The King's 100 | Sci-Fi Drama with a Secret Identity

Title: The King's 100
By: Karin Biggs

Published: July 21st, 2020

Genre: YA | Fantasy

GOODREADS


  Synopsis:   Sixteen-year-old Piper Parish, princess of the loveless, STEM-only kingdom of Capalon, is a disappointment to her citizens and to her older sister, the queen. When Piper receives an anonymous note stating her mother is still alive and living in the enemy kingdom of Mondaria, Piper chooses to risk death in effort to prove once and for all that she's not just the queen's defective little sister. With the companionship of Chip, a piece of tech embedded in her wrist, Piper flees Capalon and enters a world where love and emotional expression are unrestricted.

Posing as a singer for the enemy king’s court of performers, the King’s 100, Piper risks death if she is revealed to be the Capalon princess, but discovers that living a life without the freedom to love might actually be the most dangerous risk of all.

The King’s 100 is a glittering and mysterious love story woven among the camaraderie singers, drummers and magicians in a future world by debut author, Karin Biggs.

*I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own!*


   The cover of this book really caught my attention, so it piqued my interest recently. I requested to review it after reading the synopsis and finding it was a fantasy read which just sealed the deal for me really.
 When it's summertime, I find myself craving fantasy or sci-fi reads more.

Let's see, where to start...

  The novel starts by introducing us to our main character, Piper, who is a princess in a complex and very interesting kingdom (if not also downright pitying, I would NOT want to live there!). It was hard to not have instant compassion for the main character after seeing her life and the people in it that she had to deal with. While still being herself and mourning her parents!
  Goodness.
 Piper's parents died not long ago, and so her older sister became queen. However their kingdom is ignorant of everywhere else in the world really, and instead, its people pride themselves on being oh-so-intelligent and cold. They do not let emotions or sentiments have a place in their lives.

So the fact that Piper, their princess, grieves for her parents still and believes her mother might be alive is a big no-no to them.
 Right after that was all made clear, I was all for Piper to go on an adventure to find her mother and get out of that suffocating kingdom!


  While I use the term ''suffocating kingdom'' it was still intriguing to read about. Their technology in the story and everything had me thinking it was a sci-fi novel and not a fantasy after all. I checked and it is in fact listed and marketed as a fantasy novel, but I digress.
 

 I initially thought the novel was slow, and that it took forever for things to pick-up and get to where things actually happened. But once it did, crud, I was not putting it down!
 Okay, admission: I'm a sucker for romance. So when that was introduced I HAD to finish it in one sitting. But anyway...back to the plot 😂

While it did take a bit for things to start picking up, somethings picked up a little too much towards the end...
 

   Piper finds herself in her enemy's kingdom looking for her mother and evidence she is still alive. To do so she poses as a singer in the king's court. (The King's 100 if you want to be exact.) She changes her name to Paris (which I personally loved, but I also have a All-Things-Paris-Obsession), and I loved some of the side characters in this part of the story.
  Some of them I strongly disliked, and some of them I really could've cared less if they even died in the story (which would explain why I don't remember if they even did die or not...).


 While I liked Piper, she made some very...not quite stupid, but close, decisions. And honestly, that would be because the last half of the book was really just...drama.
  Romance was in the air, which of course I was rooting for because I really liked her love interest, but Piper lost sight of why she even went to the other kingdom. She was so focused on the emotions she was caught up in while telling herself she couldn't have those emotions for these people.
Which lead to some needless things happening in the plot, that while they weren't bad, they just weren't necessary. They were pretty much filler scenes.


I did like some of the friendships that Piper made and the interactions were sometimes so funny!


The ending was very good and made me enjoy it all again. I wished there'd been more to the conclusion, but oh well.
Though...the last two pages or so definitely has some explaining to do. But good news: I heard the author is planning a sequel!


One thing I still have a little bit of a hard time with is rather hard to discuss without spoiling, but I will try. The climax and big reveal/discovery part, that I'd waited for the whole book with anticipation was rather a let down to me.
Yeah, it still is.


What I really enjoyed:

- The romance
- The original plot was intriguing (though the author rather strayed from that a bit sadly)
- The side characters and the main character (if I don't care about the main character, there's a problem)
- the secret identity part, lately I've been on a kick for that in stories and movies so when I find one done well... bravo! 👏


ALSO NOTE: While it is listed as a fantasy novel, I personally did not see many 'fantasy elements', and really I saw more sci-fi than anything else. Though that also wasn't in all the book... so while I'm calling it a sci-fi, Goodreads says different.


My Rating:

Have you heard of this book or read it?? What are your thoughts?

What have you been reading lately??



Thank you for reading, & have a lovely day!
~Noel 💗
P. S. Biscuit and Pugsley say hello! :)