Two races of immortals living among humans. Secret wars. Millennia-long plots and conspiracies. Lots of fighting.

Normally, I hate this stuff.

So why do I love this book?

It's smart. The characters are complex, and have conflicting interests. They're intelligent, and don't do stupid things because the plot needs it, but they legitimately don't always know what they're doing.

Also, it's fun.

Dmitri Reznak, head of the Crovir Immortal Culture & History section, finds an underground cave that contains ancient, apparently pre-Sumerian writings, and urns containing the hearts of the first two founders of the two immortal races--Crovir and his brother Bastian.

What he was just too late to recover are the sarcophogi containing their bodies. He was beaten to the caves by a mysterious group who are very good at remaining hidden. He sends his goddaughter Alexa to tract them down, and recruits Zachary Jackson, a professor of archaeology at Harvard University and a brilliant human he's worked with before, to assist her.

Jackson doesn't know that immortals exist, and thinks that Reznak is just the head of a very rich, very secretive organization.

What follows is a hunt all over Europe and the Middle East--fast-moving, lots of action, and the answer to each mystery uncovers another. Alexa and Jackson are a good match, both very smart and very tough, with different strengths. The "secret history" aspects are handled very well. And did I mention Freemasons? The Freemasons have a role in this adventure, too.

I liked the first book in this series, but was almost afraid to listen to this one. As I said, this isn't my kind of book, normally.

I loved it. Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author. ( )

READ IN ENGLISH

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

King's Crusade is the second book in the Seventeen series.

I recently read and reviewed Soul Meaning, the first book in the Seventeen series, and quite enjoyed it. So when this title came up on Netgalley as well, I was very pleased and requested it straight away. And though this book takes place in the same world (the same two races of 'immortals') it's a completely different book than the first... Except for the gunfire/fighting, there's still plenty of that...

For one, the characters are different. This books is about Alexa King, an important Crovir, whereas the first book focused on the half-blood Bastian-Crovir-hybrid (snowflake) Lucas Soul. Not that Alexa isn't special of course. Three hundred years and she still has to suffer her first dead.

The point is that the Immortals aren't truly immortal (it would make a very boring war that way), but can survive up to sixteen (mostly violent deaths). Except for Lucas, who can kill immortals immediately 'when he feels like it'. Oh, and there has been a great plague, similar to the Black Death, that killed a lot of the immortals and you'll be reminded about this every thirty pages or so.

This book basically reads like a Dan Brown novel (the fantasy-aspect, which isn't really big anyway, only starts at the end of the story) which is good, I guess, if you like that kind of story, but for me it was a little disappointment. When you've read one, you've kind of read them all. Please let me take you to some of the evidence on display:



Harvard Professor
Something old has been discovered
Something has been stolen
Secret Sect
Discount trip to the Vatican
Religion
Codes
Travelling through all of Europe in approximately one day



The evidence is quite strong here. It's the main reason why I liked this book less than the first one. But also because I was hoping to find answers for the questions I still had after the first book, and that weren't in this book either. The third book is also on my to-read-soon-list, so that review will be coming up somewhere in the next month I think... ( )

My original King's Crusade audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

King’s Crusade by A.D. Starrling is the second book in a series called Seventeen. Alexa King is an assassin for the immortal race, the Crovirs. Her adoptive father, Dmitri Reznak, enlists her in a mission, pulling her away from her job, which could reveal not only her own past but the past of the immortal races. King partners with the insufferable Harvard professor Zachary Jackson to help Reznak track down the thieves that looted caves that could hold the secret of the origin of the immortal races. As they hunt the thieves, they discover a secret society is working to bring down civilization as it is known. Together, King and Jackson must find the looted artifacts, find the thieves, contend with the growing emotional attachment between them, and fight for their lives while they are at it.

Similar to the first novel in the series, this sequel was a fast paced adventure. It was unique from the first novel in that the characters were different. It was a story from the same world following the events from the first novel, but the focus of the story is on a different set of characters. I thought that this was especially unique and I loved the new characters. The story tied really well to the first novel without depending on it too heavily. This shift also builds up the world in the story a little more: it was from the perspective of another immortal race than in the first. I really liked all of the characters. I loved the relationship between Alexa and Zachary and I especially loved Zachary’s character. Alexa is a classic cold assassin and Zachary is the standard insufferable academic. But in their circumstances the characters seem to work. The driving mystery was fascinating and dug into the origins of the immortal races, again building up the world in the story some more. There were a lot of action scenes and they were fast paced. As action scenes are not my preference, this was frustrating because it was easy to become confused and the action fight scenes seemed to meld together. However, the action scenes were dynamic and were filled with details needed for the story to progress. The biological aspects in the first novel are replaced with archaeology and technology, which balance the fight scenes really well. The story had a great end and I’m really excited to keep learning more about the immortal races and the key players as this series progresses.

The narration by Michael Bower was, as before, really excellent. He voiced all of the characters really well, which must have been challenging with the different accents. The pacing was good and the dynamics of narration that he displayed in the first novel were still present and made the story even better. The production quality was good as well. I would recommend this novel to anyone who likes fast paced action adventure stories with a lot of intrigue and history.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author. ( )

Most. Kickass. Heroine. Ever.

At a time when I have been getting aggravated to the Nth degree by whiny romance heroines who fight against their fate and treat people like dirt, I was absolutely elated to find this series by A.D. Starrling. I really enjoyed the first book, [b:Soul Meaning|24264674|Soul Meaning (Seventeen, #1)|A.D. Starrling|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1420226814s/24264674.jpg|21563669], so I didn't know how I would feel about the main character switching in the second book. However, by the end of the first chapter, I could tell that I was going to love this book even more. Alexa was an absolutely fascinating character and I couldn't get enough of her. Hello - immortal warrior female reincarnated!?! She kicked major ass and didn't even worry about the taking names part. This book was just as action-packed as Soul Meaning, it just had a little more of [b:The Da Vinci Code|968|The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2)|Dan Brown|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1303252999s/968.jpg|2982101] feel in that we are hot on the trail of the origins of the immortal races and there are esoteric and secret societies involved including Freemasons, mentions of the Illuminati, and the Rose Croix.

Our hero in this piece was Jackson, a Harvard professor who was extremely intelligent but still carried a mean uppercut. Jackson's exuberance for solving historical puzzles got me excited right along with him, and I loved seeing the romance slowly unfold between him and Alexa. (Don't worry guys - there is not enough romance for you to lose your man card by reading this one.) The romance was just enough for the story and was very tastefully done. There are some parts of the story which will likely squeeze a few tears out of the female readers (as happened w/ me).

We continued to have great secondary characters in this book - but my favorite by far was Yonten. I was really hoping that he would be the main character in [b:The Warrior Monk|25240647|The Warrior Monk (Seventeen #2.1)|A.D. Starrling|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1427621820s/25240647.jpg|44960288]. I can't say more w/o giving spoilers.

A.D. Starrling's books are well-written, researched and will keep the reader engaged from start to finish. I get the feeling that she is extremely intelligent and really gets into the details of her work. I am a huge fan, and would hope to see these books as movies one day. ( )

Amazing. I am reviewing on the Blog next week and will post here layer, but wow. another awesome addition to Seventeen. I ha e gears streaming down my face. ( )