#Review - Thronebreakers by Rebecca Coffindaffer #YA #SyFy

Series: Crownchasers # 2
Format: Hardcover, 400 pages
Release Date: October 12, 2021
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Library
Genre: Young Adult / Science Fiction

The Hunger Games meets Aurora Rising with a dash of Three Dark Crowns in this knockout high-stakes, action-packed sequel to Crownchasers, which The Nerd Daily called “a love letter to all that is good in science fiction.”

This electrifying duology closer is jam-packed with tension and thrills that will hook readers from its first page.

Alyssa Farshot never wanted to rule the empire. But to honor her uncle’s dying wish, she participated in the crownchase, a race across the empire’s 1,001 planets to find the royal seal and win the throne. Alyssa tried to help her friend, Coy, win the crownchase, but just as victory was within their grasp, Edgar Voles killed Coy—and claimed the seal for himself.

Brokenhearted over her friend’s death, Alyssa is hell-bent on revenge. But Edgar is well protected in the kingship. Alyssa will have to rally rivals, friends, and foes from across the empire to take him down and change the course of the galaxy.

Thronebreakers is the second and final installment in author Rebecca Coffindaffer's Crownchasers duology. The story takes place in the year 4031. Protagonist Alyssa Farshot nee Faroshti was a member of the Explorers Society. She traveled all over the empire as one of the best pilots the Society ever had. When her uncle Atar Faroshti, the Emperor of the United Sovereign Empire, died, she became a reluctant contender in a deadly competition for the throne. For the first time in 700 years, contenders must find the royal seal hidden in one the empires systems to win. 

She’s never been scared to meet a challenge head-on, no matter how dangerous, which made her race across the empire even more thrilling. 6 children from prime families & from different worlds (Setter Roy, Owyn Mega, Edgar Voles, Faye Orso, Nathalie Cayenne, and of course Alyssa) raced across the universe to find hidden clues and the location of the Imperial Seal which someone will need to claim the Kingdom. But the game got deadly quickly with an unknown force killing one of their own, and another participant killing Nathalie.

Since the beginning of the competition, Alyssa has been shot, dislocated her shoulder, jumped off a cliff, blown up her own spaceship, crash landed on an acid rain planet, and lost her friend Nathalia who she agreed to help become the next Empress. The only path forward to kill Edgar before he can fully implement the Imperial seal. The only problem is that evidence has been made to finger Alyssa as the murderer of Nathalie, not Edgar Voles. Unless she brings the evidence forth quickly for all to see, or kills Edgar first, she'll likely be running for the rest of her life. 

Part of this story is told by Edgar, and part of the story is via news headlines, as well as Atar's personal diary. I never liked Edgar and that's for reasons that exist from the first installment. I think he's driven to prove himself better than his father, and better than what his own mother, who created a lifelike AI to watch over him, thought. He honestly believes that he could do the right thing by becoming Emperor. He has no clue as to what the underlying challenges and dangers face him for his blindness to those right next to him. His only redeeming quality is that he does the right thing when it matters.

Alyssa is never scared to meet a challenge head-on—even when the challenge is to dethrone the emperor and change the fate of the galaxy. Her mission to take down Edgar brings her all over the empire as she seeks allies in her fight for revenge. When she's caught before she can get close to Edgar, she's forced to flee and hide among a group of possible new allies who aren't all that excited about helping a crownchaser. With help from Faye, and Setter, and Eliot, Alyssa ends up neck deep in intrigue and suspense.

The crownchasers were forbidden from hurting each other during the competition, but that didn’t stop Edgar from killing Coy, or assassins from killing Owyn, or for that matter, the crownchasers and their families including Alyssa's last remaining relative. And, it won’t stop Alyssa from getting revenge on those responsible even if it means going through hell to get to a resolution she can live with. Alyssa’s fast-talking irreverence make her a hilarious and engaging narrator. She’s never afraid to speak her mind or crack a joke, no matter how serious the situation. 

She's had a past relationship with Faye, she was friends with Coy, and now she seems to gravitate towards Eliot aka Hell Monkey. Alyssa and Hell Monkey have incredible chemistry, are funny, irreverent, freedom loving, faithful, reckless, etc. In this story, their budding relationship is forced to deal with one challenge after the other. With 1,001 planets in the empire and all forms of alien, humanoid, and evolved human life living on them, Alyssa (part-alien herself!) is always encountering fascinating new life forms and experiencing new worlds. Which means new characters, and new opportunities, and yes, maybe a new future without the fear of one man or woman in charge.

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