The Royal Wizard by Alianne Donnelly

Title: The Royal Wizard

Author: Alianne Donnelly

Series: Dragonborn Book 1

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Magic, Medieval

Source: Kindle

Pages: 307 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Available at:

Goodreads • Amazon(.com)

Blurb: (via Goodreads)

The kingdom of Wilderheim stands bastion between the world of humans and the Otherlands. It is ruled as much by people as it is by creatures Other and as such, it must always have a wizard at the right hand of its king. Nico has seen three generations of rulers sit the throne; he knows he will not see the fourth. Desperate to find a worthy apprentice, when Nia appears like a godsend in his path he wastes no time taking her under his wing as his last sworn duty to the young king Saeran.

But Nia and Saeran have many trials ahead of them. With destinies converging toward an inevitable battle for power, countless lives hang in the balance, including theirs. As love brings them together, so strife tears them apart and as the balance between justice and magic shifts, the royal wizard and her king get caught in a maelstrom of colliding forces. Nothing is ever as it seems with a trickster hiding in the shadows. When the gods begin to play, mortals tremble…

My Review:
Right from the beginning, this book had everything going for it in my eyes. It was a fantasy/romance novel, and it contained both medieval and magical aspects. The story was a bit cliché, but in the good way that I love, and, most importantly, the female lead was a BAD ASS! So you can understand right now why I am giving this book a good review.

Character development throughout the story was steady and committed. Nothing is worse than a novel with the main characters going against what they are made out to me. No, here we have a prince-turned-King, Saeran, who is determined to do right by his country and the first and strongest Royal Wizard, Nia, the Kingdom has ever seen who is equally dedicated to do her best to assist and advice her King to make their country grow and prosper. The fact that they love each other? Although heart-breaking, they both know their Kingdom comes first and the sacrifices they need to make. While there were instances of a weakened will on both ends, they stayed true to their determined characters throughout the entire novel.

The plot was mostly good. I found the prologue completely confusing and hard to get through, and I found that the story dragged on in certain areas, but overall wasn’t bad. My biggest complaint here was that I had no idea why the series is the “Dragonborn” series when there were no dragons until more than half way through the novel. No hints of dragons, no mention of dragons, the WORD dragon wasn’t even written until BAM, “by the way… we’re gunna throw some dragon action in now”. I was a little blind-sided. Actually, this was a frequent pattern when new information came up. While a little abrupt and confusing at first, the information did fit the story and furthered the plot, so I won’t complain about it too much.

Other than that, the only other complaint I have is that the whole romantic aspect came in really fast for me. I like my romances to be drawn out in a good book, make you completely crazy with all the pent up sexual frustration and energy until the love interests FINALLY get together and you realize that all that build up was worth the wait. Hell, I will settle for even a LITTLE build up… The Royal Wizard had no build up whatsoever. They meet and you know they will fall in love, they know they will fall in love, and everyone in between figures it out along the way. The only way Alianne Donnelly managed to redeem herself was to add a bit of ‘forbidden love’ to the mix… but even then, I was left unsatisfied.

Of course, don’t let that deter you. This was still a great story! Do you love all-powerful/ bad-ass magical heroines with a dash of sarcasm and sass? Do you love the idea of the times of Kings, and aristocracy, and a certain medieval appeal? Do you want to see magical battles, and dragons, and gods thrown into the mix? Like a little forbidden romance? This is the book for you. I definitely suggest to try it. For all its downfalls, it was still a great book and an enjoyable read. 3.5 stars