SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY
Alexos is first in line for the throne, but when an incident leads to disappointing his father, he does the unthinkable. Years later he has kept it a secret and attempts to fill the shoes of his father. With the help of his friends, he hopes to defeat an invading King.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Alexos is rather unsure of himself and wants more than anything to please his father. Although he also longs to fit in with other boys. He loves his little brother dearly.
Teo is spoiled and has lived a life unlike his older brother. But he is rather sweet and adores Alexos.
Leander is a fellow student of Alexos who is rather outgoing and confident.
Aria is a young girl who is in the second half of the story. She is close to Teo.
Peles is a country boy that ends up competing in the same race as Alexos.
PACING
The pacing is slower for the most part. Although there was one scene that was quite fast paced, where Peles has to help Alexos escape while an invasion is going on. Unfortunately, portions of the book are slowed down by long bouts of exposition by Alexos, Teo and even Aria.
STRUCTURE
The story takes place in two parts, when Alexos is younger and still a prince and when he is older. There is a seven year gap, perhaps to imply that both brothers grew up apart from each other. I am not sure why it was necessary.
ALEXOS AND HIS FATHER-SPOILERS
Alexos struggles to please his father in the beginning of the book. He has a hard time standing up for himself. But they barely have any scenes together. We get one more scene with the two of them in the second part of the story, when Alexos is much older and more confident in himself.
But their relationship seems to have been transformed from bad to worse. And we didn't get to see it gradually transform. Instead it came as a complete surprise to me when Alexos was sarcastic and bold. I wondered where this came from.
But then his father is killed, and we get told about it. Alexos reaction is surprising, he starts sobbing for the man he never knew and the relationship he never got to repair. But I never felt he attempted to repair the relationship so the loss felt hollow to me.
ALL GROWN UP?
After healing Alexos suddenly shows wisdom and maturity when he meets a woman who disrespects him. But this feels unearned. When did he gain this wisdom and from who did he gain it from? It's as though he aged five years instead of a few months.
ALEXO'S FRIENDS
After Teo's disappearance, Alexos has to gradually heal and work to make himself stronger. I assumed that he became friends with the boys during this time as we got a quick scene showing them together, explaining they wanted to help.
So when they go off to find Peles, suddenly they are all the best of friends. I wish I had got to see it develop. Although only Leander is given any real attention. And I still knew nothing about him except for what I was told by Alexos, that he was likable and easygoing. There is one or two scenes where they are sarcastic to each other but it feels forced.
Also, when Alexos sees his father he says he has friends, and his father is surprised. But we never got to see these friendships form, so it all falls flat.
SINS OF THE PAST
While traveling to see Peles, Leander and Alexos discuss the past. Alexos said he was upset at being mistreated and Leander apoligizes. The problem with this bit of exposition as that the reader never got to see any of this mistreatment and has to imagine this relationship is evolving into something new. When they never got to see what it was before.
PELES AND EQUALITY
After Alexos' teacher tells him about povery, he decides to visit Peles once he is healed. And once he finds Peles he convinces his father to let him leave the army. I guess he realizes his father's injustices and thinks he is doing a good deed.
Anyway, when they tell Peles this both him and Leander give him a talk about equality which I found kind of out of the blue. As it had no place in Alexos' world as far as I could see. I think the idea was to show he could be better than his father.
Also, Alexos praises Peles but he barely knows him. Yes, he knows he used the praise money for roads, but it's all very surface level stuff. And saying he has a “good heart” seems strange and unearned.
VISIONS OF TEO-SPOILERS
Alexos gets visions of his brother, who he believes to be in the afterlife. Maybe this was supposed to add suspense but it seemed obvious that Teo wasn't really dead. But Alexos thinks it's the goddess Athene being kind showing him this. Even though he basically murdered his brother. But this is supposed to help heal him of his guilt.
THE GODDESS INTERVENES-SPOILERS
A big problem in the story is that the goddess Athene steps in twice to move the plot along. She does the work the characters don't have to, which unfortunately just makes them look weak and pointless.
The first time is when Aria is found in the King's camp and a vision magically appears, revealing the King is a liar and a murderer. So all of his men turn on him and eventually execute him.
Another time is when Aria won't forgive Alexos for what he did to Teo. You can't really blame her. Luckily the goddess steps in again and shows her a vision of Alexo's entire life and throws in some other revelations as well. So Aria doesn't have to learn to forgive and trust Alexos which would actually take some character development. But she does get to give Alexos a message.
NOT HIS FAULT-SPOILERS
So it turns out that the terrible thing that Alexos did to Teo...wasn't Alexos at all. It was Athene, who controlled him and made him do it. After all, Alexos did explain to his teacher that he didn't know why he did what he did. He had no explanation for his own actions.
Now, that might sound awful and horrible as it caused Alexos a lifetime of regret and self-hatred, but she was just being merciful. Aria explains it was all about love and forgiveness and it definitely wasn't abusive and controlling. So Alexos feels all better.
CLAUDIO'S STORY
The man who raised Aria and Teo was brother to King Pyrato's father. But he had to run away with his daughter and ended up on an island. Turns out the goddess was using him too. I feel this was kind of forced in at the second half of the story and no real effort was made to make the pieces fit together.
FORGIVING ALEXOS
Teo has to forgive Alexos so he does so...in a long, drawn out scene of exposition similar to the one Aria later gives. But why couldn't Teo just forgive him for a real sin? Why couldn't he struggle with this forgiveness? Everything seems swept aside by the goddess to the point where the characters feel like puppets in their own story.
ARIA & ALEXOS
Aria sees Alexos and immediately falls in love with him. It feels forced and the many flowery, romantic descriptions of her emotions don't help.
CLIMAX
Alexos and his friends end up on a strange island where they meet a girl. There Alexos learns the truth about his brother but unfortunately stands by for the majority of the climax. We learn the truth about King Pyratos, our supposed villain.
CONCLUSION
The story isn't a bad idea, it's just full of flaws.
Alexos never has a real character arc that the reader sees, instead we jump from one Alexos to the next, where he is suddenly calm, wise and composed with a stranger and then bold and sarcastic with his father.
The relationships are weak as well. Teo and Alexos barely get any time together so it's hard to feel invested in their relationship. Aria meets Alexos and falls in love in a matter of minutes. We never see the hardships between Leander and Alexos, so when they discuss their past I was left wondering why I didn't get to see this relationship when it happened.
But the biggest problem is the deus ex machina element. The goddess steps in mulitiple times to solve the characters' problems, not just once, but twice. This makes them look useless as well as making it so no characters have to develop.
Alexos doesn't have to face the fact he hurt his brother, because he never did, it was the Goddess. Aria doesn't have to trust and forgive Alexos, because the Goddess steps in and explains that the prince is just a victim. And Teo doesn't have to let go of his hatred at a past sin, because the sin never occurred.
I give “The Chosen King” one and half stars.
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