Legacy Trilogy by Cayla Kluver

Published: June 2011, Feb 2012, Oct 2012

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Pages: 496, 490, 438

Copy Provided by: Library

Summary: Goodreads

Summary (Legacy):

I noticed his eyes. They were blue, sharp and intense. Despite the youthful glows of his suntanned face, his eyes were cold and unfriendly, suggesting he had great experience in the world and was now expecting the worst.

In her seventeenth year, Princess Alera of Hytanica faces one duty: to marry the man who will be king. But her father's choice of suitor fills her with despair.

When the palace guard captures and intruder— a boy her age with steel-blue eyes, hailing from her kingdom's greatest enemy— Alera is alarmed… and intrigued. But she could not have guessed that their clandestine meetings would unveil the dark legacy shadowing both their lands.

In this mystical world of court conspiracies and blood magic, loyalties will be tested. Courage won't be enough. And as the battle begins for everything Alera holds dear, love may be the downfall of a kingdom.

The Series:

Wow.  I feel a little bit breathless after reading through this trilogy marathon.  For those of you who don't know, I am the slower reader between Curlypow and myself.  Granted, I do work full-time and have a 5 year old so I tend to read at lunch and taking the train to work.  Sometimes, if I'm not exhausted by the end of the day and I can make my 5:30am wake up call, I will stay up a bit and read.  So let me tell you about the Legacy trilogy.  It is an intricate historical romance/war/fantasy world built with strong characters and very detailed alliances.  One of the things that impressed me so much with Legacy, book #1 was how attuned I became to Alera, her situation and background.  Paired with a promising suitor who is much too confident and cocky for his own good, she faces a lifetime of leading her people into the next reign as her father wishes to step down from the throne.  At 16, she tries valiantly to find another suitor to marry for love but the King is dead set on Steldor to rule the lands and if she cannot find someone with equal or greater talent for leadership and military prowess, she will be doomed to a marriage of convenience for the rest of her life.

Enter Narian.  Now of course he is handsome and has the qualifying military skills to match or better Steldor. It's too bad he's from a country considered an enemy. To boot, there is a legend that involves Narian's presence.  What's a girl to do?  I loved how Steldor fights to show Alera he is not the cad and womanizer she thinks him to be.  And how her relationship with Narian slowly peels back a mask of antagonism he has for his family.  So who will she choose?  And what does the future hold for the country of Hytanica?

Unfortunately, I'm not able to tell you much more about this series without giving away the results of Book #1.  I am able to tell you this though, invest the time in reading Legacy and you will be rewarded with a rich story line, so intricately woven so that you can actually "see" the characters grow and develop into mature adults.  I found myself loving the characters I despised in Book #1 and cheering them on.  Another aspect of this story that I enjoyed was that Ms. Kluver was not afraid to develop her characters and then kill them off. The events were unpredictable. For me, Legacy was well-written and beautifully executed right up until the last page...even if I was secretly hoping for a different ending.  :)