Hiding Out Is a Disappointment
I’ve become a fan of Sarah E Birr’s books over the last few years, but even favorite authors occasionally miss the mark. Sadly, that’s the case with Sovereign Sieged, the eighth story in her Court of Mystery series.
This series is something different for a cozy mystery series. It follows Duchess Jacqueline Xavier, Jax to her friends, who rules a kingdom in the Realm of Virtues. Think Medieval Europe but as a completely fictional setting. I always enjoy it for something different.
The recent books have taken a turn for the political, weaving the current murder into a longer storyline concerning the changes that Jax is trying to make in the realm and the political fallout from it. Because of that, and spoilers for some of the books, I highly recommend reading the series in order.
Jax has been traveling for the last couple of books, so she is looking forward to returning to her country of Saphire as she prepares for the upcoming war council. But she has only been home a few hours before something happens that makes her think she isn’t safe even in her own castle. Fleeing to a fortress in her kingdom, she surrounds herself with people she can trust. But when a murder happens, Jax has to figure out who among those present is a killer.
The further into the series we go, the more the political drama comes to the forefront. And, as a fan of the series, I enjoy that to a certain extent. However, in this case, I felt like it took forever to get to the murder. I get why, but still, the middle lagged as a result. Once it happened, the story picked up again, although I did figure out some big chunks early on. Still, I appreciated how it wrapped up and am curious to see how these events will play into the future of the series.
There is also a subplot carried over from the previous book that I didn’t particularly care for. I hope it has been resolved, but we shall see.
On the plus side, I do still love the characters. A couple of the regulars aren’t here, and I did miss them. But I enjoyed our time with the rest of them. And there are some fun new characters as well.
I want to be clear that I still am enjoying the series overall and can’t wait to see what happens next. But, this wasn’t the strongest entry in the series.
So fans will absolutely want to read Sovereign Sieged. I’m hoping I can move on to the next entry soon.
Here are the rest of the Court of Mystery novels.
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