Manipulator’s War (Ruarnon Trilogy Book 1) by Elise Carlson – Review by Santana Hicks

Manipulator’s War by Elise Carlson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ruarnon is the heir of Tarlah, the first non-binary heir as well. They have to work a lot harder because of this. Others believe they will not do well as the next heir as they have only ever been ruled by Kings. The current king, Ruarnon’s father, believes they can be the next ruler as long as they try their best. Another king had a peace treaty with the kingdom of Tarlah but as the king of that kingdom died and his son took over, there were people against keeping the treaty alive. Resulting in going behind the current king’s back to take out the royals of Tarlah. One day, Ruarnon’s parents are abducted in the middle of the night.

Ruarnon has to take the throne of their kingdom with the help of their uncle. They have to make a lot of decisions and trust no one as people don’t like that a non-binary has taken the throne.

Meanwhile 4 teenagers are on a school trip. As they are walking along the beach, they see a trail in the woods that would make walking back so much faster. Once they enter the forest they are literally teleported to another place and time. The teens try to backtrack, only realizing the beach is completely gone. With no way back, they venture further into this new place.

Can Ruarnon find their parents and prove to everyone that they can be ruler with no problem?

Can the teenagers make it back home?

The book itself had all the elements to be something extremely interesting to me but it was kind of hard to keep track of who, what, where and when. Because of this I had trouble completely immersing myself in the words.

View all my reviews