocorrect…
the EYES have it!
Just finished it, well worth staying up to read, although my wrists are not used to hardbacks anymore but I couldn’t wait for the ebook on Thursday.
I felt very justified in chapter 23 since I suspected it but couldn’t think how.
But Sir Bellen blindsided me and then to hang us on a cliff of such monumental heights?
It’s Everest proportions, this is not on. . . when is book two coming out, I want to speak to Steve, I am not chalant!!
Happy book birthday! It’s as amazing as we all knew it would be.
But that ending was just cruel considering we already have to… *shudders*… w*it… for the next one.
I’m just barely into it, and I love it beyond measure. Thank you, Ilona and Gordon! And thank you, Mod R for everything you do to keep the BDH in line and happy.
OMG, couldn’t put it down. Stayed up until 3am in the morning with a 6am alarm. Finally finished during my lunch break and now dreading the long wait for the next instalment. Pleaaaase let it be soonish.
So excited for this series!!! I lol, I giggled, I screamed and I cried. I love this book so much I can’t fully put it into words. Thank you!
I’m so excited to find out more about the world and how Maggie is going to save the world. Also I feel like the hair clip is going to become my new metal rose. Like Maggie of course he loves you! You’re amazing! And she looks so beautiful in green. But omg the back and forth with Sol and the dance with Lord Arvel wow. I was having so much fun. I love the loyalty Maggie shows to her friends and how she fights to do the right thing even when it’s hard. She’s an inspiration and she brings hope to world that needs it. The future might be fighting her but she can’t die and she’s not willing to lose.
It is my considered opinion that “It is a fine, long-standing tradition to not give a **** about what the Savarics think” is one of the finest lines House Andrews has ever written.
I liked that too. I knew from that conversation that he fully 8n tended to marry her.
I thought as much, sooner, but certain from that.
Hearts!
All the feels! 🙂
Many thanks to IA and Mod !
I started reading this book at 12:30 pm and it is now nearly 24 hours later and I just came up for air. I devoured this book (together with a box of donuts & countless cups of coffee), it is amazing! I love the story, the characters, the intrigue! I couldn’t physically put it down. F*** sleep, F*** walking around like a zombie at work! Oh gosh, I just realized it will be another year before book 2 is released. Panic mode
I started reading this book at 12:30 pm and it is now nearly 24 hours later and I just came up for air. I devoured this book (together with a box of donuts & countless cups of coffee), it is amazing! I love the story, the characters, the intrigue! I couldn’t physically put it down. F*** sleep, F*** walking around like a zombie at work! Oh gosh, I just realized it will be another year before book 2 is released. Panic mode
I haven’t gotten as far as I would have liked. Right now it’s bedtime and I’m trying to decide how late I’m going to stay up reading. And so far my favorite part is the discussion after the barrel of salt has been purchased.
oh… my…god. OH MY GOD!!!! O_O
Diving back in to chapter 24!
I was waiting for this. pretty much woke up and started reading.
I love everything about this book. The world, the scheming, the sass! It’s beautiful.
Also I have never been so deeply betrayed and yet reassured by an author. That cliffhanger is brutal, but word is the second book is already in progress, so okay!
Best wishes on your health and life and writing!
Happy book birthday! I read a lot of portal and isekai fantasy and this is right up with the very, very best – in fact I can’t think of any that is better. The world building is just so strong and gritty and varied and the unfolding of the story is edge of your seat stuff. I was going to read straight through but found my self having to take breaks to catch my breath. Thank goodness it was the Author Lords writing it because I really needed their trademark funny bits. Questions – so many questions – is there another undying – the ends suggests it – and if so, is he also from our world or the bridge between our worlds or Latour writing his own story and now annoyed because it’s been hijacked…
It came this afternoon….I’ve held it in my hands and I can hardly wait to open that beautiful cover! Swoon
I took a vacation day off work so I could read this. I just finished and it was soooooooooooo worth it! I am screaming!!
I could write so much about my feelings and how great it was but i am 100% sure you all are right there with me, so I won’t.
Just omg about everything! and the ending AHHHHHHH! I couldn’t believe that’s where they left us! ( Ĭ ^ Ĭ♡ )
I absolutely love Maggie and her attitude, (the bite me comment was perfect). I have already finished it and am starting the reread–stayed up way too late reading last night). Thank you for such a realistic and wonderful world.
Have read 38% of the book so far and it is the most amazing book I have read in a long time. I can not put this down. So impressed I googled where to find the Author so I could say how much I am enjoying this read. I do not want to leave this world. Fantastic, wow 🤩
Welcome to the Horde! One of us, one of us 🙂
Welcome to the BDH! We are a very nice group who can get, shall we say, excited about all things Ilona Andrews.
Mod R is our wrangler and generally chief of everything while HA is doing their thing.
Enjoy the other books in the different series!
One of us! One of us!
Welcome to the Horde!
Happy book birthday!!!
IMO this is the best book Author Lords have written yet. I think the best thing for this story was letting go and writing a loooong one. The story took its time to establish major and at first seemingly minor details, characters, relationships and plot points, and thanks to that every twist and turn felt so intense. I was so invested. Everything felt so real and I wanted more more more, I just couldn’t put the book down and stayed up until 4:30 AM, but it was so worth it!
The reveal/ betrayal from chapter 23 was raw and intense and it kept me guessing about motivation behind every one of the Betrayer’s action, before and after that point! Ahhh! So good! I only started to waiver in the last chapter after the gift Maggie has received, but then it was all cut short because House Andrews do cliffhangers after all!!!
I wish I could fast forward the today so I was off work already and could start a reread!
Thank you House Andrews for taking the risk with this book, this series. Thank you for taking the Horde along for the journey of finishing and publishing it.
And thank you for Mod R for your wonderful job and guidance on the blog.
The thing I keep wondering about the most is WHY The Mystery Man From the Garden took interest in Maggie right here and there. Her entrance to the Garden was noticeable of course, but even if that was unusual, there is really no indication that she might be peculiarly interesting. And The Mystery Man was very very interested.
I reckon that either
1. butterflies swarming Maggie caught his interested because it shows she is much more than she looked at the moment, and later pursued the contact because they keep crossing paths
2. or he has some deeper knowledge and somehow knew/ recognized that Maggie is not from their world. Maybe there are more people who have been transported to Rellas, and he know some or of them?
Also dying to know what it is up with the author of the books. Writers not finishing series or not writing a sequel for a very long time is nothing unusual in our world here, but in the context of Maggie being transported into Rellas, this is very suspicious! Maybe he is stuck in Rellas… of he is from Rellas and was transported into our world… but then, how does he know so much? It isn’t just the recounting if the events, he knows deepest secrets, inner thoughts, past long hidden and almost forgotten…
Also, how fun to notice and meta with Maggie thinking about “random scenes that in the next book turned out to be super important” and then experiencing exactly that! I’m so glad the story unfurled so patiently with its mysteries and we still do not know so much!
Maggie herself is a wonderful character. It was great to see her calculating, manipulating and at time backstabbing people, using every drip of knowledge she has, but keeping her integrity and morals. This is a perfect mix because we see someone who is smart, careful and does their best, and their mistakes feel honest, true and human, not just a device to push the narrative forward. Maggie showed the people of Rellas who she is and I feel many many many of them will be just as upset with the turn of events in the last chapter as we the readers were, heh.
I was thinking about power imbalance in relationship between Maggie and Reynald, considering how unfair it is to enter a new relationship when one person knows so much about the other and already does have – if one sided – relationship with the other. Kind of like parasocial relationships work and how dangerous it can get for both parties, if they ever meet. Then my speculations about morals of this situation went up in flames lol as much bigger issue revealed itself.
I also thought that the man from the garden recognised Maggie (not her face necessarily, but maybe her magic?). It could be the butterflies (who are attracted to magic like other creatures that Maggie has attracted). But if the man from the garden is also the man who chased Maggie outside the garden, then maybe he knew she was important just by looking at her. Which makes me wonder: was it because he had something to do with summoning her, or is there a way he (maybe others too?) were also summoned? I’m sort of thinking summoner mages from hidden legacy: they use portals and summon creatures to fight their battles for them. Is it a big leap to think that maybe a mage would summon someone who could affect the timeline? Maybe someone with useful magic, armed with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the timeline that needs to be changed- resurrection could be a gift from the summoner or magic that the summonee (hmm, looks like that’s not actually a word ;P) already had. There might even be competing summoners, each working towards their own ends.
1. I wonder if Maggie got engaged without knowing it when she put the hair ornament in?
2. How will Maggie’s level of magic and her understanding of languages play into the series?
3. Feel like there’s potential for the villain to be redeemed in Book two, as it seems the only options for next king are him, the second son, or the perfect knight. Then Book 3 would be how everyone comes together to fight the Crimson Kingdom threat.
I loooove theory 1.
I agree completely! There were times where I was shouting out laughter that was “hey, I recognize that humor, that’s HA right there!.” Like when Lute says “Hey, Maggie? Survive, get paid.” Such a guild thing right there.
And then there was Maggie’s own distinct personality. I did NOT feel like I was hearing Kate or Nevada or Dina in my head. But boyo, do I love her as much!! Have since Day 1 ….how many years ago was that original snippet, anyone remember?!?!?
I am so amazed at how HA has expanded our world with this book. I knew if was gonna be big, and they did not disappoint on any page!
Oops! That was supposed to be in reply further up the comment chain. sorry!!
Having sooo much fun with everyone’s comments when I’m supposed to be working!
I’m hoping the hair thingy has some kind of tracking magic Everard can use to follow Maggie when she disappears…..
If not, the Harzi creature is still with Lute and I would bet Maggie’s dress from her time with the Butcher was saved by Everard, not to mention I’m sure Clover would supply hair from her brushes.
ooh, great point.
it’s like a Rellas version of CSI. 🤣🤣🤣
The grumpy Harris bird thing bit Maggie. I believe that once it bites someone it can always find them. Haven’t gotten that far in my second read, so could b wrong…
One last thought. Will there be restriction for the second in command that deliberately let Maggie get hurt? Feels like the other people that know her clocked that.
+1
Real last questions. Will the events of the last chapter influence the king’s behavior towards people he hates because they came together to kind of help him?
+1
I wouldn’t hold my breath. The character you are thinking of has helped the kingdom many times before, and it hasn’t stopped the King from trying to kill him. The king may be forced to honor him again, for appearances, but he will not be grateful for the fact his heir is yet again being out shown by his contemporaries.
I SWEAR I saw a post about House Andrews not writing cliff hangers!! THAT epilogue is not would I would call “not a cliff hanger.” Now I will have to w*it. For Maggie 2. I guess I know how Maggie feels.
Don’t worry, I still devoured and loved the book! Might be my favorite House Andrew’s book yet. and I LOVED the plot twist in Chapter 23! The romantic sub plot was not working for me up until that point (character compatibility was all off) but that little twist made it all make sense. I will have to read again once I catch a little sleep!
Happ book birthday to our author lord.. all the way from India..
Wat a book !!!!! Couldn’t keep it down even after trying too … and the characters… if so intriguing…. Can’t wa*it for book 2…that cliffhanger was just wat 🧐🧐🧐
I think for book 2 they should start with flow chart of all the characters and their relationship 🙈… coz keeping all of them straight was definitely a task while trying to figure out all the plots and subplots 🤭
happy book birthday
is it really a cliffhanger if the plot of the book is finished? or is it the start of a new book? it was just ….
I can’t even
loved the book!!! It sucked me in and spit me out at 3am for 2 days straight.
so vivid and detailed and…
I want sushi as a pet.
the re-read will have to wait since I need something fluffy at the moment but it’s coming soonish.
thanks IA and modR
I read for 17 hours strait.
I am not kidding. Sleep? who needs that? Food? unimportant. Work? to my eternal shame, I called in sick.
That was not the Plan. The Plan was to wait till midnight and read 1 or 2 hours, go to sleep, go to work and have the book looking forward to. I did wait till midnight. I read for 2 hours and didn’t stop. At 9 am I called in sick at work. I didn’t eat, I snacked choclat an chips. At 5 pm my eyes gave out. Words blurred, Lines crossed, Sentences didn’t make sense so I gave in to my annoying bodily weakness and slept. Now I have close to 30% left and count the minutes until work is finally done so I can continue reading.
I AM OBSESSED!!!
THE WAIT WAS WORTHIT!!!!
THANK YOU HAUSE ANDREWS!!! I LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!
Holy moly. That. Was. FANTASTIC!
Confession: I’ve been a bit angry and resentful of Maggie. With the wait for her book and other things being pushed to the back burner (which I totally get, really I do), I went from Team Chalant to Team Dushegub. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVED Beast Business and The Inheritance, but those were more like delicious snacks. Really tasty treats that I will definitely gobble up again and again, but I’ve needed a MEAL. I knew for a fact that Kate, Julie, Hugh, Maud, and/or Dina would definitely fill me up. I couldn’t be so sure of Maggie. Well, now I’m sure.
This Kingdom wasn’t a meal. It was a FEAST!! Thank you House Andrews. I am fully sated (well, for now. You know how we are). That book was so good, I can even overlook the cliffhanger. So much depth. So much to discover. So many new friends to cherish. As always, you’ve given me all the feels. I will now strangle my inner Dushegub and rejoin Team Chalant (though honestly Mod R, the only proper response to that one question was to burn it with fire).
P.S. I ended up listening to the whole book rather than switching when my hardcover arrived, as I normally would have since reading with my eyes is faster than with my ears. All credit for that to Kristen Sieh. Her narration was off the charts good! Best new listen I’ve had in ages.
I am so glad you liked Kristen, she is so good and worked so hard! ❤️
Kristen is so good, I may actually prefer her to GA eventually (though I absolutely will get that too, just to compare, you understand ^^)
Agree wholeheartedly! Kristen Sieh is a wonderful narrator. She really helps bring the characters to life. Looking forward to both a re-read and re-listen!
If you had dropped Maggie on top of my TBR pile, with no cover, and no author credit, I still would have known it was them due to the very realistic, and unrealistic, worries of the leading lady and the absolute impenetrability of the main male lead
Being Neurodivergent, I spend too much time in my own head and others seem like fortress walls when I attempt to understand them
Luckily my lovely wife of 27 years uses her words and Gordon writes incredible male POVs to compliment the main novel’s lady POV
Thanks House Andrews
No clue how they can top this book
No pressure
PS The adoption was my favorite part of the book since found family is a huge warm hug for me
PPS But the magic duel was my second favorite part. Because. Grey bearded, TTRPG, Nerd
I loved the adoption! I hope we get to see more interactions with her found family. Sol is clearly dead serious about it, and her new brother seems truly delighted.
Okay, look, I have so much I want to say. But I want to start with how IA so skillfully showed us that Maggie was lonely but not alone in her “real” life.
And also YES to my fellow Horde and “Green suits you, Maggie.”
Dollars to donuts the author of the Kair Toren books is the archmage/a mage (Latour, mage tower.. ) 🙂
I’m leaning toward Matheo, because the POV inside of heads thing. The Far-seeing properly developed. I know the books says he died, but its possible he only nearly died and wrote it that way to keep Maggie in dark. I do think Isadau is part of the equation as well, after ascending to the top two levels (I’m guessing Space and Time).
Matheo is far seeing, but cannot see into peoples minds and he does not know what happened to his dad before he was born. So I am definitely on the side of the arch mage, or some other mage from the tower.
My theory is that part of what makes Maggie undying is that she is not from this world, so her soul is somewhere else while her body is being repaired by magic.
Ok, so assuming that we are taking Latour as a clue for tower from House Andrews, there would be a few options.
1) the Mage Tower is the most obvious tower in the book – but the Archmage doesn’t have any clear motive for isekai’ing Maggie. Isadora would be a possibility, but how could she do this in the state she was in?
2) Berengur has a tower as part of his shield design – but probably doesn’t have the magic to do so
3) Matheo is part of the Redeemer Tower and has some kind of spacial magic (farseeing)
4) Eagle Roost (Royals) had a tower but it doesn’t seem that major a part of the royal family’s identity
5) Silveren leads the Redeemer knights, and is the head of their tower but what possible motive could he have for bringing Maggie over? – he managed to topple the royal family in the original timeline, and is the power behind the throne by the end.
1) I think we’d be dealing with a future Isadau. In the original timeline the Archmage must have healled Isadau eventually, hence Maggie knowing the spell. I think those theorical levels of mages mentioned are going to be key to what happened.
3) Matheo’s far-seeing feels think the only way the author is able to be inside people’s heads.
5) It would be cool with Silveren rounded out this trio. I would nice if after witnessing the horror his vengeance wrought he learned to regret his choices. I was toying with the idea that Maggie may be his daughter, given her ability to break his Call and come back to life , which he may have. He sends Maggie back through time and space with Matheo to be raise on Earth with the books to prepare her for her return.
Do we know that for sure? The author controls how much information about Far-Seeing Maggie knows. Also Matheo’s young, the author would be him in the future having developed more control over his abilities, which like the one-eyed Raven GOT stuff, could been he can see into the past. The stuff he knew about Hreban was quite detailed on his thought process regarding. I suppose he could have discussed his thinking with someone, but he’s so arrogant, I have some trouble seeing it. I do agree an ascended archmage (top two as of yet theoretical level) has to be involved in her arrival. My money is on Isadau.
That is an interesting theory, but Silveren’s recovery has me wondering if she isn’t the only one with that gift in Rellas. My main questions swirl around the many gifts she has. I’d be more willing to put down the undying thing to her being from Earth, if she didn’t also have the perfect recall and the universal translator. I don’t know if they are inherited (Maggie being born in Rellas theory) or bestowed by an archmage (future Isadau). So many questions…
I agree that it makes sense that a mage might be involved in Maggie getting pulled into the world and/or wrote the books. I feel that the undying and the languages come from the same spell that pulled her in, but the perfect recall might be part of her own (developing) magic along with being able to figure out how to affect the outcome of her actions in order to fix the timeline so the kingdom doesn’t burn- in the last few chapters, the original timeline is skewed, but Maggie still seems to know exactly what to do to nudge it in the right direction- like magic!^^
Matheo may have a bigger part to play later, or he might be just a display of a rare magic talent, that the -as yet unknown- author also has.
Silveren’s throat wasn’t slit and we haven’t seen him regrow any limbs, so he may or may not be undying, let’s spend months arguing about it😈
Yeah, but they trained her to hit the femoral artery when she attacks with a dagger and then made her practice A LOT. AND she stabbed him at least 4 times. So even if she missed the femoral artery on the first one, she got several do-overs. HA loves us way too much to just shrug and be like, “welp, she missed. Moving on.”
You’re right, I’m on my (maybe fourth? lost count) re- listening and I just noticed how Maggie was taught how to hit the femoral artery. Not instant death, but within a few minutes and the antagonist did disappear within a few minutes I think, so maybe we have a second undying character. Which makes me wonder if resurrection is a rare kind of magic that these two characters have or if it comes from being summoned into Rellas. Which now makes me wonder how a character that was born there got summoned- was he sent away as a child, for his safety and then summoned back, or is this a pretender?
I said it above but maybe he had hafia on hand.
“They’re medicinal in nature. They help to stem the blood flow from open wounds.”
Yes, not necessarily undying, just has access to magical healing. A slit throat or a severed limb would require resurrection but a bleeding wound (even several of them) might be ok if treated within minutes- and he disappears within seconds.
The key question is how exactly does Matteo’s farseeing work? Does he see the scene from inside someone’s head, including their thoughts etc? Or does he view the scene from outside any living person’s viewpoint? If he can watch from inside someone’s head, I’d say the odds of him being the author go up tremendously.
Plus an archmage, probably Isadau, eventually.
Dear BDH, I am frustrated. Where are all those spoilers that you promised? The book will not be available to me for another day- Amazon wouldn’t even sell me the preview. I only read the preview a couple of days ago, when I found mention of Reactor in the blog, so now I just can’t w*it. In case I haven’t been clear enough: I WANT SPOILERS! Just give me something, anything; people who don’t want spoilers won’t be reading this until they finish the book, but I actually don’t care. I’m starting a re-read as soon as I finish the first read and I hate surprises anyway- surely there are more people like me? Can’t you be kind and indulge us? Sadly I understand that it’s too late now and by the time someone takes pity on me, I’ll have access to the actual book, but I’d like to take this opportunity to beg for spoilers when the next two books are out, I’m certain the suffering will be worse then. Some people have tried asking spoilery questions, but no one has answered- come on! Just give us some facts and sone hints to tide us over until tomorrow, pretty please? With cherries and whipped cream and chocolate on top?
Trying to be respectful of the kind ask about chapter 23! That twist changes so much and puts everything into new perspective that it is really hard to write spoilers without touching on that bit! I’m sorry you’re suffering, but it is so so worth it!!!
Not a spoiler, but an aside: Have some fun and look into the Soap Making process in preparation 😀 on the way to a monopoly, if you ask me
Spoiler: if you think the right male lead hasn’t appeared yet, he has appeared.
I’m in the same camp with you, an avid spoiler devourer, so I guess… I’ll offer you some?
#1 This book takes place over the course of two months. And in that time, Maggie, who starts out as a barefoot “beggar” with no material assets and not even an identity, rises dramatically in social station.
#2 Maggie meets many hot and powerful men, but from the most noteworthy 4–two become her suitors, one becomes family, one becomes the greatest danger.
#3 It often goes like this: Maggie uses her book knowledge to avert a bad thing. But then, a worse thing from the story happens ahead of time in reality (i.e. the original story’s timeline accelerates).
My indie bookshop is holding out on me! They den*d me the hardcover, ’cause it officially drops tomorrow and by threat of existence they aren’t allowed to give it to me earlier. I saw it! lt was right there behind the counter! I discussed, I snarled and waved my limbs. Alas, to no avail! I failed at dushegubbing. We all know what they do with failures. There is no member of the horde around to save me.
Off now to arm myself with a chainsaw, cause as fertilizer I won’t make it to the bookshop tomorrow. Gahhhh! Barsa!
Too late now, but do they have a policy preventing u from holding the book? Maybe, reading it a little? Still in the store, ofc. Do they have an out of the way spot u might sit and read, just for a few minutes? Or hours? (Blinks innocently)
And it’s dedicated to me – a chalant member of the Horde *swoons 😍❤️😍
*does many happy dances
I AM LOVING MAGGIE!
Thank you thank you thank you
*paroxysms of new book joy
Happy Book Day!!!!! haven’t read it, even though I got the ebook.
I am going to get a hard copy…Yay!
I’m halfway through the physical book and starting the audiobook this morning! This book isn’t long enough haha, I don’t want it to end! Congratulations on your book birthday, and happy happy new book day to the Horde.
Oh it is so wonderful! Yesterday morning, my regional Library had 1 copy – GONE! But I would be next!
By the afternoon it was on Libby and by dinner time I had it!!!!!!!
Thanks to the preview read I’m about half way through (Dinner was throw some Ravioli in boiling water, heat up some sauce and done! Some ice cream afterwards served up by my Hubby as I read!)
And NO Spoilers from me.
I do have a question, but I can’t ask it without talking about Chapter 23 – so if this is too cryptic to understand, please forgive me. How did one person know that the other person would be looking for him?
Kept reading and found out the answer to my question. No details too small for House Andrews!
I love it! I absolutely LOVE this book!
Yesterday i started reading but when my eyes doesn’t cooperate and i started listening to the audiobook “10am to 4 am” , for the last 3 hours to the ending i couldn’t stay awake, finished it just now , it was beautiful , fun and addictive. When my head and eyes recovers the continious sleeplessness, i will read it too.
I loved it, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I’ve read the book trough the night. The happiest coincidence was my day off today. Unfortunately I have to go to work tomorrow so I desperately need to fight the urge to reread it at once.
Thank you my fav authors for the great pleasure of reading Maggie!
Is there a possibility for one nice post that gathers all the art that was created for This Kingdom? Or maybe it already exists? I saw an ad with Sleepless Duke’s art and I don’t think I’ve seen it here.
Once the reveals are over! 🥰
I just finished reading—and I LOVED it. I loved it so, so, so much!
Now, though… I need more. I need it NOW. There was a cliffhanger… there was NOT supposed to be a cliffhanger! What am I supposed to do? How am I going to survive the wait for the next book? It’s killing me.
To be honest, I was a bit worried going in. There was so much hype. I love everything by Ilona Andrews, but I thought this level of buildup would be almost impossible to live up to.
And yet—this book didn’t just meet the hype, it absolutely smashed it while somehow still aiming higher. I already considered them masters of the genre, but with this… I’m honestly speechless. This was truly incredible work.
Now the wait begins anew…
I took the day off from work.. I had pre ordered the hardback, but I knew I just couldn’t wait… and I was right!!
The dive to Kair Toren was spectacular.. I just reread and reread over and over again.. Thank you for this walk on the wild side!!
I really do not mean to pressure you, but is there any timeline for Maggie 2?
Again thank you for this gift that is your world building!!
Have now finished the book. Chapter 40 twist was less of a shock than the chapter 23 one, but only because I was less invested in that character.
The reveal during the climax at the end of the story felt like an “I knew it” moment, even though I did not call it in advance.
The cliffhanger was mean, though.
I have IRL things to do this morning so it will be at least noon before I can start rereading, until then Barsa.
This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me: I can’t believe it, I usually I get new releases a few months into the year from my library. I was actually able to get the first copy from my library yesterday…. and I am too busy to do more than open the first chapter and read the first page. This weekend I should be able to dive in! I love my library! Happy Reading to all!
I loved the ball thingy, it was so fantastic, bellen is a delight! I love ramond and all that drama, it’s just so wonderful. all the flirting and delicate dancing and mayhem and murder and soap making! why did she not apply for a licence 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 honestly a loose end that must be tied up. the found family in this story is so wonderful. there’s so much heart.
I think a licence will be aquired soon and fund a new soap monopoly. part of me things they delayed because first there was no identity to share and then it was too juicy to let her new surname be found
That’s why she w*ited to apply for the soap license! To keep her name secret! Well, and at first she didn’t have her ID papers.
Does it count as a reread, if immediately after finishing you jump back into the book and already search for your favourite scenes?
The funny bits, the action bits, the emotional heartwrenchers, the few kisses we got @-@ I feel wrung out after this emotional roller coaster and I need eyedrops to soothe my tired eyes. Stopping after hours of reading for a break? Not on my watch!
The only thing protecting my sanity is the knowledge that IA are already finishing up Maggie #2
This book has not killed me, but it is already living in my head rent free. Not a single Den was paid and Maggie and her company still monopolize all the brain space…
The cliffhanger!!!! Is he suddenly Undying like Maggie?
…please help… no sanity left…
I wondered about his recovery as well. Could be a hidden family power (and Maggie turns out to be a relative). Also could be the Archmage healing him. So many questions!
ooh! A hidden family power… I love it!
My prediction is he’s the author! That’s why he didn’t finish the last book in the real world and why he’s undying in Rellas
I am not done, but how can you ban chapter 23??? read faster people!! <3
Loved it!
Immediately started to read it when it dropped at midnight. Read till I finished it took a nap for a few hours and immediately started reading it again when I woke up. 😝🤓😀 just finished it again.
Excellent all around. Gonna read it again when I wake up.
It was so much fun getting caught up in the story and speculating and speculating. I did figure out the underlying bad guy pretty quick but knowing didnt detract from the story at all.
Its probably been mentioned at some point but what is the approximate maggie 2 book date? Haha Thanks house andrews for another wonderful adventurous escape into another world!
No official date yet for Maggie 2, manuscript is still being written 🙂
It’s being published through Tor. All the main publishers seem to be on a one per year schedule, at least all my other favorite authors who use traditional publishing seem to have only one book per year for a particular series. A few authors publish more books in a year but only one per series. Sadly, I bet they make us wait until March 2027 for Maggie 2.
I’m guessing March 2028 😭
Honestly, I think March 27 is probably a bit too early.
IA are still writing the second book and while it seemed they were closed to finishing it, they now have the release tour, which is going to delay stuff. And I think they have written only the first draft (and still have to finish it) . Afterwards it will need several rounds of edits and rewriting. A process that will take multiple months all on its own. And from what little I know, publisher prefer to have some months between the “final” edit and the book getting published (to ensure ARCs… etc…).
With Maggie 1 they had already finished the edits many months earlier (I think it was first half of 2025?). And Tor may want to mantain that breathing “room” between one book and the other.
Plus, they would probably want HA to start writing the third book by the time the second one is published to ensure the publishing schedule between one book and the other remain similar and there is no “delay”.
The way I see it, late 2027 is probably the earliest. Tough it wouldn’t surprise me if the second book would be pushed to early 2028.
Especially if you consider that IA may want to write other books in their other series (final two Innkeeper books, Wilmington 3, Breach Wars 2…etc…) between one Maggie book and the other.
Because yeah, that ensure that we get “fed” and keep us happy (and hopefully it helps IA creativity?) but it also means that they obviously can’t just jump in the following Maggie book. They are only humans and have only so much time they can spend writing and they can only write so fast.
But hey, if Maggie 2 will be out March/April 2027 I will be the first one to celebrate it and be super happy about it.
No. Maggie 2 in March 2027 or bust.
OMG! They dedicated this book to the BDH! Best authors ever!
I spent all of yesterday (my day off. It just worked out that way) listening to This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me. I laughed, I cried, and I enjoyed every moment. of courfe there was an occasional time of swearing at The Authors for events. then I get to the end and my first thought was, “I now.have to wait until the next book.” really
I know I will listen several times. (my best way to know a good book.) This is a great story, and huge cast of characters great and small. Really even the fish mystery had me going. I had a thought at first that it was a magic hiccup because Maggie went into the river the first time she died.
loved it can’t wait for the next.
I spent all yesterday (minus obligations) devouring this book. Not done yet so I am not reading the comments. Per usual House Andrews has knocked it out of the park. So so good. Cherry on the top is I get to lay eyes on House Andrews in person at tonight’s book tour!!!!!!
In some way the Chapter 23 reveal didn’t surprise me like others in the Horde. There were clues in the chapters before that on that made me suspect that he (not revealing any names due to Mod R’s request) was someone important enough to get people to back off from Maggie.
Also, Maggie caught his eye extremely early in the book when he gave her those coins. (This is a huge hint without giving anything too much away.) He must have some glamour in his magic to not give away his true eye color like we read in Chapter 23.
I’m still reading the book, so I haven’t gotten to Chapter 40 yet. I might be close, but like with everyone else, I just keep on reading.
From what I’m gathering from the rest of the Horde, we are all going to be like Frodo in Return of the King when he is hanging on for dear life when dangling over the flowing lava after the ring melted. 😉🤣🤣🤣🤣
He doesn’t actually glamour his eyes at all. Clock in in the reread, it’s mentioned a few times 🙂
wohooo, just put my paws on it in Czech republic, so now coffee, cake and off to reading marathon
I skipped the spoilers here.
I am…savouring this book, like fine wine. Not gobbling it all at one sitting, like I usually do, with Ilona and Gordon’s books. Its so dense, the worldbuilding is so thorough, I’m taking it slow.
Thank You. 🧡🧡
I have mixed feelings right now. I don’t get my book until tonight at the book signing. So disappointed I can’t start reading yet…butI get to see House Andrews today!!
This is more of a publishing question, but maybe Mod R knows. Yesterday This Kingdom was #14, today of course it’s #1 for Kindle and Hardback on Amazon. My question is why a paperback version is $52.29, twice the price of the hardback?
It may be just how Amazon does business, but it seems weird to me.
It’s not a publishing question 🙂 . You are looking at a private seller, so a 3rd party outsider who sets their own prices.
I am at chapter 30 of audiobook. Dynamics between Maggie and Everheart reminds me of famous Here, kitty kitty scene. XD Enjoying it very, very much…
WOOT! Have the book & am holding off reading it (ahem, will TRY to hold off reading it) until my trip to Chicago Monday morning. Well, at least until I’m in the TSA line waiting to clear Security.
Wow!
Magical and so twisty !
Wonderful !
Trying so hard to be fluffy …will reread many times to unlock hidden details …
There are so many secrets !
Rest …relax and then…more please !
Maggie arrived yesterday (Tuesday). I finished the book at 4 am this morning (Wednesday)! Yes, it was worth getting only 4 hours of sleep. I’m not commenting on anything. But of now my brain is demanding to know when the next Maggie book will be released. I realize that is an unrealistic demand…Thank you for another wonderful adventure.
Next release I’ll figure out how to take a day off, maybe two! Omg I loved this book so much, I neet to finish work so I can start the first reread of many!
I’m a civil/structural engineer and I’m pretty sure some of my family thinks I’m ’some sort of architect’, that was so accurate. I know she was translating but it was real.
I have questions, how did the MMC fit through the hole in the bathroom at the beginning when Maggie couldn’t? Magic? Will we be getting some male POV’s someday? Who was the character named after a fan in a contest?
Great book! I read it in like 24 hours ❤️ looking forward to all the art drops.
The “Get-a-character-named-after-you” contest was for The Inheritance – and the winners got named as guild members of Cold Chaos in the final chapters, if memory serves 🙂
Maggie had a couple of please suggest names posts, but I can’t remember exactly which one made it in now 🙂
Thanks!
So, Mod R, I was going to ask if Ilona and Gordon are fans of Guy Gavriel Kay, because Everard and Savaric are both names that show up in A Song for Arbonne. And now that you mention the naming contest… I wonder if *I* suggested either of those names???!!! Because I definitely participated in that…. And even if not, I am totally going to pretend that I did! Totally chalant! team Facts Be Damned!!!
oooh!!! I thought the same thing about A Song for Arbonne when I saw the names (also Aelis was used too).
I may have to go back and re-read GGK while w*iting for Maggie 2 (after a reread or 2 of This Kingdom of course).
I know this one. The tiny hand dug tunnel connected to the main hallway from the inside the cell. That main hallway had the secret exit. The small fry went through the tunnel and into the main corridor and opened the secret door for the Mighty Sword Fighter Dude from the inside. Mighty Fighter waltzed into the dungeon proper, albeit very stealthily.
Mighty Fighter, once kid opened the secret door into the house, walked (stealthily) thru a normal sized hallway to the dungeon. Just to clarify.
I read it. I read it all. Now I’m sad. Where are the words? I need more words. I’ll re-read at least six of seven times. Then I will be sad again.
Happy release day! I finished it this morning and now feel so mournful that there is no more to read. It was amazing and of course I stopped midway (after plot twist) to reread the previous chapters with new insight.
We are so blessed with this first book in a trilogy. Thank you IA 🙂
The book is amazing, as usual, and I already gobbled it down. I usually feel guilty for immediately whining for the sequel (I remember poor Ilona saying something like, “Can we not just have one DAY to be glad the book is out before you start this?), but this time I feel no guilt in my whining.
I hate cliffhangers with the power of a thousand suns! I have stopped reading in-progress series by certain authors because of it, but I am going to trust and believe this isn’t a new trend by House Andrews. I will honestly cry if we start to get a bunch of cliffhangers in our future.
Having said that, the book was in all other ways wonderful and I will start the reread as soon as I make myself grade the two sets of test papers I SHOULD have finished when I read “just a chapter or two— SUCH a lie” instead of finishing my grading. 🙂
That was incredible! Thank you so much!!!!
Happy (belated) book birthday, Maggie!
And guh. This was good. So so so good. And the love interest is amazing! I’m very proud of myself for figuring out Arvel from the first meeting between him and Maggie, but the cliffhanger!!! I figured it was coming from the way Maggie said the second book in her world was a cliffhanger, but nah!
Thank you, House Andrews for another amazing world to lose myself in … metaphorically, of course.
Ugh, stupid autocorrect. The nah should be a gah.
Wow , I’m still listening to the book but I couldn’t help and had to come here to tell you first how much I like it and how masterfully you presented our planet in their society
Eeepp!!! I’m so, so happy that Maggie is finally out in the world!! I have not stopped thinking about it since I read an arc last year!!
I’ve read Maggie thrice and I don’t know why but everytime I laugh at “Will it be fresh enough, Maggie?” LOL
Okay, question: Chapter 27 when you-know-who said “That’s one reason.” I want to know will we ever know the other reasons?!! Because I have thoughts and I need to know if I’m right??
Congratulations on the new release!!!
+1
I’m there with you… That last line in chapter 27 got me too!!
I’d like to know if we’ll get a POV short from him for this part, like Curran and Mad Rogan.
That would be awesome! I LOVE the POV shorts!
My LOL moment is “I will rule the city with my soft, clean hands.” My thought on the “one reason” was referring to the fact this went beyond his usual badassness. It’s has to do with his current emotional state. There’s a line from Home Alone 2 that goes “the way I’m feeling right now, no mugger or murderer would dare mess with me!” A normal person can become fierce and dangerous when their loved one is in jeopardy. He’s a killing machine on his most chill day. Given what he’s feeling after what just happened to Maggie, he’s a freaking atomic bomb.
It occurs to me that someone who studied “Power. How to acquire it, how to keep it, how not to abuse it.” might be a far better ruler than the current royal family of Rellas.
Of course, becoming Queen is not a HEA and HA promises us this trilogy would end with that. Still, Queen Marigold, First of Her Name has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
Well, she’ll be ruling Selva, which pretty much operates like its own country, so her education won’t be put to waste.
I got my book yesterday and started reading it last night.It is wonderful so far, I love all the descriptions and world building. I take things slower than I used to so I am enjoying it in bight size pieces. I get to savor it instead of bolting it down.
Happy Book Birthday
Work is getting in the way of reading. 😒 I had to stop for adulting. It is not okay. I’m loving it. I wanted to just stay home and finish it. I must w*it and have p*tience. Adulting sucks!
I stayed up until 4:30 am and I regret nothing . I’m also now looking up soap making classes . It will be a nice hobby to pick up while I not so patiently wait for the next book .
It seems like forever since I suggested TKWNKM to my library for purchase. OTOH, this meant I was able to borrow the ebook as soon as they got their copies since the current wait time is over 6 months. Definitely worth the wait.
I’ve returned the library copy early to allow someone else to be able to borrow the book and picked up a copy from Kobo for my re-read.
No theories yet just pure joy. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
When I first heard yall were working on a new story I was disappointed it wasn’t a new Innkeeper book, but I was wrong. I just finished Maggie and I can’t wait for my next read thru. Just Thank you, yall are amazing at what you do.
Maggie not letting corrupt, overly powerful political figures burn down a world she loves* resonated in the bones. Thank you, House Andrews. (*while enjoying sword muscles and delicious foods and contending with her own anxiety about keeping folks safe and plots and law…)
Oh I love this too! Pretty clear where some of the inspiration comes from. And Maggie has so much agency and is so smart. HA writes the best characters.
Thank you for the monumental effort. You know what would be REALLY funny? If you didn’t release the third book…Also, we would revolt.
A lot of people have quoted that fear 😀
It would be the “Member of the Book Devouring Horde” t-shirt graphic come to life.
Yes, but House Andrews can do a really funny thing and drop another character from another world into book one of trilogy three!
Happy book Birthday, MAGGIE!!
And now, my question. Is Latour a character we have met? I feel I now have to ask this question about everyone… for no reason whatever.
I wonder if everyone will come together for Maggie’s rescue (if Maggie doesn’t rescue herself first), or if it will be complicated by various people each wanting to be the “main” rescuer? Also curious to find out in the ballroom scene, when the Sleepless Duke’s people stare at her, she thinks it’s because of who she’s with, but what did he tell them beforehand about her that might also have caused them to stare?
Since the staring came prior to Arvel, I think its very much about Maggie. I don’t think he needed to tell them much. They know she got him to out himself with the Firefate and then track her down while the Conquers were looking for him. They were there when he personally carried her out of the Butcher’s lair with his telltale smoke revealing how upset he is. I’m sure he was a grumpy goose while they were separated and sent his people to check in with the Shears to check on her once they reached the city. If someone had that kind of power over your ruler, you’d stare too.
Jen is right again! Super comments: thanks much!
Enjoyed your thinking: thanks!
I’m pretty sure we all know who will get the word first that Maggie’s in need of rescue. Clover will gather Lute(tracking) and Will, plus their parents and it will go from there. I’m pretty sure he-who-sent-the-pretty-hairclip will b along before too long. If not, Gort has made his allegiance pretty clear.
I loved the story and the characters. I had some preconceived notions after reading the preview, and didn’t know how I’d end up feeling about the MC and the ML’s respective choices, but I ended up truly liking all the characters, main and secondary.
And I have questions… mostly about the ML, mostly because the narration is exclusively from Maggie’s pov.
***SPOILERS warning***
Maggie always assumes that the ML is emotionally insincere, that he’s just manipulating her in order to use her. So question #1 is–to what degree is that assumption true?
#2 Does the Duke know that Maggie is the beggar woman to whom he gave those coins?
#3 What do Sol and the Duke assume or suspect about Maggie’s true origins?
#4 Why didn’t the Duke want Maggie to be adopted? What did he mean when he told Sol that he had “forced his hand”?
#5 Why didn’t Sol and the Duke contact Maggie before the ball?
#6 Is Adrian Latour’s place of origin our world or Rellas?
1) The only manipulation he’s guilty of is what she figured out and he explained. His priority at first was saving Rellas, so he he had to either lie or resort to more hostile tactics to get her cooperation. No brainer there. As he’s getting to know her I’m sure he was hoping build up some goodwill to counter his reputation, like the song “I’m gonna keep my sheep suit on until you’ve been shown that I can be trusted walking with you alone.” I don’t think he’s ever deceived her emotionally. He’d have no reason to because he knows her goals are to spare the suffering of the people. If something bad was coming for his home, she’d tell him. The comparison she draws is unfair, because the other woman had her own family and people she would otherwise prioritize over him and Selva.
#2: Definitely. She told him she met him, and told him about a time in her life when a man’s coins saved her life. He also got a good look at her when they met. With that prompting he’d definitely figure it out. Its all in the subtext of him offering her the coin back and her refusing. That doesn’t hit unless she knows he knows.
#3: I think they know she’s from a country they’ve never heard of that’s far different from Rellas. Her English slips, her claims to be poor, but with an education, great hygiene, willingness to clean, and lack of instinctual deference. Also her attitude after waking up of worrying about the law after a mass murder. It speaks to a safer, softer, more egalitarian society.
#4: He plans to marry Maggie and he’s been in agreement up until this point with the Demarrs about public coolness between their families. Marrying a daughter of the family would announce to the world a far stronger alliance.
#5: I don’t think they appreciated how worried she was. He’s a scary dude who is very difficult to kill and he knew what danger to look for this time. The idea that Maggie would be that fearful of his demise didn’t cross his mind.
#6: I’m leaning towards Rellas, since they said how reclusive he is and no one knows what he looks like. Odd detail unless we get a tada moment later.
I spent the whole day yesterday reading the book and refusing to allow myself to read the spoiler thread. So glad I did it, the twists were awesome and the Arvel twist was especially amusing since I actually saw that one coming but totally got why Maggie didn’t. After all, she didn’t have gorgeous artwork of Lord Arvel that perfectly matched the description of Lord Bellen to refer to.
My big question is: “WHERE IS LATOUR?” I’m convinced that he ended up in Kair Toren too, and just like Maggie, he’s been messing with the story line, which is probably why the real Reynald died before she even got there. Could he be someone we haven’t met yet? Could he be Reynald himself? I’m wondering what the Horde conspiracy theorists are thinking?
Ha agree! As soon as she said she didn’t remember a Bellen from the books and we hadn’t met Arvel yet, I was like okay it has to be him.
The book was great!
Is it possible for a cast of characters to be posted or added to the next book? People come and go an I find it confusing on who is who.
The biggest unknowns that are driving me crazy is: How did Magee get into this world? What happened to the author who wrote the book? What’s the connection to Magee? Even Magee arrival has altered the world, is this an altered time line from the books or is the books getting rewritten. How does Magee get her happy for ever after?
I don’t think we’ve “met” Latour yet, but I 100% think he’s a Rellian(?) who got portaled to the “real world” wrote the books and then somehow got sucked back to Rellas. I think he wants out, figured out some way to get someone there who knew the world (perhaps based on her HS essay?) so they could help him save Rellas but leave it functioning not turn apart by civil war. My wild guess is Inhan. As the second prince, he would care about the country but would by all accounts want out.
Latour has to be older. Maggie was 15 or 16 when her mother gave it to her. She’s about 25 now. I think it might actually be the crazy king. Or as has also been mentioned the arch mage we haven’t even seen yet.
I’m not sure he does because it has to be time travel involved. The author has already lived through the events of the books and possibility many more years not recorded. Yet Maggie enters at an earlier point in time. I think a future version of Matheo is the author, because he enters people’s heads with his far-seeing and he may record what he sees. He could have lied about his own death.
Oh the other part of my comment cut off. Does anyone else think that Maggie’s family was killed in the “real world” and that’s what portaled her to Rellas? So that she may have had her big trauma after all. Also, it would eliminate the conflict she’s inevitably going to face when she’s faced with the return to reality or not choice. Alternatively, I think that as she stays in Rellas she will start to forget she wasn’t always there. She did keep mentioning forgetting about her family for stretches of time.
I think she’ll be able to say her goodbyes once Isadau ascends to the top to theoretical mage level (space and time). I think she’s forgetting about her family more and more because she has purpose her and is forming another family, so she’s not lonely most of the time. As for why she appeared, I think she was summoned. The books were released on Earth for a reason and I think that reason is Maggie. Latour has seen the future and wants it changed. She’s brought to Rellas because she is the only one who can. She was either chosen because she is originally from Rellas from a magically powerful family or she was picked because of what she wrote on the message boards.
I may be down under but my heart went up over (the moon) when I saw those eyes. I don’t do the ::Squee:: thing, but I do do ::lustful sighs::
O. M. G. Sublime, those eyes. I want. He is mine. Gimme. 😁
OMG!!!! Just finished audiobook and I am in AWE. There is so much to unpack. And the ending!!! I need a second read through. Immediately. Yes, back to the beginning. Thank you HA for another amazing world full of kick ass characters to fall in love with!
I loved the book and all of the characters. You always do so well at making me care about everyone who appears on the page. I consumed this story as voraciously as any card carrying member of the horde should.
I will say I didn’t like the cliffhanger. I never mind loose ends, but cliffhangers just give me anxiety and I generally dislike them in books. I dont feel like you need it to get me interested in reading the next book, your writing is compelling enough without it.
Anyway, I like that you broke out into a new series, loved the new world and I look forward to seeing more new creative things in the future. Congratulations on the book launch!
My nook malfunctioned like 3ish chapters from the end and went to someplace after the epilogue. I was very upset where I thought the book is ending. It’s a good thing I got to read the contents and see epilogue.
I agree with other people when they say this may be the best HA book yet. Absolutely loved every word. Loved the characters, the relationship, the world building…
Initially I wasn’t a fun of the potential love between Raynald & Maggie. It just didn’t convince me and made me grimace a bit, because Raynald was a 39 yo with a (missing) 15 yo old teenage son that should be full on mourning for his recently deceased wife. So him & Maggie falling in love just left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
And the way the story was written I just couldn’t see Maggie having another love interest.
Then chapter 23 happened…
Now, Maggie & her ML have other, very big, issues (and she has plenty of reasons to be reticent and is rightfully distrustful), but I enjoy them so much. Their dynamic is quite interesting and I love them.
The book was just great. I loved Clover, Kayden, the Magnars, Solentine, Sushi (love the name, so fitting)…
Really looking forward to the next book and see how things will evolve (how Maggie will get out of her situation, her relationship with Solentine and her noble family, her soap business, to know more of her magic, Latour…etc…).
Thanks so much for this wonderful book.
hi, I’m holding on until the physical book is delivered (after the Easter weekend…)… but I’m dying to know: who actually is the love interest? and: does galiene survive (and her daughter) due to the tips of Maggie early in the book?
Resist! You can do it 💪
First one is a spoiler House Andrews have asked us not to address just yet 🙂
Aargh!!! I am not allowed to start my journey yet! I have to wait for 2. more. whole. weeks. 🤯 I am not chalant.
Can we start an Easter Egg thread? Only one other BDH member has mentioned the “Your welcome has been revoked” line. When I read that I literally pumped my fist in the air and shouted, “yeah!” Which startled my husband and the dogs. Has anyone noticed others? Downloading the audio version and starting my re-read tomorrow….
I loved everything about this book and agree with the others to said it felt very new, like a new voice for IA but with all the ingredients we love (strong FL with a mission and moral compass, humor, cooking, pets!)
HBBD
Two questions for HA:
Now that the book is out, will Ilona share her Pinterest board for it with us?
When she shared the first snippet, Ilona called the book unmarketable. What do you think has changed since then that made it feasible? (Eg the story itself, publishing industry, demand, etc.)
Ilona shared that their agent thought the book was unmarketable. I think that was proved wrong when it spent less than 24 hours being shopped around before the massive bidding war and Tor snapping it up 😍
As well as all the other foreign publishing houses who have bought the rights since!
Did they get a new agent? Or did the agent just realize how very wrong they were about the marketability of Maggie the Undying?
For some reason, I thought HA thought it would b unmarketable, but possibly the avalanche of BDH assurances that we ALL would pay good money to read it helped.
Same agent, who marketed it anyway 🙂
Congratulations on Maggie’s Birthday! It has been a long journey since those early snippets in the blog and it is great to finally have the book out. I hope that the release is not causing too much stress.
I am w*iting for my hardcover copy to arrive. (UPS says Friday) I wasn’t sure if I would have the time/energy to go find a bookstore that had one upon release, so I pre-ordered. Now I’m considering buying the ebook just so I can start reading. But if I do that, I’m pretty sure I won’t make it to work tomorrow. Decisions, decisions, decisions …
Loved loved the book, just finished after seriously neglecting work today. The no third book is an awful thing. I have two series that I Love with no 3rd book in sight and both ended in cliff hangers. I feel Maggie in this so hard.
Just finished reading TKWNKM. It’s truly a gift from HA to the BDH and all other readers. Ilona Andrews are now at the top of my favorite authors list.
I’m going to have to give it a bit, then reread it to catch all the nuances I may have overlooked the first time. Sigh – what a chore that will be (NOT!!). I suspect this will be the first of many rereads, just like all the other Ilona Andrews books. Plus I’m about to start texting friends to let them know that they need to read it.
Can’t wait for books 2 & 3!!!
Thanks HA!!!!!! 👏👏👏
21.5 hours of listening to an audio book! I’m only about 1/2 through & loving it. I almost didn’t go to a craft meeting just so I could continue listening. Can’t wait to finish.
Who did the map for the book? It’s excellent!
I too hit the end with an OMG they threw a cliffhanger at us. I set the book down and realized to my astonishment that I didn’t care. I opted out of a beloved series because of how another author threw a truly awful cliffhanger when I thought my fave characters were going to get a brief moment of peace and happiness.
But for Maggie? After the first shock of it, I felt it was what needed to happen. Book One is done. Maggie won, but the story isn’t over, and she (and we) needed a push off the cliff to gear up for book 2. There are big questions to answer. How did she get there? Has it happened to anyone else? Was it the story resisting change or is something else afoot? Kair Toren seems to want her there, so many things were ready for her arrival, but then why was there such strong resistance? Is she actually in a battle for the right to tell Kair Toren’s story? If so, does the author oppose her or someone else? To answer any of these questions, Maggie and we need new information and that ending puts us with the person most likely to have answers. Plus, as much as I love (love, love) the romantic choice, there is still a lot for them to work out and some time apart will likely help them both get out of their own way.
So for once in my life, I’m okay with the cliffhanger. I think it was the best move our awesome writers could make for the continuation of the story. Now to settle in for the first of many, many rereads as I sift for any possible missed clues in what might have seemed trivial during the first read. I am well and truly hooked! Thanks for yet another compelling world and a host of new friends!
Yeah, I feel the same about the cliffhanger.
I understand why people dislike cliffhangers, but… maybe because I never really cared for them either way, or maybe because I intrinsically trust HA that I’m going to love the direction and how that final scene will continue, or maybe even because the presence or not of the cliffhanger doesn’t change how much I want the second book (like, even without it I would be obsessed and rabid for the second Maggie…it’s a IA book in a new series, regardless of the ending I would have ended up immediately re-reading, constantly thinking about it and already looking forward to the second book)…
Either way, I actually felt it was a fitting and appropriate (even needed?) ending for this book and for Maggie. It also reflect well Maggie’s relationship with Kair Torren throughout the whole book
Which version is going to have the Sol bonus scene? I don’t want to buy the wrong copy. Thanks!
Yes!! Hoping ModR will let us know 🤞
Actually, that has changed.
Now there is a different bonus story for the special-edition-which-shall-not-yet-be-named, and the Sol special is for House Andrews to dole out at will. Maybe in that companion book they’re planning, hmmm https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/art-owlcrate-and-other-things/
I just finished chapter 23 and I’m not going to say anything except wow! I’m dragging my feet on finishing this book because one I don’t want it to end too quickly and two I heard there’s a cliffhanger…. But knowing myself I will finish it soon enough. I’m completely in awe of this book! It’s steadily moving up in my top five favorite series of all time. Hidden legacy being my number 2. This one from what I’ve read so far looking to be a 3!
I don’t want spoilers so can’t read through comments, is there any way to get the city map larger? it’s super tiny in my ereader. I don’t remember seeing it posted where I could enlarge it.
Here is a post with the enlarged map 🙂 https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/this-kingdom-preview-art-maps-and-questions/
I started rereading and it’s so much funnier now that we know who is who 😭 hindsight’s 20/20! And the double meaning behind (I’m paraphrasing, I can’t remember the exact words) “green suits you” 👀👀👀
Happy Book Birthday.
Fantastic read, cannot wait for the next book.
Taking breather tonight and then diving in for read 2.
I just finished it and I am so mad! I want so much more of the universe and it just came out and now I have to wait! And i’m mad I can never read it for the first time again. i’m thinking about restarting it.
I would not have expected people in This Kingdom to understand forensics, but they seem to.
Maggie clearly missed some subtext in the scene where she gets her papers. Is there a cultural significance to the phrase “let me be your shield?”
We know Maggie’s magic lets her come back to life, but it also seems to do other things like protect her and others from the Exultant Call. How extensive is it, and when she breaks the Exultant Call on others are they permanently immune moving forward?
Umm, we don’t really know much about the rules of magic: maybe all powerful magic users are resistant and it’s not specifically Maggie; maybe it can only strongly target one person at a time and any powerful magic user can break that person’s spell- we just don’t know yet.
I absolutely devoured this book. I don’t remember a time when a book has captivated me so entirely.
The plot, the intrigue, the characters, the intertwined storylines… I couldn’t keep it to myself and started telling my hubs all about it!
The delight that this book brought forward is absolutely delicious.
Thank you so much for this incredible escape, I can’t wait to read it again.
Got it downloaded at 12:02 am Tuesday morning. Read until 5:30, then back up at10. Just finished reading it at 12:30am Thursday morning.
I’m tired, sleep deprived, and decidedly unfluffy. It was wonderful. I didn’t see the love interest twist coming. Did pick up on the hints about the king’s nephew surviving, but not who he was.
Now, I needs me sequel. Cliffhangers are EVIL!!! Sequel Sequel Sequel, Barsa Barsa Barsa!!!
who is Maggie’s favorite character that was left standing on a box with a noose around his neck for a decade. the reread is just starting and I love it even more, but now I know enough to have questions 😁 I hope I get the answer.
omg!! me too. I started wondering about this while I was re-reading.
Could it be Pelegrin? He could be a PoV character (a favourite one, even if it was just one or two chapters) in the original books who was considering self- exit but maybe it was never explicitly spelled out that he’s dead, only that his brother was in mourning. So if he doesn’t die in the new timeline, maybe he has a bigger role to play and we get to meet him 😀
Or it could be Sol, or someone we haven’t met yet:)
I think Sol. Bellenger was already in morning.
Could it be Kaiden as a thief?
River Fog the thief was killed by his employer in a chapter Maggie doesn’t like much because of that. We don’t have another candidate for an adult Kaiden, so I think not🙂
River Fog was only able to dig the tunnel because he was stuck there during the Cholera epidemic, which isn’t happening when Maggie gets there.
Ahhhh, chapter 23!! barsa barsa!! Fluff
Ahhhh!! The complex back stories for every character. That dance — such a good scene! Loved that Isadau basically said “you’re on your own” but pops back into the fortress and goes to “her room” to take a nap. Can’t wait to see more of her kicking butt, hopefully on Maggy’s side. I thought this was a stand alone book and can’t decide if I’m happy there’s more or in agony that I don’t know what happens next. Love seeing the Great Families doing what they do best individually as part of the greater whole. Nice touch. Love your writing, you two!!!! Thank you.
*Isadau. Darn auto-correct!
Fixed 🙂
I’m looking forward to her meeting a certain pair of knights who will undoubtedly be getting into a pissing contest at Maggie’s house. Also dollars to donuts the Arland like one is going to end up with her.
“This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me”
Only kidnap me.
Twice. XD
+1.LOL
It is absolutely a magnum opus and I am so proud to say I read and loved IA back before Maggie 🙂 because the Maggie era will be insane!!!
Finished it and started round 2 immediately so I could savor the lead up to chapter 23. !
Happy book birthday! That was amazing after that super long, agonising wait! House Andrews has outdone themselves once again! Spent the entire 11 hr flight reading and now I have to start the re-read to really get all the details. The cliffhanger….ARGH! How long do we have to wait until Book 2? Book 2…book 2…
Is there a page dedicated to all of the artwork from this kingdom?
There will be an entire website!
And I will make a post on Friday 🙂
Yes!!!!! Thank you!
omg just got to chapter 23!!!!!
Just wait until you get to Chapter 40. I can see why those in the Horde who got there, said that was another “whoa” moment. 😉
I finally finished the book. All I can say after reading the Epilogue is “uh oh, uh oh, uh oh” and laugh. Just wait until someone in green and black shows up and finds Maggie gone. Clover will be the one to tell him, and what happened to her. Oh boy.
Yep, it’s a Frodo dangling over the cliff after the ring disappears in the fire scenario.
An announcer voice saying “To be continued” would be good right now. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣 I can totally imagine that scenario playing out in my head. Like something out of a Crdama or Anime.
I was going to be patient and wait for the hardback version to come in from the UK, but I realized that I am only human and bought the audiobook because I can’t wait to get my hands on the physical copy. Just finished it last night and am wrecked. I’ll have to find time to go through it again. There were so many little twists and details that added up at the end. Sneaky, sneaky! Cannot wait for more!! Thanks HA, Mod R, and to all of the other amazing people whose hands have touched this book. It was more than worth the wait!
Eeep! Book devoured, book hangover activated. This was so amazing and I’m still digesting it. The world is so rich!! The characters !! I love Maggie most of all. She’s so clever & genuinely stands on her own two feet! Not infallible but formidable nonetheless! I also love how you lean into the isekai tropes. This would eat in webtoon form, actually. And the romance, OMG. The tension is killing meeeeee (BDH scream). BRB. Must reread.
Congratulations!!
I didn’t think anything would ever come close to unseating Kate Daniels as my favorite series ever.
But Maggie does. I love this book so much. I’ve read it a half dozen times since I got it and I’m rereading it again.
Thank you so much for this world and these characters!
I read This Kingdom once, then re-read immediatelly to appreciate all the plot twists and foreshadowings even more. I loved it! Outstanding, amazing, unforgettable. I have no idea how I will be able to w*it for book 2.
I loved so many characters and details, I was simply charmed. But my personal favorite must be chapter 29. I loved Solentine, I loved that Maggie got a family and was she being proposed to??? “Let me be your shield”??? Was that the context Maggie missed 😭😭
I devoured the book in a day. I had to wait for the ebook to be released here. I have already ordered the hardcover but it hasn’t been delivered yet.
I absolutely loved the story!!!!
At the start I definitely thought Maggie would have 3 love interests. 2 “good guys” and 1 villian who is obsessed.
I had no idea what was in store.
The plot twist in Chapter 23 was amazing!! And I didn’t see it coming. Sure I had my doubts like Maggie did, but I had moved on.
I love how Maggie is totally fangirling over the characters 😍 I think we would too if we were pulled into a book.
I’m glad that the book didn’t much focus on the Romance aspect. The political maneuvering, murder mystery and intrigue were more than enough. That being said, I am curious to know how Maggie’s suiters are going to react to that cliffhanger.
I have always been partial to the found family storyline. I love all the members of the household! Even the new mage. I can tell she and our Maggie are going to besties. At least I’m hoping they will. 😀
The STELKA!! I need an illustration on how she looks!! 😍😍
Reading this book felt like I was watching on of the Cdramas. I loved how I didn’t have to imagine much, it played like a movie/tv show in my head. Definitely loving the portal trope.
I can’t wait to see how Maggie’s magic is going to evolve. I don’t think the undying is the only aspect.
I’m very eager to read how her journey back to Modern world will be handled.
There are still so many questions about the author. I’m thinking it could be Matteo or Everard.
One of Maggie’s inner thoughts that stuck in my head was “I’m looking for a man in armor. Six five, blue eyes.” 🤣🤣🤣 I was laughing and then I promptly played the song on Spotify!!
Congratulations to the authors for another brilliant story!!
P.S. I just read the the bonus story in Clover’s POV 😀 hilarious and quite insightful on how the society expects people to stick to their roles. Anything different and it is perceived as weird or outrageous.
I almost forgot. I’m re-reading it now, listening to the audiobook.
Here’s Sushi 🙂 https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/this-kingdom-drops-hints/
You can also see her on the homepage https://ilona-andrews.com/, sitting next to Maggie and giving the stink(fish) eye 😀
Thank you!! 🥹❤️
Ooo, I’d forgotten the Dame Pressida snippet! From Maggie2!
I so loved TKWNKM. Flew through it and now need to reread it to get the nuances. (Which will have to wait until my daughter finishes it. Sigh.) I reeeaally want the extra book with the artwork, since I bought it as an ebook (vision issues).
My question for House Andrew’s is : was Sushi inspired by Tuna?
I stayed out of this spoiler thread until I was able to finish the book. I am very proud of my restraint.
The Duke spoiler legitimately surprised me so much I had to get up and run around my bedroom in circles muttering “Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod…” for a minute to calm down.
I am proud that I clocked a couple of the other spoilers ahead of the reveals.
I’m genuinely shocked at how much was reveled in the first book. This is great.
Okay – so when Sauven sings his exultant call, how does he not uplift the “enemies” also? How is he able to target his call just to his own team members? Because all other magics described are proximity based (rage glow, golden safety thingy).
+1 Great question!
It’s magic? Intent matters? Good questions…
As I’m re-reading this, I’m curious to know if all the events mentioned by Maggie from Book 1 and 2 are already done ? I’m not sure if I missed it, but does it imply that Maggie can now no longer gain insights of the future? Since events from book 2 already happened?
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong. Quite anxious to know about it.
Yes, I kind of see this as two diverging roads. At first, the two roads are very close, but they slowly grow apart. The road-from-the-original-books is becoming further and further from the road-changed-by-Maggie. That means some things in the books won’t happen in Maggie’s timeline. Actually, in broad strokes that’s what Maggie is working toward!
However… 1) Maggie will still retain knowledge of what the characters are like and what motivates them, and that will still be relevant regardless of events. 2) She’s becoming less and less like a fish out of water — think how off balance she is in the beginning, and by the ball she is much more secure. She is growing into her new life/role, and that will help offset her dwindling amount of future knowledge.
Besides, 3) I trust House Andrews to take care of us. Everything will be fine (deep breaths to soothe myself).
Happy belated book birthday! Thank you, House Andrews. Once again you don’t disappoint. Have read all your stories multiple times over and this will definitely include Maggie’s. Love what you do and thank you for your patience with the BDH. Amazing!
I was doing a reread and noticed someyhing about the character River Fog, it looked to me like he was Kaiden before Maggie saved him in a alternate future. Will she realize this or will it be revealed? Or does it even matter?
ohh I was wondering that too.
I think she already knows this (and gave him guidance)
i totally thought kaiden grows to be river fog too
Amazing book. I adore the relationships that IA characters build – the loyalty, respect, understanding and love.
The 2 plot twists were great and I did not see them coming (even with the clues).
I was tickled when we learned where the fish and the notes were coming from. Thanks for revealing that in book 1!
I am curious what else they got in the chests from the vault. Why do I think Clover would have brought out more than just scrolls?
The last chapters (starting with the ball) brought so many pieces together…and then we got to the epilogue (the note and the hairpiece – wow) and then the cliffhanger. Maggie rocks!
Thank you for an thrilling first book!
Right after finishing the book, I went through *all* the comments in this thread. The sheer number of supportive responses is proof of what a powerhouse HA is – and how deeply loved they are. Thank you so much for this wonderful book! ❤️
I laughed so hard at the ballroom scene. The MC is incredibly swoon-worthy, practically creating a harem of male characters pining after her 🤣🤣
I’m wondering whether the fact that the MC doesn’t own her house, along with the trade permit issue, will become a problem in the next book.
My prediction: the ML will buy her house, and she’ll get furious – much like what happened with Mad Rogan 🤣🤣
Her new family should help her buy her house. Much like the created identity I think Sol has the best ability to forge the documents she needs. That would further the back and forth of Sol and the Duke which is so funny to watch. If the Duke bought her house I think she’d be furious just like you said.
I agree Sol will forge the paperwork to reflect a purchase by the Demarr family. I look forward to the interrogation by Arvel, who I’m sure will have found out who the house used to belong to. “Why exactly did the former owner sell?”, “He indicate he strongly desired to make a holy pilgrimage.” “That what he said?” “His actions spoke for him.”
Amazing!! Thank you! As always, your stories are simply the best! Now I must reread this book again and again until the next one comes out.
Will the Duke arrives in time and kill the beast and Maggie falling and dying ? Will the beast absorb so much of her magic that dying will send her back to our world ? I despair, I want #2 right now
I think she’s got to spend some time with Silveren first. Some answers on the “Why not dead” thing at least.
I truly tried to resist. I saw it published and said “Noooo, no, no”. Then late one evening ( and I blame the wine) I bought it and now I am caught.
Why oh mighty authors do you ruthlessly exercise your powers upon us hapless readers? Sucking us into your stories only to spit us out at their end, gasping for more, bereft and balanced unhappily on that sword edge of love and hate for the misery we feel. ARGH!!
Books by these authors should come with a warning label – “ May cause addiction and obsessive re-reading”
did anyone else laugh hysterically at the chase scene? lolol
yesssssss, it was so much
yes!!! that whole ballroom sequence and the chase were so funny!
Finished the ebook and soon to start on the audiobook – so excited to jump back into Rellas! Then of course another re-read and re-listen, etc. etc. etc.
Thank you so much HA! For the dedication to us, for the outstanding world building and amazing story. I was already sucked in with the extended preview. I think the ending was cliff leaner and was needed to launch us into the next book. I think this is your best book to date. 🥰
Happy bookday (belated, I was busy reading!)
I love This Kingdom will not Kill Me. (I love all of your books) I do like details though and I would really enjoy seeing family trees for all the relevant characters. ( I would actually love to see them but wanted to change up my descriptor use lol) – such as how Earl Sunner and Ulmar Hreban are related, etc.
Thank goodness there’s a book two! As always I’m left wanting more, more, more!
I just finished devouring the book and loved it enough that I’m excited for a re-read, and just a little scared I’ll end up in Kair Toren myself. Thank you for yet another fantastic world to enjoy, and curse you for this cliff I’m dangling off 😂. Cliff hangers make it harder not to join the hungrier portion of the Horde.
OMG! This book is amazing! The plot twists- totally unpredictable. I had no idea! I just finished reading it but I think I need to read it again!!!!!!
Is there a portal fantasy with an exploding oven?
Enjoying listening to the book! It inspired me to try a new hobby and I ordered soap making supplies!
Love love love! I’m on my second read and just realized… on page 6 they totally put a spoiler there, down to the last sentence! ON PAGE 6!!! House Andrews, you get us every single time!
I am reading/savoring/loving every page… I am taking my sweet time, and am only halfway through… but I have to ask:
Please pleeeease PLEASE can HA do some stelka art in the next round of merch? Dare I even ask for a stuffie? I desperately want to see how HA envisioned the wee beastie. I am in luv 😅
There is stelka art already, and it will be part of the next merch roll – when the store opens again mid-April 🙂
My e-reader says I finished the book in 9 hours and 4 minutes. About an hour of that was definitely me flailing in reaction to each twist and turn. I did somehow manage to pause midway through and get some sleep overnight, and literally had dreams full of what-ifs as my brain contemplated what might come next. Now that I’ve finished, it’s time for a reread! Except for the epilogue, because surprise cliffhangers after being promised there weren’t any is definitely mean! LOL
The one thing that bothered me/the one question I have is about the thing Maggie encounters in the river. She commandeers the cloak, saves Sushi, and has to sprint for the bridge because whatever is in the water is terrifying. To me, this unknown thing feels like one of those random scenes Latour put in the original books that suddenly becomes incredibly important later on. Maggie is so focused on changing the timeline to save everyone that she appears to have forgotten, but I have a sinking feeling she might have missed a clue about a greater evil lurking.
Been doing my second read as a listen. Big fan of Kristen Sieh! She is amazing and I’m loving her as Maggie (and the Reynald).
Agree, her voices are FANTASTIC!
Finished the book yesterday! Read well into the night on the 31st. When I was reading it I wasn’t sure about it. It didn’t hook me the way KD did- I thought.
It was like those ube pancakes from Trader Joe’s. At first, I was unsure because thin purple pancakes are questionable and not my usual, but holy sh*t were they delicious in a different and totally unexpected way. I crave them now.
I am absolutely craving so much more of this world, its characters, and Rellas. I’m thinking of a reread, honestly.
I, of course want to read this series that Maggie read that gave her so much insight into the world and characters in an unfinished series. I kept thinking of it as an allusion to Name of the Wind (IYKYK). I keep thinking about it, keep wanting more of the world, Maggie, Everand, Clover, the mercs. All of it. It’s so detailed! I am enamored.
I need a Sushi plushy, please- to get me through w*iting till the second book.
Happy book Birthday! Yayayayayayayay!
Mod R, I’m really sorry to ask this, because I’m nearly certain it’s already been covered: will we be able to buy poster art of the characters Helena is doing, like this one? (Fans face) She says on her site that she’s on maternity leave, which yay, but I couldn’t find anywhere it said we could buy posters or whatever.
Thank you, also, for letting us know when there are spoilers. I’m reading my book v e r y s l o w l y to savor it.
As soon as the artists put the art prints on their websites, we will let you know 🙂
In the meantime, there will be merch with the art when the store opens again in mid March.
There will also eventually be printed vellum inserts which you can slide into your hardback and make an illustrated edition. Fancy!
It has now been 12 hours since I finished my 1st run through of the book. Sleep, food, and processing time later I’m finally ready for my next run through!
The book isn’t dark, really, but theres definitely enough darkness that I’m struggling a bit with it. I usually prefer light hearted reads, and this is not one. I knew it wouldnt be, I expected it, but its still taking me some time to process.
Current thoughts… “CLIFFHANGER!!!”
Arvel is an ass, and that plot was not unexpected
I heart the adopted cousin and the few comments about her ‘brother’ made me happy inside. And Maggies defending of her adopted family was possibly my favorite scene in the book.
When Maggies ‘people’ stand up to the duke on her behalf gives me all the happy feels
And, most unpopularly, I really _really_ REALLY, dislike Maggie with the male MC! He lies to her and treats the whole thing like it was the most sensible way to go about it. He tries to lock Maggie up, like shes a naughty child, in her own home. And then when she stands up to him he basically says Im right and your wrong and I will win. Umm excuse me? Yes I know, hea trying to protect her, and he obviously is a Good Person, and Ive little doubt that he genuinely cares for her (its IA go to romance plotline after all) but dang that level of arrogance makes me want him to lose so hard. Grrrrr
I want my own fish fairy! wait.. I dont even like fish…. but still! So cute!
Actually, once we know who he is, the male MC very much reminds me of Rogan. Powerful, with a “my way or the highway”-attitude, somewhat outside society. His war experiences haven´t been completely fleshed out, but given that he´s been on one battlefield or another since he lost his parents as a teenager, there´s definitely some trauma there as well. And Maggie reacts quite as Nevada does, fighting for her boundaries and trying to establish her own power base that´s independent from him.
There was at least one scene of Solentine and and the male MC arguing that reminded me a lot of the scene between Augustine and Rogan in Nevada´s office when Augustine made the creepy shadows appear and Nevada seriously contemplated a restraining order against them both. They´re actually friends, but their experiences have created a distance between them and they are mostly wary of each other, bordering on antagonistic.
But I disagree about Arvel. He isn´t an ass, he´s just a man used to being completely invulnerable because his type of magic makes him so. It doesn´t enter his head that he might not be able to protect Maggie. She just needs to say yes to him and she´ll be untouchable as his wife. Aaand of course he thinks no sane woman would refuse him – he´s definitely among the top three of most eligible bachelors in Kair Toren, probably since he turned sixteen or whatever the youngest marriage age is in Rellas. That man has probably never been turned down by any woman in his whole life!
Arvel reminds me a lot of Arland. They´re both old-school, chivalrous knights in positions of both military command and high social rank whose charm hides plenty of deadly power. He just needs to find his Maude the Magnificent.
Also, I loved the way Maggie was poking fun at isekai tropes in the beginning. There was one line about having a lot of powerful, good-looking men interested in her, which she found quite ridiculous while she had literally nothing. At the end of the book, though… well, you need a couple of fingers to count them all, don´t you.
And yes, the stelka is cute!! Clearly, cute pets are also an IA go-to, and a much beloved one at that.
Baahaahaa
Rogan and Curran both annoyed me no end because of their arrogance and need to control everything. I ended up loving both of them, but rereading certain scenes still greatly irks me.
Im half way through my second reading and I snickered so hard at all of Maggies commentary about portal tropes. Pretty much all of them come true!!!
As far as Arvel… I guess we shall see.
luckily for Arvel, a certain Omelyana is available
Hello to all
Do any of you Thank, that Silveren is somehow also from the real world
Perhaps the Author ?
Its delicious!!! The twists just keep coming. Im not reading any further in the thread but i had to say, I am over half way done, and its midnight and I love it so much
Congratulations Ilona Andrews! Magnificent book. I stayed up around the clock and read it all in one go, because I could not put it down.
********Possible spoiler ********
I’m wondering . . . Could Silveren of the Knight Order of the Redeemer actually be Adrian Latour, the mysterious author of the books that this magical world derives from?
So, I am back onto this thread since it’s the only spoiler one. Did my read, and am now on my listen, which makes me take in all the details. So, there is this “repeating” point where Maggie goes (shortened) “this isn’t in the books, so it makes this world ‘real’.” But what if those things/people actually are but never properly identified? Like I am very very very convinced River Fog is just Kaiden. And I can see Clover as one the nameless women (girl being attacked that causes Raynald’s injury, etc…)
Also, yes Arvel is Arland. Prove me otherwise. Although a part of me can’t help but picture a musclebound Gilderoy Lockhart…
Curious to see maybe Isadau and Digi have some rose-colored spotlight?
Here’s to W**TING ! Need more tea.
My first thought was that Arvel is like Arland as well but after the end I disagree.
He is an asshole and hides it under an Arland-like facade. He hardly knows her, to me it comes across like “Oh that one is special, I want to posess this”. His interest feels dishonest and that is nothing like Arland in my opinion.
Well, certainly not Arland with Maude, but Arland’s courtship of Dina is similar. Isn’t not just that Dina is awesome. He thinks Earth woman are exotic. Innkeepers have mystic. Part of the attraction was that a rival was interested. He doesn’t think at all about how there is no way Dina, an Innkeeper could leave her inn and marry into his house. He’s embarrassed by it when he talks to about Maude later in the series. It why he won’t end up with Maggie, but it doesn’t mean he can’t still be a good ally and a love interest for someone else.
Just wow! Devoured it yesterday. Will happily go back for re-reads. Just wow!
Huzzah for the new series!
I read it twice already. Might even read it a third time this weekend, more slowly, more savoring.
Question for fellow BDH who have re-read all of IA like they were Maggie:
Did this book give you a “greatest hits” vibe with several of the characters? That is the one thing that kept throwing me out of the story.
Specifically, there were lines that were callbacks. I am sure these were meant to be fan favorites or something akin to that, but every time I hit one of those, it tossed me right out of the story. For example, “a nice big target” (think they cut off with tar… and the Duke didn’t finish the sentence). Thanks Curran (it’s his line from Kate Daniels series). That kept happening to me throughout the book.
That was my only issue with the book. It might be a complaint about myself LOL. Maybe I need to stop re-reading IA series heh 😉
No, I haven’t noticed anything like that.
The thing I noticed and absolutely loved was that Ramond has the dominance of Curran, the ruthlesness of Connor and the seriousness of Mattias and it was glorious!
I did notice a couple of variations on some favourite quotes from previous books, but I took it more as a ‘writer style’ thing than a deliberate choice. I might be wrong though.
That’s a feature, not a flaw 😉
Definitely loved that feature also the “looking for a man in finance “ callback they did, had me ROTFLOL 😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣💕💕 loved it.
About to start a 3rd read through/listen through.
Really enjoyed it and looking forward to the next.
Question for you, Mod R: will this series be kid-appropriate? My daughter (preteen) absolutely loves IK, and I’m considering giving her this one, but I don’t want to if it’s going to get sexually explicit in the later books. It doesn’t have the feel of HL (which I adore, but, um, she’s going to have to wait a few years!) but I don’t want to start her on the series and then have to pause her on the next volume.
Also, I can’t remember the last time I read a book with a Maggie in it that I actually wanted to be like, so thank you. Where was this when people were calling me “Muggy Maggie” in middle school? 😅
Hi Maggie! Justice for Maggies everywhere!
Unfortunately, I’m unable to make pronouncements on the content of books that have not yet been written. At the moment book one is the best reference point we have for tone and content – as you have seen, it contains fantasy violence and darker themes.
House Andrews always recommend that parents/guardians make the decision based on their own comfort level and, if possible, check in once the books are released and reviews/content guidance become available 🙂
Thanks a lot for the answer! Bummer, I was hoping they’d settled on the ultimate tone and were willing to let us know. Well, nothing’s set in stone until the book is done, I guess!
Please let them know they’ve got some readers who would appreciate a heads up whenever they do settle about the tone – would just like to know where it falls on the spectrum of their work. My daughter will enjoy it just as much in 7 or 8 years, but she’d probably love to read it sooner. 😀
I loved Maggie so much! The characters are so compelling. On my first reread now and I love how at the very beginning, Maggie bemoans that she landed in the world without the usual portal fantasy tropes: she is not “ as a woman of prophecy with magic holy powers so I could assist the kingdom with their blight or curse problem. I would be met by a prince or some high-ranking and stunning noble, and upon heroically demonstrating my abilities, I would become the center of attention, while a gaggle of ridiculously handsome men followed me around, pledged their swords to me, and pleaded with me not to overexert myself.” Of course, by the end of the book she has worked herself into exactly that position, fulfilling the portal fantasy tropes.
Right?
IKR 😀 She worked herself up to that position and is surrounded by multiple handsome dudes. 😍🤣
I just wanted to say – Thank so, so much! I just finished the book and it was pure awesomness! I would have liked to read faster but I have little kids, so…
My heart was litteraly pounding from the moment of the ball until the end and I am not exagerating when I say this has NEVER happend to me before.
I always thought your world building is amazing but the amount and detail that went into thus – wow! Just WOW!
So excited for book 2!
I mean….you know the first question has to be when is the next one coming out??? This book was so different and so excellent. Great work guys. Just when I think you can’t possibly get any better you go and do this.
There’s a character in a book scene that betrays the other, even though they’re childhood friends and the families are longstanding allies, but in a different scene where Maggie is negotiating, the character that did the betraying implies that even if it was expedient to go back on his word he no longer would because Maggie wouldn’t like it. Just wondering if the character themselves realizes that things they might have done at one point they would no longer do.
Separately, something happens in Chapter 23, but the plan couldn’t possibly have been for things to fall out like that, so just wondering what the actual plan was and what the timing would have been.
I’m not sure the betrayer changed much. My guess is when it all goes to hell, he’s torn between his allies/friend and his duty to his people. He gave his word to both, so he had pick his priority and live with the shame and guilt. This why he is so committed to stopping it getting to that point.
I think the plan was stop the bad guy without certain thing being apparently. Had Maggie not acted as she did, things could have continued for a bit longer as they had been, without the fallout.
It took me 3 days to read the entire book. I had my first “what??!!” about 1/3 of the way through the book. Yes, yes, there were clues, but I was justifying them as Maggie was. Then I just sat back and had my mind blown for the rest of the book. There were so many twists and turns.
Did everyone hear my screams of outrage at the end of the book? How dare they leave a cliffhanger? To be fair, I was expecting it, but still… When is book 2 being release?
When Maggie has the thought about the MC that it would be wrong to get involved with him because she might find herself transported back to Earth, did anyone else think it was a very “citizen of a mostly stable country” thing to think? A man of Rellas lives his whole life very aware loss can hit at any time, particular given his personal history. Would he do everything he could to prevent it, absolutely, but the uncertainty wouldn’t be the dealbreaker she thinks it would be.
Okay, so the more I’ve thought on it – which is a lot more than I’d like to admit, I don’t want to ship Maggie with anyone in Kair Toren. Instead, I’d hope for the more Inheritance-like happy ending where she takes her new ruthlessness back to her regular life on Earth & uses it to complete the help-people goal that was her initial motivation in life. Becomes a kick-ass public defender or social worker or Non-profit owner or whatever. While in the backend, she has the ability to step into Rellas’ world whenever the need for a Maggie arises. Like a future where she steps into the Crimson Empire and heals whatever ails them. Because we KNOW that no life can be just pure evil, as how the Crimson Empire is currently shown to be. And that the current main ship goes on to have his future, but with more humble pie eaten. So that sounds a lot like Narnia I just realized. But that would be my hope for Maggie.
Narnia is one of the classic portal fantasy examples, exactly like Maggie’s own isekai adventure.
So it’s actually a genre-specific pattern to end up with this sense of frame parallelism 🙂
If Narnia is the example, though its not time travel, they do do some weird things with time. Time pasts faster in Narnia. Not only that, but the travel reverses changes done to the children’s bodies. They are adult when they return from the Narnia side of the portal and children when they pop out on the Earth side. Hmmm…
Umm, I was kinda hoping it’s not over and there will be more Inheritance to come…
As r we all! I think it has been implied that there will eventually b more Inheritance, but obv there’s no firm timeline.
Pretty sure if I woke up from a multiyear coma, after making sure my loved ones were ok, I’d b very interested to see what books HA had published…
+1 on the coma thing;P
This book is amazing! I couldn’t put it down. Thank you!!!
The beginning of Chapter 29… I *cackled*. I think that might be my favorite chapter. The whole book is just amazing! And the audiobook! Absolute *chef’s kiss*! Diving back in for a re-read/re-listen now!
This was fabulous. I didn’t think anything could surpass my love for the KD world, but this just might be it! ( and I have been re-reading and re-listening to KD since the very first book ever released (regular and Graphic Audio too).
Loves:
Maggie is changed by her experiences, getting more savvy and confident, also being traumatized and having to struggle with that; she wonders if her changes would let her fit back into her old life. So good!
Shout out to H-E-B, woohoo!
Maggie’s struggle to build her own team, power base, and safety, while feeling so safe with and tempted to depend on a certain guy. Not pressing the Easy button.
The slippery fluidity of altering history. Already different from the book on day 1. Progressively shifting from what she read. People are startled by changes she initiates and do other things in reaction. Love this!
The horrific potential of being undying, think Promethius. The unknown limits of it. Sentient pig crap!
The ending. As cliffhangers go, this one is great, why so many people saying aaargh? Book 1 action tied up in a satisfying way. Then the next book action kicks off with a bang! More like a last minute plot twist than a true cliffhanger.
Next books:
So much more of this world to visit! The mage tower. The temples of the aspects. Other countries and cultures (Crimson empire!).
Maggie’s own magic, she has a ton of it, what could she learn? Great family powes described but what can mage magic do in this world?
Maggie’s language genius, makes me think of the Blacktongued Thief, super powerful when magic is spoken spells, what else besides magic might this be useful for? Listening in on people who don’t know you understand them, reading lost languages…
Where/who is Latour in all this? Did Maggie travel to the past, or did all the books’ action not actually happen yet and Latour made it up? Is the same amount of time passing for Maggie’s family and she is tragically missing? How did Latour get access to Rellas and return to write about it?
All the open questions! Huge cast of characters, many moving pieces in the power dynamics, lots of things mentioned but not fully explored…
Now for some reason I’m craving a pastry and a cup of tea 🙂
Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!
I managed to wait the entire day Tuesday at work without even peeking at the book. I was so adult and restrained I impressed myself. I made myself wait until I got home from work before starting the book. And it was worth it!!! So rich and detailed and complex!
I do have one thought on the cliff hanger. There was a scene posted a while back of someone flying on large winged animals. i thought they were dragons but now I wonder…
If u mean Puffles, as far as we know that is a different world entirely…as far as we know…
Okay,
I have to ask,
is anyone else going crazy trying to figure out where Bluestone Square is?
Normally I can extrapolate from known points to find a place on a map.
This time I seem to have nothing, even on the first third of the reread.
can anyone help?
Before I really get going, THANK YOU House Andrews for this amazing new world and story. I truly believe this is your best book to date and we of the BDH so appreciate you time and creativity and dedication.
Ok, now to all my thoughts and ships down the Dokkon River. Here’s hoping someone wants to chime in!
****SPOILERS (will try to be as neutral as possible but please remove if I go too far).
Do you wish to discuss??
1. River Monster – large magical creature that ties into future troubles, of which may possibly be connected to Latour disappearence from Earth.
2. Shipping Clover and a Magnar brother.
3. LOVE a comment made earlier that the epilogue present is equivalent to an engagement.
4. Main Baddie and Maggie are opposites of the same coin, and share the same undying magic.
5. Maggie’s “Favorite Cousin” was willingly manipulated so he could give his favorite aunt a present.
6. The mirroring of Earth family with adopted family – I hope that the relationships flourish!
7. Who was KR family that Clover worked for and can there by major ripper cushions?!
There are so many things in my brain but those are the ones at the start.
I am also shipping Clover with one, or both, Magnar brothers. She’s better than any milkmaid! 😂
7. What does KR mean ? I would like to know too.
I’m confused 🙂 Am I supposed to know who the man in the garden is?
End of ch 27.
The book arrived at 6pm UK time for me yesterday and I finished it by 4pm today. What a read!
I didn’t think I’d love a heroine more than Kate in the IA books universes, but Maggie I’m afraid has just overtaken Kate! The reason for this I think is that I know that as much as I’d love to, I could never be Kate. But drop me in my favourite book world, I’d probably react similarly to Maggie! I can see my decades of devouring fantasy stories finally coming to fruition.
And the delicious tropes in this book!! The archetypes, the found family, the subtle romance, ALL the hot guys and most importantly Maggie growing more and more into her power is so cool!
I can’t wait for the next two books. And it would simply be lovely if there could be a book on our “favourite cousin”! I mean Everard is awesome and perfect for Maggie. But I just fell in love with Sol! Tortured assassin with a golden heart…. 😍
Thank you Ilona and Gordon for this absolutely epic story. Can’t wait for everything else from this world!
We truly are a Book Devouring Horde which demand a new book immediately on release 😀 similarly I thought we might get a Novella out of Solentine if we play our cards right 😀
Ok, first of: SQUEEEEEE! That was amazing! I got the delivery notice for my kindle at 6AM on Tuesday, just as I was getting up for work and I couldn’t resist taking a peek at it (just the cover and dedication page, your honor). So I did ride at dawn. I was also late for work as I couldn’t put it down 😀
Maggie is great, she’s smart and kind and she does exactly what I would do in her place – dies horribly within a few days. I seriously love her. I love the members of her little family and I love Rellas.
I don’t know how HA did it, but they managed to achieve the multifaceted plot and political intrigue and complex characters of Game of Thrones, humanize it with Maggies kindness AND keep the focus on the larger picture of the plot throughout the many branches. I love it!
Although that cliffhanger!
Error 404 Fluffiness not found
I was going to go for the hardcover as well, but local retailer is sold out. Sad I wont get it yet, happy that it’s doing well.
the dedication 🥹
💕💕💕 loved this book. i haven’t been sucked into a book world for awhile and i am so so very thrilled!
also 😩the w*iting may kill me. but i will resurrect to read the sequels.
fascinating that maggie’s entrance corresponds to the death of a character that died later in the original book story.
wondering if maggie is related to silveren… because undying maybe? or resisting the magical call?
and surely house andrews will share more maggie snippets with their most loyal and p*tient horde? 🤞🏻
for now i will re-read and make notes! for science.
Sure, for science. But also: For the Horde!
The plot twist in chapter 23 did indeed surprise me, even though there was a bit of foreshadowing, in hindsight. You got me there.
Loved it. I was scared to start it but I truly enjoyed it all.
1. Do we think Maggie still has enough story knowledge for Book 2? Though I do know the timeline is messed up and things have deviated a lot.
2. I hope at the end of it all Maggie can bring her Earth family to stay with her (if they want).
3. Why did Maggie’s mum hand her that particular book as a teenager? How did her mum come by it?
4. Will it be a year’s wait for Book 2? I know HA has already been writing Book 2 for a while now.
I have a couple chapters left.. I am torn between reading the rest in one gulp and savoring the rest in small bites, a few pages at a time, to make it last. I am, of course, planning to immediately reread/listen to it, as one does.
Oh my gosh! So thrilling! Thank you HA for such a great book, I’m on my second listen to see if I can spot any of the “clues” for the big plot twist! I guess now I have to w**t for the next book to come out….
Actually, I’ve watched enough Chinese short dramas with this kind of plot- I really don’t want Maggie to end up back in RL and “miraculously” meet her ML as she wakes up in the hospital or drops her papers and he picks them up or has him stop by her office/apartment for something. That just always feels like cheating. Can’t wait to see what Ilona and Gordon plan to do!
I have to agree there.. I’m hoping HA does something different than the typical Cdramas
Thank you for an amazing adventure! Can’t wa*t for book 2!!!
I just startedy re-read and immediately thought of a question – why didn’t Maggie recognize Everard’s voice? He spoke to her when he first arrived and gave her the coins….
I thought of that too when they did the reveal. But she really heard just a couple of sentences while he was wearing a helmet and she was panicking. Reynald doesn’t recognize the man from the garden and he must have met him on more than one occasion. I know it took me like half of the first Harry Potter full cast audiobook to differentiate between Harry’s and Ron’s voices.
I had the same thought. I’m assuming she was freaking out so hard and he only said a few words.
Just finished my reread…I still yell at the end but it’s worth it and I know I have to be p*tient for the next book but I really really don’t wanna be😩😩.
As for the original author of the world I wonder if he was the body we see after the bag of money chapter? Or is he possibly floating around in Sauvens head somehow and that’s why he is the way everyone says he is?
Oooh Especially since the body was weighed down and only recently brought back to shore because of a storm…? Maybe the authors magic ran out dying so much under water and that’s how she got pulled in…. Alternatively if he is somehow sauven paranoia would make a lot of sense..having an extra voice in your head somehow would be horrific. Can’t wait to find out which way everyone is leaning on the author who what where when why’s!!
Not finished reading…I’m savoring…
I have to share this quote…”Gold is soft and heavy, Maggie. You cannot make a sword out of it.” There’s so much meaning behind those words in and out of this book.
So far and not surprisingly, I’m loving these characters!
I’m team Sleepless in Kair Toren! Poor Arvel just started and is already late to the party. I hope Silveren can be redeemed or that the second prince has hidden depths. Someone has to rule. I appreciate the amount of attractive male leads. I’ll take Solentine for myself! 😂
Just finished rereading: he must have bought back the hairornament from his trip to Selva. Already wanted to gift it to her then 🙂 he has some issues but he is a cutie pie
Not surprising. He told Sol he was locking Maggie down right after she signed the adoption papers. She was simply too busy freaking out about the adoption to notice.
I have a question about the adoption papers. If Maggie was supposedly adopted at age 9, why did she have to sign anything? Does it have to look like she agreed to the adoption at 9 and signed the papers then?
I had the same question
so trying not to add any spoilers past chapter 23 because omg!!!! but re e end, was that a case of the BDH commenting so much about cliff hangers that HA decided to properly show us what a cliff hangers is?!!!! I NEED book two 😭
Thank you, thank you, thank you House Andrews! I don’t know how to emphasize this more. I feel loved!
Since the first snippet of Maggie on the blog, I knew I would love this book. And then I learned that the release was more than a year away. I thought the wa*t would kill me.
But also, my expectations were so stellar that I was also terrified that I was hyping it too much (I know, shame on me). But as always, House Andrews delivers. And by deliver, I mean they went far above and beyond anything I dreamed.
This book is my all time favorite, I love it. I read it once and I know it by heart, and all the scenes are constantly replaying in my head, and I cannot choose a favorite scene.
Now I need to let my brain cool down before I can re-read it. There is no “not re-reading” this book. I know the re-read will be just as fanstastic as the first read because of the new perspective of knowing what’s coming.
I might get fired from the BDH for saying this, but here goes: This is the first time ever that I am happy that I will have to wa*t for book 2.
Book 1 had so much fireworks, I need the time for my brain to process. If book 2 was already out, I would not be able to stop myself from reading it immediately, and the whole experience would suffer.
I love how book 1 answers all the pressing questions that I would not want to wa*t for, and still promises an awesome book 2. In a way, book 1 is so good as a standalone that it does not even need a follow up, it leaves me full of happiness on its own. No misunderstanding there, I will absolutely devour the follow up!
Now to the wild speculations!
Somehow in my mind, king Sauren is the true villain, while Silveren might redeem himself (hehe) and end up join team Maggie. Although he does not seem the most balanced person so far.
I hope Isabau builds her own mage tower in Demarr, to guard the border and protect Maggie’s family.
When Omelyana’s obsession with Ramond was described, the song Animal from Jim Yoseph popped into my head and stuck. It got re-stuck with every subsequent mention of “Omelyana” or “Obsession with Ramond”. Now I have an earworm. Of course I cannot miss this opportunity to contaminate someone else
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NewMQgLA3rQ&list=RDNewMQgLA3rQ&index=1&pp=8AUB
ahaha! that song is soo appropriate!
Reading TKWNKM brought me so much joy, thank you HA!
Question from someone who is not a medical professional: are we sure that Silveren actually died? I assumed when I read it that he had passed out from his injuries and Everard was sloppy in not confirming that he was actually dead. But others’ comments here and on Facebook seem to assume that yes he did actually die. Given Maggie‘s lack of experience in combat is it a sure thing that he died from the injuries she gave him?
Medical professional here: it is possible to die quickly from a stab in the kidney, but only if a large blood vessel is injured, otherwise it would take time and infection. It’s certainly a surgical emergency, but not necessarily instantly lethal. Maggie had never stabbed anyone before, so hitting large blood vessels around the kidneys or in the thigh would be a bit hit and miss (ooh, I made a pun and I’m not even a native English speaker ^^).
So he may be undying or he might have been healed with other magic and we have a long time (though hopefully no more than a year) to contemplate (ooh, again^^).
After a couple of re-reads, I noticed that Maggie was in fact taught how to hit the femoral artery, so we may have another undying character- still not 100% certain though.
Definitely too many variables and not enough data yet. Just because one was taught doesn’t mean one is going to succeed completely in the moment. It’s not instantaneous, and there was a lot going on at the time. His people are fanatically loyal to him, and there are a lot of magical options available that don’t require him to die.
Huzzah! I dodged all spoilers, including the preview, and finally finished the book!
I am not at all good at envisioning, so my question is, what is the bird on the cover? Is it the bird that sushi carries off in the beginning, or is it one of the enormous critters at the end? There’s also a bird in the middle, but I don’t think it’s that one.
Thanks so much!
It is the cover artist’s interpretation of a drezmur 🙂
I was wondering if there will be art for Reynald? Or is he to be left to our imagination?
Keep reading, please 😌
Looking for a knight. 6’5” blue eyes
I almost died laughing. Thank you for that moment.
I loved the whole book and think I need to reread it immediately, which is unusual for me.
Maggie talks about screaming at a book when she was at the garden. I screamed at the amazing, clever plot twist during chapter 23!
Finished the first reading. starting second reading now! BARSA!
All I can say is wow! Portal fantasy isn’t my favourite genre and I was a bit sad that the next book in the Hugh’s series was put on hold so I wasn’t sure if I could love this book. I am an idiot and should have had more faith in House Andrews. There isn’t a single thing they have written that I haven’t loved and re-read over and over again.
Maggie is no exception, absolutely hooked from the very first page. I had to give myself a break when the tension got to much (the Butcher scene was pretty intense).
Maggie stands with the other HA lead female characters but in her own totally kickass way.
Honestly I feel emotionally wrung out but completely satisfied by this book. Bravo and thank you.
Maggie is so unbelievably addicting, I feel the opposite of isekai’d! Enjoying my fantasy and then being rudely shucked back into the real world.
Maggie is just so … cool ? Anyone else feel that? Unsure if I’ve ever thought of a book heroine as cool but there’s something about Maggie! So savvy and she does her own thing. (and the romance and the yearning… thats what we like to see. not even surprised everyone in a 2 metre radius fell for her hard).
Please please please book 2 please ? 🙏🏻 (channeling all the chalantness)
Also, I’m gearing up to 3rd read of this book which is starting to feel a little groundhog day, but needs must…
this may well kick off an IA book re-read spree, perhaps after the 5th Maggie reread…
Needs must indeed🙂
We desperately need a character list. I’m completed reading on audible and getting confused! Please help. I don’t proper name spelling to try and create my own list!
There will be one on the This Kingdom website, when it goes live 🙂
Is it me? Or does Solentine feel like Montgomery?
Yes, Solentine feels very Augustine. Business oriented, loves his family, initially an a-hole to herione, aggrievated BFF to main male lead.
I fished Maggie last night. I then screamed!!! The book ends in a spoiler, and now we have to wait for book 2!!!
When will book 2 be out? I know it’s still a work in progress, so defintely not soon enough.
Sob…
you didn’t fish Maggie though, Sushi did!
Some typos are my favourite typos, this is definitely one of them 🤩
Would love a POV of Evarard’s meeting with Joris (the poisoner) at Selva at some point- to give the BDH insight into what actually happened there and how Evarard got around him.
Thanks as always!
Gillian
Yes, pls, this!
I do love this book and the characters. I am not sure yet if it will still stand up on the thirtieth reading like the other books but I will certainly try it. My only critism, so far, is that it lacks the humour which is a hallmark of the other books and which helps me cope with all the drama.
Good work Ilona Andrews, please keep it up. When is the nest book out?
(I am an addict!)
Done. Ok. You can all talk now… LOLOL omgomgomgitwas so goooood… And now I don’t know who I like most!! You both make such appealingly cool characters! And droolworthy!
Okay. Here’s my question:
Who do we think the knight is that saved Silveren? Someone had to have raised him.
Why do we think Reynalds fate changed? And we all agree that was definitely the day Maggie came into Rellas. That makes Matheo seem like the author to me….but did he live past the first book? I feel like no sense we know additional things happen after the Sun Margrave dies. Which makes him as the author less solid to me. I feel like it has to be someone who is alive at the end of book 2….maybe the person standing on the execution block. We don’t know who that is yet right?
What do we think of the fact that the Duke – such a huge character doesn’t have a POV in the books? That feels like a clue.
I need to do a reread. I saw Silveren as the “dead” nephew coming from a mile away but I was so focused on that I think I missed other stuff 🤣 tunnel vision
I felt that the duke would be the romantic interest exactly because he had no PoV (it would have been weird to literally fall in love with a character in a book). But then when I read the first chapters, I thought that Reynald was someone that might one day get invited for an interview at the Inn- so that worked out in the end^^.
I didn’t even see Silveren as the man from the garden, much less a hidden prince (umm, is he a prince, or just the king’s nephew?), so maybe I’m in a different tunnel and I’m right about other things: I agree that the hair ornament is sort of a declaration of engagement, but because he’s a devious duke, maybe it’s also an object of magic (like maybe a magical GPS?). But I don’t think they will need it to find her when she’s kidnapped, because they have Tsuri: a magical tracker beastie, who is bonded and knows Maggie’s taste (she bit her three times the first day, she might even have been tracking Maggie rather than the serial killer in the infamous chapter 23).
I guess we can speculate about Reynald’s fate change: it could be the price to be paid to have Maggie change the timeline or it could just be an indication that the timeline was already changed before Maggie joined, so it’s not her fault.
Oh, I meant after the kidnapping, not during 23, still doing rereads:)
I’m wondering whether the ‘knight’ rescuer turns out to be related to the Crimson Empire and the true villain of the story.
Possibly it’s just because Silveren seems to have had a really rough deal but given that the current king is a monster who only sits on the throne because there’s no one better, I’m hoping that Silveren can be redeemed.
Then again, Arvel has big plans …
I love both the Crimson Emperor as the end-game villain and Arvel as the new royal dynasty (I mean, beautiful golden knight turned king is a wonderful trope in a story meant to be full of tropes; plus, I think we recognise it as a trope but haven’t really seen it used that much in recent times, but please correct me if I’m wrong).
This was so, so good! I can’t wait until the next book. This is my new favorite book!!
Thabk you both!
This was so, so good! I can’t wait until the next book. This is my new favorite book!!
Thank you both!
How can three moons appear in the sky at the same time in three different phases? Boggles my mind. maybe if the gibbous and last quarter are widely spaced and the crescent is being eclipsed by the planet? I am having trouble picturing how that works
Could the striped one actually be a planet? And tides,! Does Kair Toren have flood problems. Bet those moons make crazy tides . Loved the book. So many mysteries
That’s actually a pretty intriguing question! I’ve read multiple books where the world has more than one moon, but I never considered this 😀
I guess different phases are possible, but they would rise and set at different times (as their visibility from Kair Toren would depend on their position on the orbit). So I think the amount of time all three were visible at once would be quite small, but I don’t know, I’m not an astronomer 😀 I tried to imagine what would happen if the orbits of the moons were at different angles to each other, but my brain said:NO.
I can tell you that moon orbits have been calculated and astronomers consulted during the writing of the book on this specific topic, but because I do not math, everything went way over my head.
I have added your question to the list for House Andrews and they will be able to explain all the research and planning 🙂
My little nitpicking heart jumps for joy 🙂 🙂 🙂
Mine too, even though I was ready to reply “hey, there’s huge magical creatures they defy gravity, the heroine keeps getting resurrected and the hero keeps cutting his enemies in half; just call it magic and be done with it”. I’m impressed there was research done for something I hadn’t really given a second thought to during the first (and second) read 🤯.
Well, I wasn’t going to lead a Pitchfork Party for Moon Justice, I just found it interesting 🙂 The fact that HA actually invested the time to research such a detail is really darn awe inspiring, but I would have been fine with ‘it’s magic/made-up science/reasons’ too.
I love that HA spent time researching the phases of 3 moons question. I seem to recall it being mentioned, maybe by Ilona on the blog? But it’s this attn to detail that makes them so great!
Love this book! And now my husband finished and has started recommending it to ppl. Ha! I’m planning to use this to get him to read more HA, so pondering what’s next…
Does anyone know where I could get a list of characters with a brief (non-spoiler) description?
When I read a book, I can cope with many characters with no real problem. Unfortunately, when I listen to a book, and it’s got more than a few characters, I’m lost. I’ve listened to this book three times now and I’m enjoying it, but I feel like I’m missing out because I still can’t remember who is who. It gets to the end and I have no idea where the characters have appeared before, which is which, what they can do. It is really frustrating.
Even just a list of names with no descriptions beyond the name would be so great! Please help.
I believe there will be one on the Maggie the Undying website when it is made live 🙂 . If not, I have already made a note to ask for it.
There’s one on reddit that someone put together … good details (but spoilers)
i just need to know when the second one will be out. Im dying
There is no official release day yet, but the first draft is almost done 🙂
¿conoces esa sensasión donde quedas tan conmocionado que por un momento hasta tus pensamientos se detienen?…creo que ustedes lo abrevian en ingles con 3 letras: ¿WTF?
. Perdon por el lenguaje coloquial pero en este momento no se si los amo o los persigo por la eternidad gritando “barsa, barsa” = “segunda parte ya” “barsa, barsa” =”amamos Reynald”. Creo que al menos tengo que agradecer que no terminara en suspenso fatal, digo Maggie no esta en las mejores circunstancias al final pero no le han hecho mas daño y todos los que queria salvar estan vivos.
Ahora sobre esa pequeña parte de que va a ser una trilogia… ¿puede convertirse mejor en una serie?Maggie es el tipo de libros que genera un impacto duradero, quiero decir lei mas de 500 hojas y facilmente podria haber leido mil por el estilo de lectura facil y ameno, no hubo una sola linea o parrafo que me saltara por aburrimiento, no hubo divagaciones, explicaciones inecesarias ni informacion de relleno, todo lo escrito tenia un proposito y te mantenia en vilo hasta el final. Sospecho que Maggie llegara a ser el tipo de libro que recomiendas de generacion en generacion,sin importar el tiempo. Esto va a ser ENORME.
Estoy tan orgullosa de formar parte de la horda, HA sin duda se ha superado.
Ahora, detalles:
1. Quiero que en algun punto Maggie tenga hijos y se desarrolle su personaje mas alla del “vivieron felices”, por alguna razon nadie nunca se detiene a mostrar esa nueva faceta de los personajes, son geniales hoy y sin duda seran mas geniales como padres, y antes de que me digan que es demasiado pronto quiero que recuerden que en el capitulo 23 la parte que dice: ella es mia. Apoyo la libertad de eleccion pero por favor, con un beso ella estaba lista para subirse a ese tren y no bajarse nunca. Ya estoy imaginando como seran sus hijos y que poderes heredaran *inserte aqui risa histerica de fan trastornado esperando con ansias la segunda parte*
2.¿cuando sale el segundo?
3. ¿cuando sale el tercero? si ya se que acaba de salir el primero pero no puedes razonar con un fan loco, menos aun la horda que es perfectamente razonable hasta que esta en abstinencia literaria.
4. Me imagino a Solentine acabando con su segunda, a Clover con alguno de los guardias contratados, a la maga con el mago (despues de devolverle el favor por supuesto), a Arvel con la que iba a ser esposa de Ramond, etc etc.
5.Probablemente el villano se reforme y acabe siendo un gobernante magnanimo despues de derrocar a Sauven con la ayuda de Maggie.
6. Probablemente en algun momento separaran a Maggie de su interes principal, ella regresara a su realidad justo al final del segundo libro despues de no poder evitar q su personaje favorito acabe sobre una caja y con una soga al cuello, y ella pasara parte del tercer libro intentando regresar.
Estoy segura que hay muchas cosas mas pero eso lo dejare para la segunda relectura
7. ¿alguna posibilidad de alguna serie o videojuego de Maggie?
¿por favor, por favor?
¿Nadie mas penso en lo genial de un videojuego?
Un videojuego sería increíble. ¡Esperemos que haya interés y que algún día suceda, pero por el momento no hay noticias oficiales al respecto!
Oh meh gawd with all the plot twists!!! wtf?.. Thank you thank you thank you!!! when IS the second one coming? NO PRESSURE! I mean it. you seriously delivered the Goods! Cannot wait. Never thought anyone but Kate could do it but Maggie, you’re my boy blue!!! oh meh gawd!!!!! there were like 4 major plot twists in the end. Within like 10 pages. Sooooooo good.
Dear Authorlords, thank you ☺️.
Not just for writing a great story, but also for feeling (and being inspired by) the same obsession and longing for the proper ending to a half finished story as we have suffered. My own personal experience was just with the Song of Ice and Fire, but I understand from the comments that others have felt this frustration with other book series and obviously “No! Beloved characters have met a horrible end and I must have my revenge, otherwise it’s not fair!” is a feeling many of us share. So again, thanks and take your time, we know life happens and we’ll be here whenever, to enjoy the fruits of your labour 😇.
Now, on to business: is there any way we could have a wiki? Is that done exclusively by fans or can we have one supervised but not necessarily written by the authors? Maybe with all the lovely art, with extra maps (of the kingdom and perhaps eventually the continent or even the entire world) and descriptions of all the characters and their affiliations (perhaps with hidden spoilery notes for future volume references or site- exclusive extras). And yes, of course I’d like the same for all the series; yes, with art😈.
There will be a special Maggie the Undying website 🙂 – and there are plans for a companion book with all the things you enumerated.
Yay🥰
+1
All the different names and Houses and characters being described early on were hard to follow with the little early context. Later, I had to go back an reread sections on the diferent players to try to put it all together! I think I got it figured out, and I will clearly NEED TO READ IT AGAIN (poor me!) now that I know who is who. But a reference on the organization of the houses and the people involved, the government officials, etc, would make it a lot easier than trying to do searches in my kindle reader.
Thanks for bringing us Maggie!
I have to admit that I am a little upset about the plot twist we cannot discuss. But it is ok, as I do not like it when a story is too predictable. I am sure that there will be more info about this in future books that will help us make more sense about this as it seems tied in with how/why Maggie is even there.
Oh, Gee, now the W*iting starts again……:)
Okay, spoiler hypothesis below!
I think Maggie and Silveren have the same powers or very very similar. Based on current events, they are both undying – I am sure that Maggie was 100% successful in her kill. Silveren controls the people by his Call – Maggie broke his control over Luke and it seemed like Silveren was trying to control Maggie too, but couldn’t, so that’s why he used Clover to force Maggie to go with him. Silveren controls magical beasts – a very cute and very magical stelka got attached to Maggie immediately.
Maggie doesn’t have control over her magic so it’s not conscious what she does, but the signs are there.
Based on that and the fact that specific abilities run in the family, I suspect Maggie and Silveren are related! Brother and sister maybe?
If not related, then maybe this is more symbolic in nature. They are the two sides of the same coin, one strives for order and good, the other for revenge and pain, while using the same abilities for these opposite goals.
Hmm, I’m not sure about that. A stab in the kidney isn’t necessarily instantly lethal and it’s reasonable to assume that a magical knight would have access to magical healing and loyal retainers to protect him while he’s getting healed. The undying thing seems to me more like a temporary ability, like a spell was cast to attract people who can affect the course of events and the undying is a part of that (maybe? too crazy?). I think that Maggie’s magic has more to do with predicting/ affecting the future, I mean I think it doesn’t just come from memorising the books, I think there’s also her own personal magic there: for example she says at one point (words to the effect) “if the margrave doesn’t die on that day, he will die on the next one”: she knows this; in earlier chapters she was worried about affecting the timeline but by the later chapters she has stopped second guessing- possibly she doesn’t even realise yet.
As for the animals, it’s specifically mentioned that they’ve attracted to magic and also that Maggie has a lot of magic. It’s not mentioned that she’s controlling them any more than any of us control our pets (would she need to pick up Sushi to keep her safe during the mage fight if she could simply order her to sit down? Would Tsuri keep biting her?)
So I don’t think Maggie can control beasts, but I do think that the undying thing is…complicated.
Maggie predicting the future could make sense and there are other possible hints at this – for instance when meeting the drezmur, she’s dead sure that if she moves, He will drag her on its back, which seems quite specific to me and couldn’t have come from the books
I think she knows he will drag her on to the drezmur’s back BECAUSE of the books. She has a very good idea of how he behaves in high stakes situations. If she runs he will treat her like prey. If she stays and stands up for herself, she will earn more respect from him. She hasn’t been inside his head but she has seen quite a bit of how he handles different situations. Plus there’s Sol’s warning.
she does know him quite well at that point, but I think the books have skewed her view of his character, if anything. She doesn’t see into his head, but I don’t believe he’s like he is described in the books (likely because of narrator bias encouraged by Sauven) and Maggie has issues accepting it.
Also there is her ability to faithfuly reproduce scenes from the book to the point she knows it should be impossible. It might not be predicting the future exactly, but it is more than just remembering what should happen.
I had the same thought about Maggie and Silveren being related because of the healing and ability to break the Call (I missed the beast one). The trial was 25 years ago and Maggie is 25/26, so this could be a Once Upon a Time situation. When Ralibor lost perhaps Silveren’s mother could have just given birth and she sent the baby away with retainers who raised her on Earth. Its definitely got Jon Snow vibes. Also solves the problem of Maggie losing her Earth family when she stays in Rellas. They’d be coming home.
Hmm, think Maggie’s mother might be Aelis? and that she faked her execution and fled to Earth and married a soldier and had another child (do we know if Maggie is the eldest?). Or that she escaped with someone from Rellas? But then, if she had known what would happen 25 years later, would she have left her son behind? Ok, probably not Aelis, but maybe other people escaping Sauven. I wonder how a Crimson Empire connection would fit with this.
The initial stabs to his legs, to the femoral artery, of a person who has basically had his legs rebuilt after the childhood trauma could be explainable. The stab to the kidneys is harder to explain. Magic?
Maggie breaks Silveren’s hold on Luke, but felt the call from Sauven so clearly isn’t entirely immune.
In the first book they’re clearly symbolically opposites, one fundamentally pessimistic and defeatist looking for nothing but revenge, whilst the other seeks to change the narrative and build something better.
This difference feels not so much about good versus evil, as an awareness and concern for the consequences, maybe nihilism versus realism?
Or possibly sociopathy or psychopathy vs. empathy. Which, ultimately, comes to the same thing as awareness of and concern for the consequences *to others*, and therefore to evil vs. good.
I’m not at all sure Maggie was successful in her kill. Things don’t necessarily go the same way in actual combat that they do in practice sessions. Even if she hit the artery with absolute accuracy, it’s not an instantaneous death. For all the reasons Theolessa states above, Silveren could have extracted himself magically, or been magically extracted by his loyal followers, in time to heal by magical means.
I also think Maggie’s insight about ending up on the drezmur could be chalked up to her emotional intelligence, learned or innate. There’s good research indicating that so-called intuition is in fact the result of learning through experience, which may be accessed unconsciously during later experiences.
Nonverbal cues like body language can often provide enough information to predict how someone, sometimes even a complete stranger, is going to act or react to someone else’s behavior. That of course assumes that someone in the situation is capable of reading those nonverbal cues, but they do exist.
Loved the book. Was there an homage to The Knights who say Ni? One of my lol moments was when Gort described Lute’s wound as a scratch and if a hand was cut off it would be described as a flesh wound 🤣
I had such a great time following Maggie’s plunge in Rellas ! HA never disappoints…
It is definitely different from their other series but it still felt like home with Ramond’ s Roganesque flavor, Arvel’s Arland vibe and the feeling that Ramond/Solentine dynamic could be what Rogan and Augustine would sound like in armor and jerkins.
The contrast between a high fantasy world and the thoroughly modern references used to describe it is so much fun.
I also love that they keep weaving in this series themes that appear in a lot of their work like power structure and power abuse or PTSD and the way a society treats its veterans
I still have so many questions and can’t wait for next book. Like, why Maggie ? Could her whole family be linked to Rellas since it’s her mother who gave her the first book to get her out of her post break up funk ? (If any other French reader are around, check Kamo by Daniel Pennac to see where I got that probably ridiculous theory)
Will Clover’s former lady get a well deserved comeuppance ? (Still waiting for karma hitting back Maud’s mother in law)
And how will Sushi save the day ? Cause of course they will !
Thanks again to HA for a lovely time reading this. I will even forgive the cliffhanger !
Ooh, I love the idea of the whole family joining- they’re the only thing that would pull her away so if they join, she can have her HEA in Rellas.
Omg, Clover’s former lady is exactly who I thought of when Maggie was complimenting her after the umm..ball (I only listened to the book twice, can’t remember what it was called). Yes, I’m so with you on Maud’s former MIL.
Sushi🥰- I hope there’s descriptions and art for all the animals too, not just the human characters.
Happiness 😊 can’t wait for the next book!! Really🤩
“and there was a distressing lack of kittens”.
*chef’s kiss*
Enjoying my first reread 😊 Thoughts:
*A club/mace is Maggie’s go-to weapon 😅🤣 – could that somehow be connected to Bors’s magical abilities?
*Will Maggie save the rest of Derog’s victims – the ones listed in Lasa’s ledgers, as well as River Fog and the girl he was supposed to steal from Derog (which won’t happen now that Maggie has averted that timeline)?
*Will the ML – or at least one of the supporting characters, like Matheo – travel with Maggie to the real world?
**The ML trying to cope with modern technology, without magic or influence, could be hilarious 🤣🤣Also, him complaining about how he’s portrayed in the book after reading it 😉
**It would be fun to watch interactions between Maggie’s brother – a 21st-century army guy – and the ML, a medieval-style fantasy warrior 😁
* About the soap guild – will they try to sabotage Maggie? For example, by stealing her soap recipe or preventing her from getting a trade permit, since her soap is superior to theirs and sold at a lower price.
I won’t be surprised if next book she’s facing assassins and interrogating them, to have them be from the guild. “This is about the soap?! Seriously?!”
Will Gort ever realise his artistic potential?
I didn’t think I’d be into the trope, but I couldn’t put it down. I simply end up loving every story the authors write.
The world is so rich and detailed, and the twists and turns kept me on the edge of my seat. Can’t wait to see where the story goes.
One thing that I’m looking forward to is watching Maggie develop more into this spymaster sort of character. Her knowledge of the books taught her how to navigate the world, and know I want to see her apply these newfound skills even without her encyclopediac knowledge, especially since I have a feeling that the next book might step out of Kair Toren.
Also, could River Fog be a grown up Kaiden? I found Maggie’s nudge for him to become the best thief possible seemed like a nod towards his future.
[Edit: Mod R]
Oh, Kaiden, I didn’t catch that at all, but it does make sense. Except he doesn’t need to steal for a living anymore, so maybe he’ll join the information acquisition business?
My guess is he’ll apprentice with the Shears.
I had that thought too! but then I second guessed myself because wasn’t sure if it aligne with the timeline in the original book. I don’t know over what period of time the first two books take, but I worried that River Fogg was older than Kaiden could be, unless his subplot is like 5-10 years in the future?
It can’t be Kaiden, as River Fog was the person that dig out the tunnel and then it was boarded up before he had the chance to escape. When Kaiden is at Derog’s, the tunnel is already there.
River Fog didn’t dig out the tunnel. Another victim of Derog dug it out and River Fog met that victim when they were older.
Nothing can dissuade me from this belief: Ilona Andrews are supernatural. Their level of brilliance is not natural. They have fallen through a portal to present day and salve their feelings of missing their families back home by writing about them in books. I’m not even mad thinking about how long it’s going to be for the next one because it gives me time for re-reads. Amazing book, I enjoyed every letter of it.
Wow!!! To HA, congratulations on this amazing book, what a lucky hoarde we are!! That dedication 😭🥰 Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
I finally finished reading it this morning, it took a while due to work, various commitments and rather demanding children!! Then it has taken me all day to read the comments on this post!!
I was so excited about all the different versions of the book coming out that I pre-ordered the kindle edition, the Amazon addition and made my Mum in the UK order the Waterstones version 🤣 I wanted to order more versions, but it already seemed like a lot when I hadn’t even read the book yet!! But I worried over nothing because of course HA delivered in that spectacular way they always do!! I look forward to my hardcopies!
At first I thought, wow, I don’t even feel like I’m reading something by HA, and then I thought, wow, look how talented they are!! They have created this whole new world and described it so amazingly well (as always), and given us SOOO MANY beautiful characters to love and cherish!! Especially Maggie, I just love her!! And then as the story progressed I felt the HA in the story. When I got to the epilogue I almost cried because I didn’t want it to be over, I can’t w*it for book two!! I will cross my fingers that we don’t have to w*it a whole year or more!! I didn’t mind the cliffhanger because either way I knew I wasn’t going to be chalant about w*ting for book 2🤦🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️
I won’t speculate about my theories, there is nothing new I could add to what the rest of the hoard has already pondered about, so I will just thank you again HA for this wonderful adventure!!
I’m so excited about about a whole Maggie website! I’m definitely going to start re-reading tonight because there are so many characters and new creatures etc. We definitely need a glossary! And the artwork 😍 I can’t w*it to see more!! I also had wondered why there was not a picture of Reynald 🤔👏🏼👏🏼
oh my goodness, I could gush all day about how much I loved it, but I need to go read it again and read all the other blog posts I’ve missed while I was making sure I didn’t see any spoilers 🤣
♥️♥️
Loved the book! Thank you so much for this wonderfully engrossing story! I am slightly confused about a point in the Yolenta embezzling and smuggling subplots and think I’ve missed something important. Can anyone clarify? When Maggie agrees to let Reynald talk to his friend in the Justice Chambers, their stated goal (end of Chapter 16) was to rattle Hreban’s cage by leaking word about the iron and seeing if Silveren moved to counter. However, the next day after the Justice Chamber’s men swarm the Yolenta warehouse due to Reynald’s tipoff, Maggie is internally monologing that Dreantia Yolenta would find out about her niece’s smuggling when the iron showed up at Falcon Point and is caught by her inspector. This implies that the iron smuggled in the salt barrels is not confiscated by the Justice Chambers at the Yolanda warehouse on the pier during their raid. If that is the case, what is the point of the Justice Chambers raid on the Yolenta warehouse?
Holy Smokes. What a ride! What a fantastic and absolutely lovely ride!
Maggie’s story is probably going to top my love of Kate Daniel’s story…and that’s saying something.
So many others have already said all the things I would’ve said about the plot and the twists BUT the thing I am (secondarily) obsessing over, is the hardcover binding. The number of times I geeked out over the fact that I could see the WHOLE map, the pages open so beautifully right from the start, and the overall feel of an amazingly bound hardcover. I literally want to get all my other books rebound to have the same feel as this one!!
House Andrews, this work is exquisite as ever! What a gorgeous world to enter. I’ll be Maggie all day, escaping once again into its pages, any time I need to live in someone else’s head. I can’t handle the darkness she can, appreciating your take on stories well told but not drowning in the dark. These days I have less bandwidth to haunt the Horde site, but appreciate you all no less. Thank you HA & allfor slogging through each phase of the story. And as ever…. I’m challant about being stuck over this cliff!!!
l have about 4 hours left of the audio book and I’m really enjoying it! Thanks for a new world full of characters to fall in love with.
“He didn’t just hold grudges. He cuddled them and tucked them in at night.”
Love this line so much.
lol. Most amusing!
IA has the best lines!
Remember the swampy edge:
carried grudges like they were family heirlooms. 😉
Bought the book – read the book – LOVED the book – um when is the next one out – I need it……..
Loved loved loved it! Just wish I’d practiced more restraint and didn’t finish it so quickly.
My two main parting thoughts:
Firstly, I’m gonna need our girl to start learning some offensive and defensive magic.
Secondly, I hope we are all wrong about Arvel and he doesn’t fit the typical pattern. Although, at this point that seems unlikely as he’s already done the typical overstepping and underestimating. I don’t want him to be a romantic interest, he’s too dull, I just don’t want all other viable options cut off way too quicky either. I don’t know, I just want there to be an element of surprise in her love life; that would force some emotional growth and complexity onto these possessive male archetypes.
Has HA decided what the business name for Maggie and Clover’s soap company will be?
I loved it. Loved the darker voice.
Loved all the beasts.
Clover has magic because she could feel it in the contract. How much magic does she have and what can she do with it? Was she the unnamed child that was kidnapped and killed in the alternate future to “clean up” and she and the man who kidnapped her were both killed?
the second read was even better. the flirting is so fun, the stakes feel real because we love and know the characters. the ball seen is so fantastic, love the new brother getting to scold the new sister. I like ramond, I like averl, but I hold back from fully shipping her with anyone because she isn’t from there. how to cheer on a relationship when she’s either loosing her family and her reality, or loosing the love of her book dreams (in a way, even though it seems the sleepless duke was not her main crush … maybe, can’t wait to find out) I can’t wait for the next book. thank you both again!
What an amazing story!!!!!!
Like so many others I avoided the blog and fb group during my reading to avoid spoilers… I reached chapter 23, had to take a stop, go back a full chapter and re-read… Then I had a 6hr trip, not driving, and I could fully submerge myself in this wonderful story…
And then I finished and didn’t know what to do with myself… so came back to the blog, read all the comments and the bonus scene with Clover, then all the comments on fb, and now starting a re-read and a re-listen at the same time!!
Can’t wait to get the next blog post with all the easter eggs, and the dedicated website, and the companion book, and all !!! Still hoping that the merch could be shipped to EU, I would so like a mug like Maggie “good morning, I see the assasins have failed” !
I don’t really mind the cliffhanger end… It would not have had the same impact at the beginning of the second book so it feel better this way!
I would like to add a question I’ve not seen yet in the comments :
Will we get to know who’s the father of Galiene’s daughter ?
Also I love the questions about the 3 moons phases, and if we will know who was the knight that saved the son of Ralimbor…
As an epic fantsay fan long before I started on urban fantasy, romantasy and so on, I so loved this new style!! Maggie is already one of my all-time favorite! Thank you for writing such a perfect book !!
AND do galiene and her daughter survive? (still don’t have the book delivered…)
I waited for a whole week before starting the book. I know un-BDH behavior, it went from OMG omg omg! To What????? This book feels to me a culmination of all your previous books voices. Thank you HA for this world.
+1 for the scrapbook with art in it.
Wow! You hit the mark; I would not change a thing in your story!
I particularly like how some characters are not who you initially think they are and are pretending to be someone else. Along those lines of thinking, I did think that Silveren might actually be Latour.
Loved it! Now I’m ready to devour the next.
I started the book, LOVE it, and need to know now- who will be Maggie’s main love interest?? I like to know ahead of time so I can pay all the attention to every single interaction they have 😂
I’ve read the story 4 times now to try and lock in the details. Because just like Latour, I’m sure HA has also left clues hidden in plain sight. I have a couple of questions as I try to patiently wait for Maggie2.
1. Will Clover get her revenge? Please say yes. Her former mistress needs a HA lesson.
2. Sol asked Arvel if he had danced the first dance with Maggie without knowing her name. Wasn’t it the 2nd dance? Not really important, but it made me stop and rerun the scene in my mind again without a solution.
3. Arvel is plotting a long game. Thanks for the snippet!!! Sauven better watch his back!
4. Does Maggie have enough magic to ride her own durzene? How far can she fly before she dies and comes back?
5. Does Maggie ever tell Sol about the guy selling info at the Tree Moons?
I have more, but it’s a long post. :folds hands and waits:
Sorry! I accidentally posted on someone else’s question by mistake! Wasn’t sure how to fix.
When Arvel was telling Maggie about not caring about his potential spouses’ history and lineage it made me think Clover could be an option, and an elevation in status like would help facilitate any revenge she might want.
Well, Clover is 17, so probably not her with Arvel, but I supposed Arvel will end up with a wife not born to nobility (I suspect Isadau). As for Clover’s revenge I wouldn’t worry. You may recall a certain Blademaster becoming enraged at the house and going “give me name!” I doubt that was an idle question. Man is planning to burn that house to the ground. He takes the Shield/Sword dynamic very seriously and when other violate those responsibilities so egregiously there will be hell to pay. If not him then Maggie. I can’t wait!
+1 re: Arvel
Other potential options: Galiene or Digi. It has to be someone capable of penetrating that monstrous ego.
Clover is 17, but also she was scandalised by her lady wanting to scrub the floor, so I’m not sure she’d be one to challenge social norms by marrying a lord. I do wonder what kind of magic she has though (it could be just the budget balancing/ stylist thing) and how much🤔
1) I’m sure its coming
2) He asked for HER 1st dance, not the first dance of the evening
3) Yep that was awesome
4) It pushed passed Everard to get to her, so I’m thinking at least as far as him
5) Oh…I think she forgot
I quite like the idea of Arvel ending up with Omelyana of Gor, mainly for the symmetry of the thing.
If he really is aiming at the throne, then he could use someone to marry that would help achieve that goal so someone politically or militarily significant and she qualifies.
Plus she gets a really rough deal: no woman should end up as an emotional doormat in her own marriage.
Regarding 2, if u reread when Maggie is talking w her Dancingmaster, it is mentioned that the very first dance of the night is a demonstration dance, not open for others. That dance is just ending around the time Maggie arrives. So the dance w Arvel is the first dance where anyone can dance as well as being Maggie’s first dance.
just want to say I have to read it again because there is just so much detail. I feel like I’m missing important stuff that you are sneaking in. I loved it.
I loved it.
I loved it
and now I can’t wait for book 2. lol.
this was so much better than I hoped. thank you for writing this. and thank you for keeping it a secret so that I could enjoy it in the moment.
Same.
And I’m not even done with it and I’ve had to go back a couple times
Please explain there are several mentions of brothers near the very end. It appears to be Maggie speaking- she had one brother. Can you please explain. Also. What happens with Reynald at the end?
Thank you
Hi Kare, have you finished the book? 🙂
Finished reading and now rereading! It’s awesome!
I had to come back to this thread just to ask: IS THE SALT FRESH?
I’ve read it, and I loved it!!!
“Three hours after we met, you sold yourself into slavery and then died.” Lives rent-free in my mind.
The way that had me cackling.
Can’t w*it for Maggie to return, but I will, p*tiently. Heh
Also, ngl,
I was *completely* prepared to cheer Maggie on with the dilf veteran widower with no noble title and a teenage son
but alas, The Duke of The North power is too innately strong, even HA isn’t immune to it 😆😆
not that I mind even a little bit, love me a good ol’ black hair, red eyes, ‘keeps-the-border-stronghold, ‘gruesome-reputation-even-the-crown-fears-his-power’ DotN
The way I was kicking my feet at all of the isekai trope checkmarks – and for the record, it was that isekai blog post those years ago that *yanked* me straight down that rabbithole and I haven’t been able to claw my way back out yet – all to prime me for peak Maggie enjoyment I suppose… well played, HA, well played 😉
Agreed. I was totally down for veteran with baggage and no title as ML.
That said, black and green is a favorite color combo of mine.* 😀 And Everard is clearly a good guy when he can manage it. So now I’m down for Raggie, since baggage and no title aren’t on offer.
*Almost bought black chaps with green trim once for that very reason. Then I remembered that I only wear chaps in hot weather (so I can wear shorts to the barn, and only cover my legs for the actual ride) so black would be spectacularly impractical.
Well done, House Andrews! Well done!
Thank you for the lovely bonus scenes. Noticed in the Arvel bonus scene, he refers to big plans. In the book itself, it describes that the only place higher than he already has is the throne, so it feels like he’s aiming for the throne and feels he is close to getting it. Really looking forward to Book 2!
Except that makes his pursuit of Maggie feel a bit out of place?
One of the easiest and quickest ways to gain political support for the throne would be through marriage
Yes, but his ego is solid enough that, however realistic his assessment may be, he doesn’t care.
Question for the Q&A: how did Ilona and Gordon keep everyone’s voices separate? Meaning, Maggie sounds like a modern American in her head, but can switch into noble-Rellas speak as required. Reynaldo sounds distinct from Everard sounds distinct from Sol/Arvel, etc. Do they each write certain characters?
About 4 hours left of the audiobook now. Awesome story. One question. The planter 5,6 and now red berry. Originally I thought it was a mark of the other world calendar. Now I haven’t the foggiest. What are the next to chapter markers?
Yes, they are “other world calendar”. Chapter 1 opens with “Month of Planter, Day 6”. There’s an explanation of the Rellas calendar at some point, although all I can remember is that a week is eight days and every month has four weeks. The authors omitted the “Month of” wording on subsequent notes, but those chapter headers are their way of showing the passage of time — sometimes the next day, sometimes longer.
What Molly said 🙂
This was the first book I abstained from reading passages in the blog before it was published. Almost folded a couple of times, but held strong. 😏 SO GOOD! Now I’m reading through all the extra goodies on the blog and starting my first reread. (First of several rereads no doubt😉) Looking forward to what appears in the merch store. Thank you! *ecstatic reader dance*
Proof of a good read? On a reread, I still read past my bedtime!
Ok, finished my rereads, and some random thoughts that I haven’t seen addressed yet.
So this is basically the authorlords doing Game of Thrones, right? The parallels are pretty obvious. I’ve spent the week wondering, if I were stuck in Westeros, who would I go to for assistance. Help seems pretty sparse, so it’s nice that Rellas is a bit less brutal.
What was the translucent thing that ate the corpse at the very beginning of the story?
I’m assuming Ramon giving Maggie that hair ornament is the equivalent of Curran feeding Kate soup?
Except, Maggie knows what it means, where as was Kate was like “Cool, soup!” and Curran was like “Haha, one step closer to marriage!”
In general, I like R/E better than Arvel, but my one exception is that in the ballroom scene, Arvel brought her there confident that she would shine and enjoying her do so on a battlefield he knew she would rule, whereas R/E wanted to hide her away because all he saw were threats. Yes, not the best people whose attention to have, but would have been nice if he stood beside her instead of wanting to throw a figurative blanket over her head to hide her.
To be fair to R/E, Arvel has no idea the dangerous game Maggie is playing, but Everard does. Arvel has never had to watch her die. R/E has twice. Maggie’s anonymity keeps her as safe as it is possible for her to be while completing her mission.
What Jen said. R/E has a much more complete understanding of the potential consequences for Maggie.
Arvel threw Maggie off the deep end to see how she’d handle it. This is the entire reason he invited her to the big shindig. Arvel didn’t at all care about what would happen if it went poorly for her. He would have just shrugged and said oh well, not the woman for me after all. He wants a woman well able to handle the power politics end of things.
And ofc the Duke behaving like a maniac was also not helpful, but also not premeditated. I do wonder what all he has had going on while he was separated from Maggie? Maybe his behavior will b understandable if we knew whatever craziness he had endured while trying not to get poisoned? Gotta figure the poisoner made more attempts when the first one failed.
So, is Maggie’s given name a Horde cookie for us Kate Daniels fans?
I just finished Maggie. I saw very few of the twisty-turns coming, even knowing I was being willingly hoisted on a flag pole in a gale.
Time to re-read. Gah! I loved this journey and look forward to it being continued.
Okay, Mod R said no time travel…That’s leave us with:
1) The author is someone in Rellas who could look into the minds of people both in the past and future at least ten years ago
2) The author’s imagination/powers some how created the Rellas Maggie is sent to out of remorse because the ending of the series would have broken their hearts
3) The Earth author is somehow psychically linked to someone in Rellas who could look into the minds of people both in the past and future at least ten years ago
Yeah…IDK. I’m sure the Authorlords have a well planned explanation, so I’m not too worried. I just watch a K-Drama “Bon Appetite Your Majesty” that ended with only a partial explanation for its shenanigans and I may have cursed at the screen. However the House Andrews has never let me down, and I have no reason to think they’d start now.
I’m looking at Maggie’s teacher, who smiled and asked her what would happen if there were no third book. Iirc Maggie was in eighth or ninth grade at the time, so the teacher would likely have been at least eight years older, and possibly more.
Even if the teacher was female, there’s a long tradition of female authors using male pen names, and I know of at least one male author who had a solidly female profile for his female pen name.
1. A prophet? Who traveled to Earth long enough to publish the books and then left. Alternatively, Maggie’s mother?
2. The books don’t describe something that happened, only something that might happen- that can also be prevented from happening.
3. Someone with magical abilities from Rellas (yes, I’m still attached to my mage theory and very curious to see the workings of the Tower) made predictions, wrote books and maybe created portals?
I agree with you about the Authorlords planned explanation, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun guessing in the meantime, so tell us what you think of my crazy theories 😇
This is the hardest audiobook I’ve ever listened to. first, I’m sad that I didn’t get to read the dedication cause I Audible just jumps into the book but this is the first time not being able to flip through pages has hurt me. I need a wiki. I need a list somewhere I keep getting confused. There’s a lot of S names in this book
This is the hardest audiobook I’ve ever listened to. first, I’m sad that I didn’t get to read the dedication cause IAudible just jumps into the book but this is the first time not being able to flip through pages has hurt me. I need a wiki. I need a list somewhere I keep getting confused. There’s a lot of S names in this book
Wow that was amazing. Had to put my best buddy to sleep on Thursday, so having this book, especially in audiobook format, was a godsend. Thank you HA. The dedication was lovely. Chapter 23 hit me so hard; it felt like a death. Loved Sushi. The escape from the ballroom with her favorite cousin and brother left me in stitches. Kate is one of my favorite characters, I but enjoyed having a heroine who used her brains and knowledge rather than kick ass fighting skills. Can’t wait for book 2 but gives lots of time for multiple rereads.
Question: Did Hreban die in the fight or did he survive?
From the epilogue “Hreban was behind bars and Silveren was hopefully dead.” 🙂
loved it ! thank you! amazing !
I loved
* The family tree cemetery- a beautiful concept
* regarding the mordok-having asked for instructions, lute got trained as well- and I see the Tzeri can help again going into the 2nd book
* 6’5” blue eyes- thx to the BDH i wouldn’t have caught that tiktok reference
liked that she could break the magical hold that the Garden guy could spell
* Avaria- is she over her issues with Maggie ? can she be trusted- she got the info on the contracted people but she betray Solentine or is she over being petty and mean?
* Isadau- wild card ?
* drezmurs- the description sounds like the cover art
* where is the Tangle on the map ?
* appreciate the multiculturalism
I was so with the BDH member who sent “I can’t even” memes and yet I’m also with others that are good with the cliff leaner – deaths were prevented and the Night of a Thousand Fires was stopped and the mastermind is exposed.
AHHHHH- When is the next book? How many times have others in the BDH already read it? I’m on number 3. So so very good!
Thank you so much for Maggie. It’s been a hard week and as with all Ilona Andrew’s’ books,Maggie is a keeper.
Have we discussed the significance of the book titles?
-Thieves of the North
-The Lords of the East
North is Selva, Okula, and the Crimson Empire. The thieves we’ve come across in the first book are all in and around Kair Toren though–Derog, the Yolentas, Hreban stealing the Sun Margrave’s position, Silveren stealing the throne.
East could be Kair Toren, which would make sense if the second book deals with the civil war and fight for the throne.
Also who is Maggie’s favorite character and have we met them yet? She says Solentine is ONE of her favorites, but she’s pretty firm that her ‘favorite’ is left with a noose around their neck at the end of book 2. Solentine is supposed to go insane on the battlefield after Izarn dies–maybe his actions there end with his head in a noose?
And what is the narrative significance of there being no scenes in Everard’s POV, beyond the obvious of it making them perfect for each other in the classic “I can read everyone but you” trope? If Latour exists or ever existed in Rellas, WHY would such a major character be exempt from POV, especially since there are obviously tons of subplots that concern him and those around him?
I’m excited to get more of the mages in book 2! They’re obviously a big part of Rellas but we only got glimpses of them in the Isadau subplot, and no one even talks about them much. But I think if there’s a place Latour is hiding, it has to be there, and barring Sushi’s influence, how else would Maggie have been isekai’d if not through magic?
Okay off to reread again. The listen+read feature on kindle is AMAZING.
Much love Authorlords!
I’m also excited about the mages and I agree there must be significance in the book titles. We need bigger and more detailed maps, of the entire world, not just Rellas. Hey, we wouldn’t be a Horde if we didn’t occasionally state extravagant demands😈
About LaTour and PART OF WHAT WE KNOW:
1. Mod R said time travel was NOT involved, not a part of the internal structure/form of this series.
2. The word Latour is French for tower.
3. In the book there are many towers, and individuals who have towers are powerful in some way, be it physically, through land ownership, or magically.
4. Mages have 12 levels of magic, Maggie only has information up to 10 levels based on the books she read, the upper two are not yet defined.
5. Maggie appeared on this world from ours when a break occurred in an already established time line. This break happened before she had interaction with Kair Toren.
6. We don’t know yet why this break in the timeline occurred, we just know it did, and was pivotal enough that Maggie could somehow, someway be transported there.
7. The events of book one and two had already occurred on some version, or versions of Kair Toren previously. Maggie arrived about one Month into book one as she knows it. Initially Maggie does not know if she is in a “book” or in a “real” world.”
8. Either on a version of Kair Toren, or through some other way, (remember, no time travel), this timeline had previously been thoroughly witnessed by someone with the ability to read the motivations/minds the of the individuals around them from every walk of life, and that person recorded them in the books.
9. This information had been made available on earth and was read by Maggie, initially when she was young enough for it to shape her world view, educational choices, and pretty much entire growth process into maturity.
A VERY SMALL PART OF WHAT WE DON’T KNOW:
1. Which is almost everything.
2. Was Maggie’s natural intelligence and abilities recognized from childhood, and as she grew and interacted with the fan message boards was she targeted as a potential option to “save” Kair Toren?”
3. There are characters that Maggie has information about that could be LaTour.
4. The information in the books she read could be deliberately misleading, such as Hreban’s uncle being killed by his father. Did that really happen or was that what Hebran thought had happened and what Latour had written. Could the uncle be a “LaTour option” and as a Hebran have the power/ability to read the hearts of people, and then see even more deeply into the history and actions of those individuals? Was he a very powerful threat to his brother and that’s why he was supposedly killed?
Honestly,
HA writes such fabulous books we keep diving down these rabbit holes like Alice in Wonderland.
No wonder we devour them.
We desperately need a “Crazy Theories” thread or maybe some easily accessible space in the Maggie page when it’s available, it will be awkward to keep coming back to this thread until the next book is out:)
I really loved the part where Solentine is guessing what Maggie is short for and lists a bunch of names, one of which Maggie thinks is made up and then later we see is actually a character’s real name! I laughed so hard when that was revealed, only caught it on 3rd reread though. I wonder what other easter eggs I missed, must reread again
I loved that bit too and imagined the authors having loads of fun making up names, but please, I need confirmation: is Magrefondretta a made up name? (for clarification, I’m Greek; as a child, I used to think that “Kermit”was a name made up especially for the frog, it was a huge surprise to find out there are real people with that name^^).
Just to clarify: this is no shade on Kermits the world over, I’m actually interested to know what the country of origin of the name is. I’m also absolutely certain that most of you would think that several real Greek names (like Pulcheria or Anaximandros) might be made up 🙂
No one in the life sciences or the humanities would think that. You undoubtedly know that huge chunks of scientific terminology and modern languages have Greek roots. While I don’t know the exact stats, that has to add up to a lot of young and older adults, not to mention precocious child readers, recognizing Greek names as real.
Kermit, on the other hand – it’s real, and one of our presidents had a son by that name, but I have no clue about the origin. FWIW the president was Theodore Roosevelt, so Greek first name, and I think Dutch surname.
WOW. The 2nd read thru was almost like reading a new book – it hits so differently once you know plot twists. One of the many clues that went straight over my head but that made me laugh out loud the 2nd time thru – Reynald explaining to Maggie why he needs to hire guards.
Me too!
lol ! I need to sleep, indeed. 😉
Oooh oooh could Maggie be immune to magic from the Great Families?! We saw her break Lute from Silveren’s spell, and he comments on her ability to break his hold during the epilogue but ALSO–
…when she meets him in the Dog Market before they discover the first victim of The Butcher, he’s surprised when she doesn’t go with him and instead stands her ground. At first I thought he was just surprised by her boldness and self-possession but it’s more than that.
“Does that usually work for you? Do you just slide up to a woman and tell her ‘Come with me,’ and she allows herself to be meekly led away from her bodyguards?”
“Sometimes.”
“I’m going to stay right here. If you would like to say something to me, now is your chance.”
“You’re getting more interesting by the moment,” he muttered. “Why are you here?”
We know Maggie has magic, and lots of it. Is her immunity to Silveren’s Voice part of that, and are all people who are magically strong immune? Or is this unique to Maggie? Does Exultant Call and Rageglow work on Everard, for example? On Solentine?
Eeeee this reread’s got it’s hooks in me.
I doubt Maggie is immune to Great Families’ magic in general, because she does feel the effects of Sauven’s magic in the battle. But she definitely is not affected by Silveren’s voice, even though she notices that his voice is very beautiful and kind of hypnotizing.
My hypothesis is that Maggie and Silveren share the magic. Either they are related somehow, or they are the sides of the same coin (that is they have very similar magic but they choose to use it in vastly different ways, for theming reasons).
I am already crushed by the w*it for the next book and second reread sounds appealing lol
Fresh off the last epilogue, I came to this thread to ease the transition back to a world that doesn’t yet have another chapter of Maggie’s story.
Thanks to House Andrews for this gift of a new series. It brought the anticipated flash and dash of magic that they do so well, and the steady moral compass I rely on to pull me through the grim passages. And this time they pulled out all the pacing stops – the sense of momentum and acceleration of the plot were 10/10. I laughed, cried, and yelped wtf loud enough to wake the dogs.
I’m a knitter, and it was like sitting down next to someone pulling out yarns of multiple colors, weights, and fibers from their stash, casting on a new project. It has colorwork and intarsia, texture and cables. Every new skein and twist of the needles adds to the whole and by the end it’s big enough to wrap myself in. Picture the Unicorn tapestries at the Met, knitted into a blanket. And they made it from a pattern that’s in their head.
Thanks again. Your writing lights a candle in a dark time.
Special shout out to Mod R, much appreciated for her humor, wit, and steady hand on the horde tiller
Was that a reference to Zoolander? Hilarious!
Has anyone made a list of characters? I’m having a hard time keeping track of every one😫
really enjoyed, thought it was by far the strongest book they have written I think the break from UF/PNR even in a similar genre really gave there writing a chance to shine ( and obviously I love there regular stuff ). I also like a well written practical character who is a genuinely good person lately it seems most practical characters ie actually think through the situations they are in, are of the Grim dark morally grey variety and my favourite part of that is we didn’t spend the majority of the book with Maggie wondering what’s real she accepts that Relias is more then a fictional world treats its people as real life people and moves on, loved it .
Here goes. First time posting here (I think).
Why was Everard even in Kair Toren at the safehouse when he left to “think” and Maggie found him watching Derog’s slave house?
Why was Solentine running towards Gort at the statue of the Knight Vanquishers? He had obviously gotten information that something was going down… Was he intending to kill Gort? Who was he gunning for?
I think the core of why Maggie is so hurt over the deception of Ramond is because she held back in the cemetery because she did not want to begin something with him, without being 100% honest about who she is. He, on the other hand, seemed perfectly willing to start something, without revealing the truth of who he is.
You may want to check me on this – but Everard brought Reynald’s body for burial- totally guessing that Solentine was trying to find Everard since he wasn’t in the safe house – Agree with you about Maggie’s hurt feelings.
I think Sol was running to help Ramond, who had escaped Sol’s protection days before rather than to hurt Gort.
I think Maggie being hurt was more a romance thing (as in “the man I love lied to me”) rather than a story thing, because when it comes to lying, Maggie is living in a glass house and should not be casting stones; she hasn’t told the truth of who she is and how she got there to a single person. Also I think her reactions are affected by her bias: Reynard was one of her favourite PoV characters, so she trusted him and Everard was only known to her by his terrifying reputation. She knows all the big families are ruthless so it makes sense that she would be questioning the motivations of any head of a family.
+1
and she may be in her feelings nevause she doubted him questioned h and looked at his papers- he doubled down on the deception
wow! I finished it and just love the references. to the gamer line about killing templar’s and the Homer Simpson meme and even game of thrones. tell cersi it was me! and so much more I’m forgetting. I bought multiple copies and the ebooks and audible. so hopefully my money will help the next one get made!
I am obsessed! Obsessed, I tell you! This is the first time in my life that I have finished reading a book and immediately flipped back to the first page to start reading it again. And then when I completed my second read through I bought it on audible so I can listen to it in the car to catch even more details I may have missed.
Spectacular entrance into this genre! Judging by the cliffhanger, I like to think that all bets are off in this series compared to your other series and I am definitely here for this wild ride. The wait for the second book is going to be interminable, I need a Maggie fix!
So many hooks for the next book!
I’m guessing that all the lessons on how to stab someone in the leg to nick the femoral artery probably don’t work so well on a man who has had his legs magically put back together after a childhood trauma but the strike to the kidneys has yet to be explained. Magic?
The book has done a really great job of upending the whole villain/hero narrative for me. Silveren has had a really rough deal. It’s understandable why he’s out for revenge and let’s face it, the king is a bit of a d*ck that would be long gone if only there was anyone to replace him. Silveren?
Given the current situation in the Gulf, I’m a big fan of trying to avoid violent war wherever it arrives including fiction but the book also really highlights the basic questions to be asked. Yes, you can tear things down, kill people and destroy everything but then what happens next, who replaces the people you’ve killed and will they be any better. The law of unintended consequences looms large in this book, almost more than the absent book from the uncompleted trilogy.
I’m also in favour of Arvel ending up with Omelyana of Gor for no reason beyond the symmetry of the thing. No woman deserves to be the supplicant in her marriage.
If the ex-lover/beau who rescued the young boy turns out to be the Crimson Emperor (the true villain waiting in the wings) then my bingo card will be complete.
It was such a treat to read Maggie’s story. I always imagine myself as part of the story when reading a book, but I’m usually an original character.
Thank you, Ilona and Gordon, for your imagination, patience and joy you share with us.
Speaking of authors…does Latour ( the author in Maggie’s book) ever make an appearance in the books? Or have we met him/her already? Misunderstood identities seems to be a laitmotif hehehe.
Apologies if this was asked before. I hope you can get some well deserved rest soon.
Yet again, a total favorite! Thank you for your talent and dedication to writing for us! I’ve seen some tinfoil hat theories that I kind of agree with, here’s mine: our villain is also undying, could he have been portaled out into Maggie’s world where he told his story to the author (or was the author) and then got portaled back into his world? So excited to see how the story unfolds over time!
Is reading Maggie three times in a row too much? Or not enough? Asking for a friend…
Im with you-what happens at re-read #4?
What a wonderful book! I see so many comments speculating about the man from the Garden, who the author is, etc., so I won’t repeat those. I just want to know if Joris tried to poison Everard and if so how did he do it? Also, how was Everard able to go through the gate in the beginning when he first met Maggie? The gate checkpoint was a little confusing…
I imagine the same way a lot of rich people get inside places that are closed to the public: he paid the guards.
I have a question!
In ch 16, Maggie tells “Reynald” that Everard loses Solentine’s support. She specifically says, “Solentine is loyal to his family, while Everard is loyal only to Selva.” she makes this sound like a bad thing, like Sol is the victim, but if Everard is loyal to Selva, then he’s loyal to a whole lot more people than just family. It sounds to me like Sol is is one who cares little for anyone. what am I missing that makes Sol the one in the right here?
Thank you for considering my question!
We don’t quite know the details yet, but if I had to guess what might cause a rift, I’d say maybe Sol didn’t get reinforcements and consequently lost loved ones, because Everard was busy defending a strategic target.
So what I’m saying is, I don’t think the authors will answer that question;)
And I’m back. I read This Kingdom 2 1/2 times on my kindle before breaking down and ordering the hardback, because I was craving the feel of the book in my hands. I got it today and simply opened it up to a random page and started reading from there.
I just got to the scene where Maggie was being interrogated at the guard station and “Bellen” told the Knight Captain to “Be silent” when he went to call “Bellen” “Lord -.” I started giggling as it finally clicked in my brain exactly what he was about to say, and that “Bellen” was really p’d off in that moment about the captain almost giving his masquerade away.
I had to immediately put the book down and come here to type this, b/c I needed to share with ppl who’ve already gotten to the chapter 40 reveal.
Oooh! Good one! I didn’t catch that!
Thanks again to Ilona and Gordon!
So much joy from this splendid book!!
OH
MY
GOLLY
Your books are AMAZING and the re-reads of ALL of them so satisfying, but this one?!!!!
You two just went next level on your writing. I straight up cackled after the first green fire scene. I did NOT see that plot twist coming. I straight up whooped & cackled! Then i checked my place in the book and i was only midway through!! Monster of a plot twist and so much book left!? This is not a genre I usually seek out but WOW! Your best writing EVER-which was already at such a high bar!
THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!
-BDH4EVER
A question about changed content: I remember a snippet posted a loooong time ago, where Maggie is renting a room from a young widow with a small child; when Maggie departs, she warns the widow to not rent to a particular dashing man who will sweep her off her feet but end up getting her killed. I presume this was an example of a great scene that was removed from the book as the storyline matured? Or are we likely to see it in a different form in a future Maggie book?
The scene was indeed removed in edits. The other manuscripts are not yet complete, so I cannot answer the second part of your question yet 🙂
I think we may have already seen it in a different form, with Galiene and her daughter. It may have been changed to ease Maggie’s introduction to the upper levels of Rellas society.
chapter 29: Does Solentine not know that Maggie is “undying”? . . .she just survived the Butcher and his people were there at her recovery.
I wonder if her body parts disappearing after death is related to the “Fade” at all. Is her real body still on Earth?
What happened to the chest of scrolls that was taken from the vault but not loaded onto the boat?
I did a ctrl-f on the page to see if anyone else has any ideas and didn’t see anything. Does any one know if there are Earth equivalents to the teas talked about in the book? I would LOVE to try some of what are talked about. I even started highlighting in my book descriptions of the teas. Some research may be necessary.
I too would appreciate this greatly. Also, I can’t be the only person getting enagaed in soap making because of this book, can I?
Would you ever write a Damaes x Isadau novella? I need it so bad
When House Andrews named Bellen, did you know that bellend is a very common UK insult? It made me chuckle reading his name, and it seems fitting for him!
In the Bonus Scene not a hair on her head, they refer to the fact that the redeemers are very loyal, almost unnaturally so. My question is how long does Silvereen’s magic last? How many people can he cast it on? Once broken is the person immune from having it being recast?
Question for the Q&A: How many Easter Eggs are in TKWNKM? Since I’m doing multiple rereads anyway, I might as well have an additional goal to go with lol
ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC BOOK! Thank you Ilona Andrews!!
I asked these in the FB group but a re-read answered one of them.
1) I wondered if Reynard was truly gone since Maggie hadn’t seen the body. Mateo said he saw his Father die.
2) Silvern knows too much. in the garden scene, how did he immediately know Maggie was out of place? someone mentioned it was his power, but I didn’t find that in my re-read
3) are there two different silverns? how Everard remembers him is so different from the one Maggie met
4) any significance to the Sleeping Duke never having a POV scene in the book series?
5) Maggie seems to empathize so much with Silvern and he is introduced in a way that I feel like he will get a redemption arc. anyone else get this vibe?
6) Any bets on who dies?
I don’t want to bet, but maybe Gort? He was supposed to die senselessly in the original story, so maybe he will die heroically on this one, we are emotionally attached so it will have an impact but he’s an older mercenary so it’s part of his job. Plus it might show Everard that life insurance isn’t a bad thing.
I would hate that, but it makes sense. I feel like Sol may not make it😭 So far she’s saved most of her favorite characters that died (Galiene, Pelegrin).
I think Silvern develops into something more. Another re-read had me notice that he is not all-knowing. He clocks Maggie but doesn’t know the Duke in disguise.
Mod R, if it’s not too late for questions, is there any significance that in Helen’s illustrations, the Duke and Silvern are the only characters without book pages on both sides of them?
No, not at all, that’s just a graphics element 🙂
Something more? Do you mean Silveren might be redeemable or that he might be related to Maggie or that he might be pretending to be Silveren or Mirabor or (tinfoil incoming) might not even be a native of Rellas (Rellas the kingdom or Rellas the world, either one)?
Hey, if we put out many crazy theories, maybe one of them will turn out to be correct in the end 😀
Is Doran a pov in Maggies books?
No, Maggie’s books are just Maggie first POV.
I meant is he a pov in the books Maggie read – not a pov in This Kingdom. 🙂
I think he is, there’s mention of Arvel wishing that Berengur was there to help him at the time Berengur was away because of his mourning; that seems like a thing you would think but wouldn’t say out loud.
I just tried to register for the zoom, and got the message that registration is closed! Email came in early this AM (while I was sleeping). How can it be closed already? Help!
I have to know, which mangas/manhwas inspired TKWNKM because I need to read them! Please, please, please let us know! Also thank you for making such a wonderful book to get lost into. Truly.
What an amazing book, love the world (beautiful but scary), love the characters, love the storyline……
Just a quick thought, has anyone any ideas what the ‘dark thing’ in the river in chapter 2 is? It seems completely random and not related to anything in this story ….but HA, like LaTour, rarely puts superfluous characters or scenes into their books….. Hmmmm
I think the point is that it *is* completely random and not related to anything in the story. It demonstrates that the books Maggie read so many times are not an exhaustive, all-encompassing guide to the world she’s fallen into.
Think of all the novels in English that don’t mention orcas or great white sharks or mountain lions or hyenas. Yet those things exist, whether they have any bearing on the book you are reading or not. Maggie needs to understand that she won’t be able to recognize every single danger she encounters, so caveat lector.
I am still in the middle of the book. But worried about what appears to be a plot hole. Maggie convinces Reynald to trust her by telling him an incident from his past that only he knows about. So.. how could that convince him?
Oh I see (answering my own question), answered in Chapter 28.
Ok Horde, what sambocade recipe are we creating or adapting to be compatible with Shana’s recipe?
I’m still in the middle of reading the book for the second time and may have more ideas later about Maggie but here is my theory so far.
I don’t see HA yanking Maggie back to her old world when she clearly loves her new family and is so comfortable in Kair Toren. I also can’t see HA leaving her old family out of the story so I wonder if her old family escaped kingdom when she was little and went to our world. That is where Maggie’s mother wrote the first two books about Kair Toren. Somehow Maggie ends up back at kingdom before her mother tells her about their past life. Mother couldn’t write the last book because she doesn’t know what happened. I wonder if we will see her old family return to Kair Toren soon because they’re afraid for Maggie.
I still think there will be more surprises regarding the real Reynald, Silveren, and Clover. Maggie gets very emotional about the real Reynald and isn’t it interesting that Marigold and Clover are both flower names? Silveren seems to recognize Maggie and both seem to be undying.
Anyway I can see HA smiling and chuckling at everyone’s theories!
I love to read and always look forward to an Ilona Andrews book!!!
Will Maggie eventually tell her companions (voluntarily) about her background? She was so upset about being lied to by the male lead.
Do we find out who the author of the books were & what happened to them?
Maggie said she appeared in chapter 1 of the first book. Even with the changes that she caused, do we find out how far along the two books storyline she’s already experienced?
She said book two ends with her favorite character standing with a noose around their neck. Do we find out who it is and what happens to them?
Omg I’ve read the e-book a couple times already but now I want to buy a hardcopy! This is the 1st time I’ve read this genre (I’ve watched lots of anime & shows), & I’m really loving the book. Does anyone remember where to buy any of the special editions? Like which ones will have the illustrations included?
Thanks in advance
Special editions are listed here https://ilona-andrews.com/maggie-the-undying-2/#special 🙂
Hi Modelicious R!☺️
4/18 Q&A Questions
In the 2/19/26 Blog Post HA wrote:
Is there bonus fiction material in the special editions?
There is a short story in one of the US bonus special editions that explains things. Those who don’t end up buying that special edition will learn the exact nature of that episode when Book 2 comes.
Question: How can we buy this Special Edition? (or get the short story?)
Also in the 2/19/26 Blog Post:
Why can’t we get art and bonus stuff?
You can. Or you will be able to. More on that after the release. We have invested into art for this trilogy from multiple artists. We will need to get our investment back so we will be doing things with art and bonus fiction. We have deleted scenes and scenes from other characters. We are not ready to discuss anything until we have something concrete to show you.
Question: Now that it’s after the release, are there updates?
Thank you!
The announced special editions are here https://ilona-andrews.com/maggie-the-undying-2/#special
The one with the bonus story is not yet official.
The extra content has been shared on the blog already, bonus stories with Clover and Arvel, and art reveals. They will also be part of a self-published companion book that HA are working on 🙂
Thank you so much for the quick response! I’m so chalant for the companion book😃
Just one question about your reply “The one with the bonus story is not yet official.” – this means we can’t buy it yet?
Sorry if I’m being dense, wasn’t sure.😳
Thank you!
‘Sup Sir Modsalot Mod R!☺️
4/18 Q&A Questions
Did HA say that we have NOT met Latour in TKWNKM?
(I read in the Facebook group that they “said we haven’t yet met Latour”)
Is Latour a person in Rellas? Is Latour a person?
Is the leverage against Solentine (in Ch 16) the Three Drops of Blood Story (in Ch 23)?
Thank You!
so the garden mage said she has a lot of magic what does that mean? can she learn to use it and be powerful? I like my main characters be powerful so kinda was bummed Maggie does not have some cool power beside undying of course
As I mentioned elsewhere, you know it’s a good book when you read past your bedtime on a reread. 😁 *happy reader dance*
Ok, crazy theory time: what if the books Maggie read aren’t a timeline that has already happened, but rather prophesies of what might happen. Someone (a mage?) with the pertinent talent (or even several someones) might have seen the future several years ago and put things in motion to counteract. Maybe our “man from the garden” knows that someone might try to interfere with his plans and that’s why he’s quickly suspicious of Maggie.
Maybe Maggie was a baby born to a family with useful talents and was sent away for her safety until the appropriate time or maybe she was summoned from her native world by a spell that targeted the useful talents that Maggie happened to have.
Also I’m wondering: was there a real Silveren that the secret prince killed to take his identity or was he raised as Silveren from the moment his death was faked as a child? So, where was he until he killed the real Silveren (Here??) or who are the “traitors” to Savaric who raised him and gave him his new identity?
Oh, I just read the theory that maybe he was raised in (or by) the Crimson Empire and I love that idea, it makes sense that the evil emperor (well, we don’t know him/her really, just guessing) would take advantage of a traumatised child with a lot of magic to aid in his conquest of the continent.
Hello,
Could someone enumerate the great eight families to help me with my reread?
I agree with people saying Silvereen is not from this world. In chapter 4 he tells her that they are both in a place they should not be pretending to be someone they are not.
I loved the book, the intricacy…the details and the characters!
Savaric (Exultant call, something that apparently doesn’t just encourage you to fight but also might hypnotise you. Goes with a beautiful singing voice)
Everard (Fatefire, makes weapons sharp but can also be used to create a boundary- think Kate’s blood magic)
Arvel (Enduring Flame, an impenetrable shield- to me it seems like paladins from world of Warcraft. Maybe it does other things, we’ll see)
Hreban (Mirror Heart, to know how people really feel- and unlike any other empath in any other story I’ve ever read, Ulmar is a misanthrope)
Bors (Rageglow, like berserkers I think)
Yolenta (metalworking)
Jals (farming)
Graives (building roads- presumably construction in general)
Thanks ^^
Some random observations.
I loved the color coding of the various households and particularly the green color coding of Maggie’s household before and after chapter 23. Then the switch to rust for the big shindig after the “adoption.”
Maggie is really Marigold?!! Like the mule in the early Kate Daniels books? This made me chuckle.
Wondered if the Magnolia Street and Magnolia Blossom Trail are real? Or a reference to another book that I missed.
The discussion about Marigold and the earlier discussion about flower names for servants including Clover, sent me down an enjoyable rabbit hole reading about flower language and symbolism. Marigolds are the October birth flower and also associated with death and grief. Apparently, they are frequently used during Day of the Dead celebrations. Clover, as most know is a symbol of luck, although also of other things. I realize none of this may be of any significance, but I did enjoy my trip through flower language.
Everard’s sword is Emerald Blaze? I had to reread that section twice.
The periodic tower references throughout the book were fascinating, but I was too busy reading to spend any time thinking about the significance of the tower, although I did highlight the description of Earl Berengur’s crest and the meaning of having a tower on your crest, so I could find them again later.
I am assuming that “Adrian LaTour” is a pen name. Is it possible that the author may not be a male, but rather female, or one of the people that don’t fit into specific gender roles or more than one person?
Looking forward to meeting Pelegrin in Book 2. Maggie says he is one of her favorites and although we learn more about him, we don’t actually meet him on the page.
I had to do a lot of solo driving this past weekend, so I listened to the audiobook during the drive. Really enjoying Kristen Sieh’s narration so far, especially the change in accents for Reynald and Ramond.
I loved all the easter eggs in Maggie, like Everard’s sword being named the Emerald Blaze, and Arvel’s welcome being withdrawn.
One question – will Avaria face any consequences for her “subtle sabotage” of Maggie? Even if we only hear about Solentine taking her to task (like how Arvel will talk to Eliarde after the joedurar), it would be better than not being addressed. Avaria let Maggie be attacked (and killed, but, whatever), and undermined/ countermanded Solentine. Surely he can’t let that stand?
Humble request.
A mug. Colors: Rust, cream, and blue.
Design: A Crest with a rust dagger on a field of cream with three moons above it.
Script: “Good Morning. I see the assassins have failed.”
I would buy that (if there were international shipping)😀
Several people have posted the idea that Latour, the author, is someone in the story. Different possibilities have been suggested. I’ve been thinking of the crazy mage in the mage tower. They say you shouldn’t put a gun in a story unless it’s going to go off. It seems like the mage is a dramatically introduced gun that has failed to go off. So far. He could be someone with the power to pluck Maggie from our world and imbue her with magic and absent minded enough to lose track of her. He also could be capable of banishing someone to our world. Someone who figures out he can make a living telling about Kair Toren. Someone who could tell accurately about what happened when he was in Rellas (first book), speculate plausibly about what came next (second book) but have no idea how to finish up. Or was sucked back to Rellas!
It is now 2 weeks since This Kingdom launched, and this morning as I was on the treadmill Violet Orlandi’s cover of “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins came on and all I could think about is how perfect it would be as the soundtrack for Maggie confronting Hreban.
I’m on my 2nd read and like it so much better.
There were too many people to keep track of and too many “new” things. So, I am very very very happy to be reading it again.
😊😊
PS.. when is the 2nd one coming out ( card carrying member of the BDH!)
A long time ago I had this policy to not read a book that was part of a series yet to be finished. This would ensure my ability to gobble and devour without any angst that I’d have to pause and “wait”. It seemed so smart and adult of me. Bwah hahahah hahahahha!
And then I started reading Ilona Andrews books.
Currently hating my life as I ponder how long the wait will be for the next installment.
– Signed, Desperately seeking Maggie
do we know all 3 planned assassinations? Sun Margrave. Crown Prince.
when and who was the third? was it supposed to be the king?
Maybe Inhan? It would have maximum effect on Sauven if both his sons were murdered (oh, oh and omg crazy theory: if his daughter were also kidnapped, sold to slavers and then murdered- ok, now that seems a little too crazy, even for me). So it works if the intent were vengeance on Sauven- all his children would be dead
I love it. I love it SO MUCH! I literally squeal-giggled and kicked my feet in joyful reaction to the scene where Maggie rests her hand on someone’s forearm and he helps her across the rubble. OMG it’s giving Pride and Prejudice where Mr Darcy helps Elizabeth into the carriage at Pemberly.
Spoiler:
And I think I’m shipping Maggie and Lord Arvel!!??!! He makes her laugh. I love it so much! Raymond is awesome so I’m clearly also shipping him but I’m like…. maybe that’s not what she needs. Aaahhhh I love it!
Life has been pretty terrible for me lately in many ways…. but at least I’m still in this world. And no one has chopped off any fingers. So I’m glad to visit this latest world from our benevolent author overlords… and I’m equally glad I don’t have to live there! But omg I want a feral pet like Sushi! I was so shocked by some of the character twists. Literally didn’t see Arvel coming and I was screaming. Love! OMG and Maggie’s brother at the ball. *chef’skiss. I am so excited to start rereading so I can experience the story with the secret identities in mind. I can’t believe how much I love this book. Literally bought 2 additional copies… one beautiful shelf trophy and one as a gift.
BDH- we are beloved. this book proves it. Thank you Ilona Andrews and Mod R!
Have we met the character Maggie said was one of her favorites who has been standing with a noose around their neck for a decade?
My gut instinct says its Everard, but I wouldn’t say he was her favorite character. Probably Solentine then???
Cannot tell you how relieved I am that this is a trilogy. Only came to this website to find out – this is the first of your books I’ve ever read.
When I got to the end, I assumed you were leaving the plot unfinished to mirror Maggie’s book series .. (and gotta say, still don’t entirely trust y’all on book 3 …)
Welcome, moonyarn!
In House Andrews we trust!
Welcome to the Hoard! So glad you are here!
I am so confused about the special editions. I click the link. I go to the websites of the different editions but I can’t figure out how to actually buy one. Have I missed out? Are they not available yet? Why can’t I figure this out?
The box special editions like owlcrate and Broken Binding require a subscription 🙂
The Waterstones special editions appear to be out of stock based on the notices on the website when you click the links.
On my third reread/relisten, and I have still more questions. Rellas magic: when it’s explained in the book, it’s stated the eight great families have hereditary magic and with Sol and Ralinbor, there are clearly other families/types of hereditary magic talents – how common is this? Is it possible other members of the great families have a hidden ‘secondary’ talent?
Also does using Fatefire require a sword? I don’t think it’s explicitly stated, though it’s havily implied, but it seems a strange limitation…
So many details, so many awesome scenes! (little happy dance)
I didn’t see evidence of secondary magic in this book, but I don’t see why there wouldn’t be (well, you know, if the plot required it 😀), like Nevada and Catalina and even Rogan do, another thing to look forward to for the next one:)
To me, Fatefire feels like Kate using her blood on weapons or armor. It may be exactly the same thing or there may be some interesting variation; so now I’m again chalant and want the next book (s) asap😕
If we’re flagging potential spoilers, a few months ago there was a snippet with Maggie and a knight. The knight’s order was redacted, but given the naming convention of the knight’s name, there’s only one person/order she could be in service to, so potentially her last name should be redacted if the order is?
I missed that I think, can someone describe the scene please? Also I think I saw some mention of a snippet with Maggie and the Bors couple- was it on social media? Because I’m not on any and would like a description of that snippet too plz
It’s in the Dec. 11 post.
I have developed 2 theories on who is Latour (mysterious author of Rellas)
First Roland, from Kate Daniels universe, is bored and created the books to find a champion in one pocket universe to see how the fate of another pocket dimension can be changed.
Second the Aspect of the world has Ying and Yang. The bad one did horrible things so the good one wrote the books to find someone to counter. The two champions are undying and have a certain level of magic from the Aspects
I am suffering from the WORST book hangover! And I got a thesis to work on !!! Ilona Andrews, I thought topping yourselves wasn’t possible. You’ve proven me wrong in the most awe-inducing way!
Question: We know Maggie has started the soap business, but might we see an evolution and get CEO, Chaebol, Boss Lady, BusinessWoman Maggie at some point in the series?
So I have a question for the zoom, if you are still taking them. When the story for this Kingdom was beginning, did they work out the story in the “book” Maggie was reading and then work on how they would have her change it? Or, did they do it all at the same time? Just wondering if it would apply to all 3 in the series.
Sorry, my email was wrong
I have some questions about the book that I think aren’t spoilery so hopefully you can answer them! And hopefully Mod R still collects questions!!! 🥺🥺🥺
1) My original question was whether we will get to see scenes of Clover, Reynald, Solentine and Maggie’s other allies in Maggie’s world but I suppose you aren’t allowed to answer that so here’s an alternate one: what do you think would be the reaction of one of the 3 characters I just mentioned (or all of them if you can) if they saw something from Maggie’s world (e.g. house, furniture, household appliances, places in general, the road, etc.)?
2) How and why did you decide to write a story about a protagonist who enters the world of her favourite fantasy novel as herself and not as a character in the story (e.g. a villainess)? What is different about the way they think and plan their next moves?
3) Any chance you could tell us what the bonus content in the Owlcrate edition is about? Is it for example a bonus pov of a character other than Maggie like the ones you have posted in the website? Or is it something else? Also is this content exclusive for Owlcrate or can you make it available to the general public after a period of time has passed (e.g. a few years)?
4) Can you tell us more about the Guide for the Kingdom? Will it be like a novella or longer? Will it have illustrations inside? And maybe a release month (I suspect you don’t have an exact release date yet 😉)?
Hi Mod R, thank you for collecting questions for the upcoming session. I was hoping to finish my 4th re-read before today but life got in the way. Here is what I have so far.
– why did Silveren sit under Jenicor family tree for several hours in the Latour books? Did Silveren’s parents not commit treason?
– How is Silveren as a leader, is the fanatical devotion of the Reedemers due to some aspect of Silveren’s magic? Will Tilmar be okay?
– Why did Silveren not also kidnap Matheo when he went to get Maggie, given the trouble he went to paying Derog for Matheo? Does he know that taking Maggie sets him up against Everard?
– What other magical beasts will serve as flying steeds or will be significant in the stories? Will Arvel get one of his own (given Everard Drezmar, Silveren Dursan)?
– Can Sushi do magic? Does proximity to a high magic emitter (ie Maggie) long term grant her some abilities? How did she get fish larger than herself into Maggie’s room without being seen?
– Is there more to Brune Demarr being targeted about the loan of silver mine? Is this a deeper plot by Crimson Empire? Given Demarr reputation seems greed / money alone would be insufficient motivation to mess with them.
– Where is Solentine’s domain – Dagarra, in relation to his father’s (Trihorn?)?
– There seems to be more to the decision of Demarr to adopt Maggie, since Solentine did not provide a straight answer to Maggie’s question about whether Griele was the instigator. Was it actually someone else – Izarn? Or something involving the thing that Everard & Sol went back & forth about after Maggie signed the adoption and tuned them out? Like Izarn might have previously asked Everard if he was open to marrying a Demarr to solidify their alliance?
– Is time passing linearly in Maggie’s world? Are Maggies parents and brother doing okay?
– Did HA write a version of the “The thieves of the N” & the “Lords of the E” and will it be released in some excerpt form after the trilogy?
– Who’s the character who’s standing on a box w noose? Solentine… or some other favorite character not yet mentioned by Maggie? Given that most of her stated list of favorites (Pelegrine, Galiene, Reynald) don’t make it the end of Lords of the E.
– how well does Everard know Gort and Shana? It doesn’t sound like Everard was a big part of Reynald’s life given Latour didn’t say anything about it despite all the time Maggie spent inside Reynalds head. How is Everard’s response about Shana pastry reflexive? When would Everard (as Sleepless Duke) have spent time with Gort?
– will Maggie encounter Lecke again? It seems his end doesn’t come for awhile in the Latour books.
– What’s the translucent jello river thing and does Everard / Sol know about it? It’s going to be related to how Maggie got isekai’d?
– Why was Everard not concerned that the beggar woman would report him to Sauven when they first met – is Everard not widely recognizable by his distinctive horse?
– Who are the rebels (eg rebel princess that caused all the strict inn law). What is their cause (eg anti-monarchy, crimson empire supporters)? Are there different groups of rebels. Why didn’t Silveren join them / combine forces with them.
– Is the man that chased Maggie to the Garden Latour? He seems significant & will come back because his features were hidden from us the reader ie turning around and leaving when Maggie looks back from safety of the Garden.
– Will we learn of what Galiene’s father witnessed that was worth silencing them? Something to do with a great family? Why / how did Galiene survive this fate out of all her family? Now that Galiene survived Hreban with Maggie’s intervention – will Galiene have a revenge arc?
I’m only half way through because I am purposely reading it slowly, but it was driving me crazy trying to place Reynald but now I understand why! Also now I know what he really looks like😍I actually did not expect that twist.
Silveren being Latour seems like a popular theory but it doesnt make sense to me, first of all Maggie transmigrated as an original character with no relation to anyone, which should’ve made Latour someone from our world who transmigrated to this world b4 Maggie, meaning he shouldn’t be born there, him coming back from fatal wounds can be explained away with some other powers if authors choose to do so, doesn’t have to be immortal powers imo
Second of all, the books were written from omniscient 3rd-person pov aka narration could see into the characters’s minds, if Maggie were to survive and transmigrate back to Earth to write book 3 or some such, she would NOT know the characters’s minds and hence cannot write it down, Latour being this world’s Divine or smth makes more sense to me and it’s an isekai staple, so *shrugs*
“him coming back from fatal wounds” = silveren
Ok,I probably should have read all the threads and comments… Alas. I didn’t.
Here’s my question, why does Silveren say “Hello, Mother”? Could this be another time-warp thread? If they both don’t die could they possibly be related and Maggie possibly in the future back on earth birthed a son who was placed in the book prior to Maggie waking up in Kair Toren? I know, this is a crazy thought but, why would he say “Hello, Mother”?
Mod R, help 😂 Ilona or Gordon the best author’s ever please say no if I’m totally off my rocker and oh my goodness, could this be a link to another book series that goes to different worlds and have parents who are innkeepers lost?!? My crazy imagination can take me all over the place!
I believe you may have skipped a scene before this 🙂. Maggie makes Silveren believe he is looking at his mother and says some things to try and make him give up his revenge mission.
Perhaps a reread is in order? 🙂
Awe, thank you! One can hope though 😂
maggie gets a stone from the clan-lord heir that lets her illusion herself for 2 minutes as the most beloved person of whoever she’s speaking to, she breaks said stone b4 speaking to silveren during that last fight, and we learn silveren’s most beloved is his mother
+1
The story in book 1 is neatly wrapped and the hooks for book 2 are set. Assuming, but not being sure, that Silveren survived – that would have been a cliffhanger. Now we know where book 2 starts, we just have to w*it.