The Seventh Champion was an entertaining fantasy with some promising starts. While I wish it was a standalone, this has all the elements that are like catnip to me! Keep reading this book review of The Seventh Champion for my full thoughts.
Summary
Swept from her quiet life as an apothecary’s apprentice to the treacherous court of the High King, Rosie Harpwood is shocked to discover she is the long-lost daughter of the demonic Dragon Queen. Reawakening her dormant magic is the kingdom’s only hope for salvation, but the journey is perilous, and she’ll need a champion to guide her. So the High King hosts a series of trials to determine which prince is worthy of the honor — as well as claiming Rosie’s hand in marriage.
Rosie, however, has other ideas.
A talented healer and lover of small, fluffy creatures, Rosie wants nothing to do with demon queens or saving the world. Determined to escape this fate, she joins forces with one of the champions to plot her getaway. Prince Valtar may be enigmatic and a little bit terrifying, but something about him makes her blood burn in ways that have nothing to do with her dragon heritage.
Trained from youth to serve the Dragon Queen, Valtar has proven himself a ruthless assassin. Posing as a suitor to get close enough to his target shouldn’t be a problem. But Valtar wasn’t planning on his target being Rosie, the girl he failed to assassinate years ago . . . who has haunted his dreams ever since.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Do I think that The Seventh Champion was, in a lot of ways, pretty standard? Yes. Did I still enjoy it? Also yes. I always love a heroine who doesn’t want to be the Chosen one and yet is. Add on to that, Rosie does not want to be married and hates these trials. While I’ve not been a fan recently of trials in a book, these had some teeth. In general, The Seventh Champion has potential that I wish had some areas further developed and a few pruned away. I like that these trials had some serious teeth to it, but I felt like they happened in a blink of an eye and I’d have loved to see more side character detail.
Speaking of characters, while I enjoyed Rosie and her love for apothecary, I wish I got more chapters of Valtar. I know that this is the start of a duology, but in some places I wish we had just a bit more space for them to develop – especially considering it’s book one of the series. As a whole, this is a promising start, but either I wish it had a bit more to it or was a standalone. I like the idea of Rosie grappling with her status as a Chosen one and whether or not she wants this grand destiny. That theme to me is one that is drawing my focus lately. She has all these expectations heaped on her either as being the Chosen One or also descended from the dragons. I wanted a bit more detail on this element too since it ends up being a more major plot area as well.
(Disclaimer: Some of the links below are affiliate links. For more information you can look at the Policy page. If you’re uncomfortable with that, know you can look up the book on any of the sites below to avoid the link)
All in all, I enjoyed The Seventh Champion, but time will tell about whether this book can hold its own considering the sequel. Will I read it? Absolutely yes. Chosen Ones who don’t want to be and struggle with this is catnip to me. But jury is still out on my overall feels as a whole. Find The Seventh Champion on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.