Book Review - A Broken Throne of Bronze by Renna Ashley

A Broken Throne of Bronze by Renna Ashley

Thank you so much to the author and team for sharing a free eARC for this book in exchange for an honest review. 

I found Renna and this book through TikTok and was instantly intrigued by the concept of this story. I'm a sucker for grumpy fae men, the enemies-to-lovers trope, and spicy fantasy novels. So I already knew that I'd love this book before I even had a chance to read it. And after reading only the prologue I was already hooked into the story. 

The world-building in this book was so good. Initially, get a lot of names of cities and things thrown at you but even so, I never felt very confused about anything that was going on. I also really liked the addition of the glossary of terms. It's really nice to have something to refer to if needed. The concept of the fae courts in this book was so interesting and unique. I love the idea of each court having a representative precious metal (bronze, silver, gold...). 

So this book is about Cryssa Thurdred, a small-town girl with big dreams, who thought she had her whole life planned and figured out. That is, until a run-in with Viridian, the Crown Prince, in which the Gods indicated that their lives were linked together in some way. Because of this, Cryssa is taken and forced to marry Viridian. Cryssa thinks that she and Viridian are entirely different, but when she gets to know him she realizes that they may have more in common than she originally thought. 

I absolutely loved the characters in this book. Cryssa is a strong woman who knows what she deserves. She's also very selfless and is willing to sacrifice her happiness for the greater good. Viridian is the classic handsome dutiful Fae prince who can be difficult to read, which causes some issues between him and Cryssa. Their relationship felt mostly natural in the way it progressed from enemies to lovers. And when they finally truly got together it was literally perfect. The tension between them throughout most of the story was so worth the wait. 

The side characters were great. I really liked Tiffy and really enjoyed the friendship that she and Cryssa forged in their time together. I wish we saw more of the relationship between Lymseia and Cryssa. When Cryssa came to court, Lymseia made it clear that she was an ally but there was very little interaction between them until later in the story. 

As for the writing of this book, I really thought that Renna did a great job describing the setting and events in this book. I liked that it was written in the present tense because a lot of the fantasy books that I've been reading are written in the past tense, so to see it written in the present tense was refreshing. My only critique of the writing would be that certain phrases felt overused. For example, "save for" was a phrase that stuck out to me because you don't often see it used but it was used eight different times in the book. But other than that, I really thought the writing was very good. 

A Broken Throne of Bronze wraps up Cryssa and Viridian’s story so nicely. Toward the end I was getting worried, I won’t spoil anything but it gets intense and their outlook doesn’t look too good. But it wraps up very nicely and I’m very excited that the following books will feature the other noble courts and other characters. 

I loved reading this book and thought it was extremely entertaining. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next installment.