Hi Everyone, Today I’m really excited to be part of the international blog tour of THE KINGDOM by Jess Rothenberg, I’m posting my review today and it’s a belter. If you need a recommendation this summer then look no further than this book. It is truly something. First of all, isn’t the cover gorgeous.?! Out of both of the covers, our is literally glowing and I love it, although it’s a UK cover so I will be a tiny bit biased. This was book I wasn’t sure what to expect, I had no expectations it was a book that I loved the sound of and grabbed the chance of being on the blog tour.
The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg Published by Pan Macmillan on July 11, 2019
Genres: Dystopian, Thriller
Amazon | Book Depository
Goodreads
Welcome to the Kingdom… where ‘Happily Ever After’ isn’t just a promise, but a rule.
Glimmering like a jewel behind its gateway, The Kingdom™ is an immersive fantasy theme park where guests soar on virtual dragons, castles loom like giants, and bioengineered species―formerly extinct―roam free.
Ana is one of seven Fantasists, beautiful “princesses” engineered to make dreams come true. When she meets park employee Owen, Ana begins to experience emotions beyond her programming including, for the first time… love.
But the fairytale becomes a nightmare when Ana is accused of murdering Owen, igniting the trial of the century. Through courtroom testimony, interviews, and Ana’s memories of Owen, emerges a tale of love, lies, and cruelty―and what it truly means to be human.
The Kingdom is Futuristic Disney Land Resort with Rogue Robots. Deep with chills, thrills, murder and mayhem! What could be better?!
If you live in The Kingdom, you will find your happy ever after. The Kingdom Cooperation lives to serve all of your happiness and all of your desires. The Kingdom brings the world past and present to life with it’s technological advances. Bring dinosaurs and extinct creatures to life, educating the world. The Kingdom’s most prized creation are the Fantasists, seven robotic princesses, inspiring young girls, pleasing their guests and portraying a lie to the rest of the world. Ana, one of the models is facing a murder trial, but Fantasist aren’t programmed to commit such a crime, to lie, to evolve beyond their directives. But what if this very incident uncovers more about The Kingdom Cooperation that they let on, that the guests are led to believe.
Ana our main character, although part android you have a connection with her. She maybe blunt, bold, and unfeeling in the beginning and during the trial from her pre-programmed nature to Ana, a Fantasist becoming a human girl. Discovering what is right and wrong, human feelings and what love with a maintenance worker named Owen Chen is like. He fascinates her, she is fascinated by him. They see beyond a robot and a boy, they see past the ugliness that they are uncovering with The Kingdom, they want to fly, the want to escape. I love how Jess didn’t overwhelm the reader with all these feelings, we would be taken forward to Ana facing trial to ignite that thrill within the book. I envision Ana to be one your favourite Disney Princess fighting an rogue organisation, I mean what could be better.
The Kingdom felt to me, like a snowglobe, this magical, futuristic world encompassed in it’s own bubble, that you reader couldn’t escape from. You are in an immersive experience from page one. You are constantly pulled from past to present, uncovering layers of deceit and darkness of this beautiful world. The thrill of the whodunnit to the beauty that is surrounded by the technology. I’ve never read anything by Jess before but this certainly unique, a world that you can’t escape from, her writing is just simply stunning, transcending anything I’ve read recently. I haven’t read anything like tis since reading The Jewel by Amy Ewing, again so different, but your riveted by this world that the author captures.
The Kingdom captivates it’s reader. It will sneak up on your, it’s a book that wouldn’t have been on your radar like me and BAM your looking at the next best book of the year, I think it would make an epic series. This world that we imagine from Jess’s glowing writing on the big screen. Whilst this is a standalone book, which is disheartening when I want more of this world, the ending was perfection.
“In the end, it does not matter what a story is about. It only matters who gets to tell it.”
Thank you to Pan Macmillan Children’s Books for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Jess
JESS ROTHENBERG is a writer and freelance editor who grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. A former editor of books for young readers, including the #1 International Bestselling Vampire Academy series, Jess lives in New York City with her husband, son, and cat-who-thinks-he’s-a-dog, Charlie. Her debut novel for teens, The Catastrophic History of You & Me, has been translated into more than a dozen languages.
[…] The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg – 5/5 | Review […]